Like most things at TheFinancialBrand.com, it was very comprehensive and informative. So there went my post. I guess I’ll just write about Grumpy Cat again.
But then I thought, do banks belong on LinkedIn? I don’t mean that from a simplistic point of view, I meant that from a philosophical stance. Have they earned the right to be involved in social selling? The answer is no…not yet.
As I have more and more conversations with bankers, investment peeps, realtors, and others in consultative sales, I’m convinced that bankers don’t understand the power of LinkedIn. I don’t believe they know what it means to have a holistic brand that is consistent online and offline and that is centered on delivering focused, relevant, buyer-centered content and assistance. That’s what social selling is about. That’s what LinkedIn is about!
Forgive me if my soapbox is too high, but I’ve been involved with the selling and marketing of banking products for eight years – holy crap? Is that right? I’m not that old!!!! – and it seems as if many, many, many bankers out there like to believe that the Internet was never invented. They seem to think of themselves as keepers and disseminators of information. And by this I mean they tell people about their products and hand out brochures.
They say they “get mobile” but most think of these channels as new methods to disseminate info, not as part of a revolutionary shift in the balance of sales power and processes.
If you want to better understand how much the sales process and environment has changed in the last decade, please read To Sell is Human by Daniel Pink. One of Pink’s main points is the value of content curation within the new sales environment.
If you don’t understand curation, you don’t know the true value of LinkedIn. And if you don’t curate, you’re missing out on an unmet need in today’s financial customer. Quite frankly, most of you are missing this.
Your bank must embrace the role of curating financial information in the lives of its customers and prospects before you can fully realize the power of LinkedIn. Until then, you will only be able to establish a presence but never a meaningful impact.
I’ll talk more about this in a future post and upcoming webinar. If you have specific questions (or gripes) please connect with me before then.
About Mark Zmarzly:
Mark Zmarzly is SVP of Financial Services atACTON Marketing, and an accomplished marketing, business development, banking, and creative professional with demonstrated success solving customer acquisition, marketing, and profitability problems. He has worked with financial institutions from 1 branch up to 1,700+ branches in the areas of marketing, copywriting, account management, consulting, teaching, social media, and business development.
Posted By Karen Licker, Financial Services Social Media & Marketing (Independent) at J.D. Power and Associates, on February 14, 2013, at 8:51 am
Businesses can no longer adopt a trial-and-error approach to social media as all-new research finds a link between social media and business metrics such as consumers’ likelihood to purchase or interact with companies through leading social channels, according to the J.D. Power and Associates 2013 Social Media Benchmark Study,SM released today.
The inaugural study is based on responses from more than 23,200 U.S. online consumers who have interacted with a company via the companies’ social media channel. Fielded from November to December 2012, the study measures the overall consumer experience in engaging with companies through their social platforms for both marketing and servicing needs across more than 100 U.S. brands in six industries: airline, auto, banking, credit card, telecom and utility. The study establishes performance benchmarks and industry best practices that provide insights to companies to help them maximize their social media efforts.
Social Media Servicing vs. Social Media Marketing
The study focuses on two types of social media engagements, marketing and servicing, and provides best practices for each. Marketing engagements include connecting with consumers to build brand awareness and affinity, in addition to promoting coupons and deals. Servicing engagements include answering specific consumer questions or resolving problems.
The study finds that social marketing engagements vary by age group. Nearly one-third (39%) of consumers 30-49 years old and 38 percent of those 50 years and older interact with a company in a social marketing engagement context, while only 23 percent of consumers who are 18-29 years old interact with companies. In contrast, 43 percent of consumers who are 18-29 years old use social media for servicing interactions, while 39 percent of consumers who are 30-49 years old use social for servicing needs. Only 18 percent of consumers who are 50 years and older interact with a company via social for a service-related need.
Key Findings
67% of consumers have used a company’s social media site for servicing, compared with 33% for social marketing.
Younger consumers (18-29 years old) are more likely to use brands’ social media sites for servicing interactions (43%) than for marketing (23%).
The automotive industry balances marketing and servicing engagements better than any other industry included in the study.
Consumer expectations for social interactions vary across industries, although quality content and responsive service representatives are keys to higher satisfaction levels.
Want to learn more about our J.D. Power and Associates 2013 Social Media Benchmark Study,SM including banking and credit card brand performance?
Posted By Karen Licker, Financial Services Social Media & Marketing (Independent) at J.D. Power and Associates, on January 9, 2013, at 1:58 pm
Social novices and mavens, what goals are you setting in 2013 to strengthen your social relationship with consumers? Consumers know what they want from their social media interactions with brands, but do you know how they are looking to engage?
To better understand this challenge, J.D. Power and Associates recently hosted an online research community. Based on that research, three goals emerged that companies should focus on in 2013.
