JPMorgan’s recent Twitter fiasco was a social media DON’T spelled out in three-foot-high blinking neon letters for the rest of the financial services industry when it recently attempted a “Twitter Takeover.”
Unfortunately for JPMorgan, the live Q&A – hashtag #AskJPM – fast elicited responses like these gems: “What is your favorite type of whale? How do you decide who to foreclose on? Darts or a computer program? Why did you think this was a good idea?”
Days later, the $2.5 trillion behemoth had a change of heart: “Tomorrow’s Q&A is cancelled. Bad idea. Back to the drawing board.”
Fortunately for community banks and credit unions, smaller financial institutions tend not to be the objects of such scorn and ridicule.
But with social media evolving at a rapid pace and regulation touching every aspect of the financial services industry, it’s hard to blame a community bank or credit union with limited resources for arriving late to the social media game.
“We look at this as a new marketing channel, and we treat it as such,” said Hal Tovin, chief operating officer at Belmont Savings Bank. “We use social media as another way to communicate with prospects and customers about topics of interest, local activities and product promotions. If anything, social media gives you the ability to have more of a dialogue than traditional media because the customers do engage with you.”
So how do you get customers to engage with your bank or credit union anyway?
Kayla Murphy, marketing manager, said Belmont Savings has seen particular success running contests on Facebook. Most recently, the bank hosted a “Real Home Value” contest that invited people to submit a photo and a story about what made their house a home. The bank then posted those submissions, and the one who got the most “likes” won a Home Depot gift card. They tied that back to Belmont’s home equity line of credit.
Metro Credit Union has experienced similar success with its “Merry Money Madness” promotion, which invites members to enter for a chance to win $500 by signing up for e-statements.
“We’ve really started to pick up steam around content. We try to provide consistent, relevant content that’s shareable and interactive,” said Keith Pequeno, senior vice president of marketing.
Stephanie Rollins, marketing officer at First Trade Union Bank, said she views social media as an opportunity for the bank to extend its community presence into the virtual world and as a listening channel. Facebook, she said, is particularly effective for listening and having two-way conversations, while Twitter is better for retweeting industry news, and LinkedIn works best for professional development. Rollins added that First Trade most recently created a YouTube channel, which it uses to host videos from concerts it’s sponsored.
Strategy Required
But a bank or credit union can’t just dive into social media and start tweeting willy-nilly. There must be a strategy and purpose to it, as well as policies and procedures, and there are regulations of which to be ever mindful.
Of particular importance to banks and credit unions is something called the “one click away” rule, which means that mentions of certain products, promotions or key words must be one click away from the necessary disclosures.
For that reason, First Trade tends to use social media less to promote its products and more to promote community engagement, said Chris Tremont, vice president of marketing.
While Belmont Savings doesn’t shy away from providing disclosures when they want to promote a product, they also run everything by compliance before posting and are particularly careful not to explicitly advise customers when blogging about financial topics, the bank’s Tovin said.
Pequeno said Metro Credit Union first implemented a social media policy late in 2010 that listed guidelines for use, but as the social media landscape has fast evolved, so too must the credit union’s strategy. One of Pequeno’s new initiatives will include an annual review and update of the organization’s social media policy.
To come full circle, negative comments and criticism are an inevitable fact of the social media space, but banks do themselves no favors by silencing or ignoring those comments and complaints, Tremont said.
“If you’re going to be out in this space, you have to take the good with the bad. I think by not responding, you look worse than by addressing the issue head on and dealing with it,” he said.
What’s more, he added, a graceful and appropriate response to criticism can turn a complaint into a productive dialogue.
“The power of social media is that everyone has a voice,” First Trade’s Rollins said. “People are going to talk about you whether you’re there or not, so it’s better to be part of the conversation.”
Email: lalix@thewarrengroup.com
