Thursday, 19th November, 2009 at 17:58
Social Media in Small Banking
As Boris Janek noticed in his reflection of SOMESSO Zurich 09, it is usually a challenge to bring social media experts and enthusiasts together with banking and finance professionals. Banks have always been hesitant with the adoption of new technologies (take automated teller machines and online banking as an example).
But there are also leading examples, like 1st Mariner Bank in Baltimore, MD. E-Commerce Manager Steven L. Kruskamp Jr. (interview at Maine Bank Expo) has successfully convinced and converted his superiors and peers and led 1st Mariner to become a “new shining star in social media PR”.
Some examples:
- 1st Mariner uses its Facebook Page to give (prospective) customers, employees and others a general impression of the bank. You will find pictures, videos, articles and other information on the page and comments are enabled.
- The bank has two twitter accounts (@1stMarinerBank and @FMBCustSer) dedicated to customer service, with @1stMarinerBank having almost 1,000 followers.
- 1st Mariner also has a company profile on LinkedIn and a photostream on flickr.
Back in July 09, an angry customer was won over to become a loyal customer. This is what happened in short:
The customer wanted to deposit a check and had to drive about 45 min to the next branch. When he arrived there, he found it closed and called customer service, which advised him to try the drive thru. Although he was told it would be open, it wasn’t. And what does a modern customer do, when he feels mistreated and needs to blow off some steam? He tweets about what happened to him. To cut a long story short, Steven Kruskamp noticed the tweet and not only reacted on it, but followed up on it. The customer felt appreciated and valued. (Read the full story here)
Later on, 1st Mariner used social media to conduct some research into new products and services, which gave them insights into important needs and wants of their customers and provided them with a competitive edge.
Another good example is First National’s Pay Yourself First Challenge. (Unlike common believe, C)ontent doesn’t always have to be provided by the administrator of a website. First National challenged its customers to formulate their goals and save up for them in a competition setting. More than 150 customers uploaded their video and entered the race for the final five - who documented their savings for a period of six months in a blog journal.
On a side note: Both examples above are American banks. I recognize, that there are great initiatives happening in Europe as well (feel free to talk about them in the comments). And I’d like to share two more websites with you: first direct live (a division of HSBC) and HSBC Reviews (via thenextweb.com)