Posted By Karen Licker, Financial Services Social Media & Marketing (Independent) at J.D. Power and Associates, on November 29, 2012, at 11:21 am
J.D. Power is committed to helping companies understand and navigate the rapidly changing landscape of social media. To that end, the 2012 Social Media Usage Study has been piloted to examine how consumers are currently using social media to interact with companies and to understand the current social media practices companies employ. To continue looking at how companies interact with consumers via social media, we will be releasing the comprehensive study, collaborating directly with businesses and consumers, in January 2013 that fully examines why and how consumers engage with companies via social media.
In the meantime, take a look at the topline findings from the study pilot in the whitepaper titled “Understanding the Impact of Social Media on Companies.”
Posted By Karen Licker, Financial Services Social Media & Marketing (Independent) at J.D. Power and Associates, on November 1, 2012, at 8:58 am
In case you missed a few of our recent online events and complementary research reports, we’re including them for you here. We promise, just like the day after 1/2 price Halloween candy, it’s not a trick. Just a heartfelt way for us to treat you, our loyal banking fiends and fans for your continued support. Enjoy!
What Do Small Business Owners Expect From Their Bank?
This exclusive webcast provides an inside look into the results of our J.D. Power and Associates 2012 US and Canadian Small Business Banking Satisfaction Study that will be released next week. Below are only some of the many issues discussed during the webcast:
How customers’ perceptions have changed since 2011
The latest trends emerging in the small business banking industry
Which factors are having the biggest impact on customer satisfaction
The Dividends of Improving Best Practices for Social Media Research
In this whitepaper, we’ll show you that without well-established and proven guidelines on query construction and data extraction, very different results and conclusions can be obtained by different analysts attempting the same social media data search.
In extreme cases, analysts can create such highly divergent queries that the associated data leads to different answers to even simple questions, such as:
Which brand is my main competitor?
Is Product1 more of my brand’s conversation this month centered around product?
Is the sentiment expressed toward my brand this month more or less positive than the sentiment expressed toward my brand last month?
Using Voice of the Customer Information to Improve Business Performance: 5 Keys to Success
This presentation explores how clients use J.D. Power and Associates and other Voice of the Customer data with ROI or other business metrics to analyze under-performance to drive improvement.
Posted By Karen Licker, Financial Services Social Media & Marketing (Independent) at J.D. Power and Associates, on October 26, 2012, at 7:15 am
A Guest Post By: Jim Marous, SVP of Corporate Development at New Control
In an exclusive interview about his newest book, Bank 3.0, Brett King discusses how change occurring in the banking industry is inevitable, speeding up and disruptive. From the mobile wallet wars to the impact of social media, tablets and the ‘de-banked’ and digital consumer, Bank 3.0 shows why banking is no longer a place you go to, but something you do.
A great deal has happened since Brett King wrote Bank 2.0 in 2010. Two years ago, banks were under siege as the foundation of the banking system was close to collapse and the image of the industry as a safe and secure environment was being challenged. The impact of social media was just beginning to be understood by the financial services industry and mobile technology as we know it today was in its infancy. Heck, King even referenced his (now long gone) Blackberry in the first chapter of Bank 2.0.
With Bank 3.0, King discusses how consumers are less likely to view their retail banking provider in terms of capital adequacy, branch network, products and rates. Instead, customers are more likely to determine their banking partners by how easily they can access their accounts when they need to, and how much they trust their provider to execute business on their behalf. For those who read Bank 2.0, King’s new book retains some of the foundation and case studies, but updates several areas based on what has occurred (and will be occurring) relative to digital delivery, payments, social media, and the power of ‘big data’.
On the eve of the introduction of Bank 3.0 in the U.K. (introduction in the U.S. is scheduled for early November), I interviewed Brett King about his new book and about how he views the banking industry today.
What has occurred in the marketplace that warranted the publishing of Bank 3.0 just 2 years after your successful book, Bank 2.0?
Brett King:The marketplace has changed significantly around how consumers are engaging with their financial institutions. Compared to two years ago, traditional banks are challenged more than ever from a distribution perspective because of the movement to mobile and digital channels, and because they are not well positioned with their current bricks and mortar networks for a positive customer experience. The philosophy of banks, with their secure firewalls, operational structure and compliance mindset, is counter to how any other industry engages with customers in the digital space. Since Bank 2.0, the competitive environment has also changed a great deal, with partnerships being developed, alternative players and new bank start-ups being introduced, underbanked segments emerging, and social media merging with bank service engagement. People are beginning to take a functional and utility view of banking, which is why I say in the subtitle of the new book, ‘banking is no longer a place you go to, but something you do’
Posted By Karen Licker, Financial Services Social Media & Marketing (Independent) at J.D. Power and Associates, on September 14, 2012, at 5:48 am
Social media, a non-traditional method of customer interaction is clearly becoming increasingly important for banks to understand.
It’s no longer just a vehicle for customers to vent about poor experiences, praise their bank for exceeding expectations, or read about other customers’ positive or negative experiences—it has now become a legitimate service channel!
