Social Media for Banking: The New "Old Fashioned Way"

0 Comment(s) | Posted Feb 24, 2010 by Pat Morrell

Patrick Morrell

Yesterday I sat down with the President and CEO of one of North Carolina's largest banks.  I had a two-fold agenda:

1) Discern his level of interest in social media marketing (again, we're a growing business...)
2) More acutely understand the perspective that he and his fellow bankers have regarding internet marketing

Given the heavy compliance measures that banks and financial services institutions must contend, and the time-tested marketing approaches they rely on (word-of-mouth referrals, face-to-face interaction, long-term relationship building), I anticipated that this gentleman would offer significant insight into the industry's marketing challenges.

I was right.

I learned that the banking industry is full of institutions knowingly struggling with defining who they are, and who they serve.  Furthermore, many lack clarity into how to most efficiently find those customers (once they define who they are), and how best to engage them to maximize the interaction ROI.

The gentleman across the desk from me yesterday did not personally face these challenges.  His bank is one with a very precisely worded message and a clear understanding of who they serve and how they best serve them.  Thriving on personal, high-level engagement and an old-school approach to banking (I mean that in a good way), he has established a thriving business, one I realized would perhaps not be the best fit for an online marketing strategy (at least, right now).

However, for those institutions struggling to answer questions like "Who are we?," "Who are our best customers?," "How can we find our best customers?," and "How do we maximize engagement?," the most efficient ways to accomplish all of those goals is with a comprehensive social media marketing strategy.

Were a North Carolina bank to engage online (across a blog, social networks, content aggregators, etc.), it would discover a cadre of people and businesses seeking loans, mortgage, and account information (see: Google Keyword Tool, and search "NC bank account").  Furthermore, that same cadre of contacts would begin leaving comments and questions across those social networks and blogs, all of which would increase engagement and brand awareness (so long as the bank responds) that would help the bank refine its identity based not on a desired boardroom image, but on how customers actually see the bank.  Every company should be so lucky as to have active customers help them refine their image.

Banks thrive on connecting with customers the "old-fashioned way": handshakes and face-to-face meetings.  Social media offers that same personal touch, that same real-time engagement, but at a superior level of convenience and efficiency.  It's the "old fashioned way," revamped and improved.

Run-rate engagement is easy.  Getting the ball rolling is tough.  That's where we come in.

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