Social media sites not only allow customers to interact with their bank, but also provide another medium to converse with representatives, get questions answered, and resolve problems. For example, data from our 2012 J.D. Power and Associates US Credit Card Customer Satisfaction Study shows that during the past 12 months, 5% of credit card customers have contacted their issuer through their social media site to ask a question, resolve a problem, or make a request.
Although many questions or problems may need to be handled outside of the social media site that was the initial contact, it is important for banks to show they are listening to their customers’ “pain points” by providing an actual response to the social media posting.
Did you know that only 60% of customers who contacted their credit card issuer via social media received a reply?
Needles to say, the impact of replying to a posting on overall satisfaction is profound, as Interaction satisfaction among customers who have received a reply to their social media contact is notably higher than among those who did not receive a reply (802 vs. 748, respectively). Findings from our recent study also revealed that optimizing customer satisfaction with their social media experience does not end at merely responding to the request, but that issuers should continue to focus on the following:
Resolving the initial issue at hand
Offering additional assistance
Thanking the customer for their business
When each of these best practices are met, Interaction satisfaction increases to 839, which is 91 points higher than when they are not met.
Source: J.D. Power and Associates 2012 US Credit Card Satisfaction StudySM
The Bottom Line:
With the continued advancement of technology shifting the way customers interact with financial institutions, it is vital for banks to proactively respond to the changing demands of their self-service channels and understand the importance of being responsive to feedback posted on social media sites.
Posted By Karen Licker, Financial Services Social Media & Marketing (Independent) at J.D. Power and Associates, on August 15, 2012, at 3:10 pm
Social media is continuing to gain traction in the world of market research. While this is an exciting development that offers new opportunities for data collection, there is a potential downside. With so many tools available to so many different types of users, the “wild west” approach to social media data access may be leading us to questionable results. The ability to trust social media data that is delivered by market researchers will be called into question once stakeholders become aware of this issue. Without methodological rigor, results from social media research can at best simply be unreliable, and at worst lead decision-makers to draw wrong conclusions.
In this complementary whitepaper, we’ll show you that without well-established and proven guidelines on query construction and data extraction, very different results and conclusions can be obtained by different analysts attempting the same social media data search.
In extreme cases, analysts can create such highly divergent queries that the associated data leads to different answers to even simple questions, such as:
Which brand is my main competitor?
Is Product1 more of my brand’s conversation this month centered around product?
Is the sentiment expressed toward my brand this month more or less positive than the sentiment expressed toward my brand last month?
Posted By Karen Licker, Financial Services Social Media & Marketing (Independent) at J.D. Power and Associates, on July 27, 2012, at 8:53 am
Did you know that consumers don’t single out social media as a separate experience with a company? Instead, they expect social media to be a fully integrated and seamless part of the overall brand experience.
This is one of the many insights shared with us over the past 90 days while we were engaging with FSI leaders about social media, Social CRM, social monitoring and intelligence, social within the internal organization and much more! We hosted roundtables, had ad hoc conversations with existing clients and asked for direct feedback about their social media successes, failures and ongoing challenges. As a result of our efforts, we’ve assembled a wealth of first hand insights and strategies on social media that we’d like to share with you!
Join us for a complimentary interactive webcast and we’ll provide the following:
Examples of how financial service institutions are using social intelligence
A gauge for where your organization falls in the journey to integrate social efforts into the business, marketing and research operations
Tools and tips to help you take the next step in your social media efforts
The opportunity to connect with others who are facing the same challenges you are
WEBCAST DETAILS
Date: Wednesday, August 1, 2012
Time: 2:00-3:00 pm ET
Stay connected and join the other bankers following us!
Use hashtag #jdpasocialFS to interact with us on Twitter during the webcast
If you asked the average American if they felt positively or negatively about their bank, how do you think they would answer? Now consider the same question while keeping in mind the country is currently clawing its way out of a recession, the mortgage crisis is still affecting millions of Americans and their bottom lines and the Occupy Wall Street movement hasn’t exactly disappeared?
Would it shock you to know that most Americans would answer that they feel positively about their bank? That’s what my company’s recent research into online conversations about banks revealed. In fact, looking at conversations that feature the top 25 banks according to assets as ranked by the FDIC, only two have less than 60% positive marks. Even major banks, like Citi and PNC, were above 70% positive in online conversations.
Granted, Bank of America, which in many ways instigated the Occupy Wall Street movement with its September 2011 rate hike (quickly rescinded but not before the public conversation could go awry) dominated online conversations in 2011 among the banks and it was one of the two under that 60% positive threshold. But even with BOA’s miserable year in the public eye, its positive to negative ratio was 1:1. Half of the people talking about Bank of America last year were speaking of the company in positive light.
Anecdotal assumptions like, “no one likes their bank,” or “no one likes Bank of America,” can be more easily overturned today thanks to online monitoring and listening platforms. That’s why we spent the last few months researching what consumers were saying about banks and bank products. Among some of the other surprises we found include:
Customers Are Fickle
Several banks we reviewed got high marks for customer service. But, they also got low marks for it. This tells bank marketers that no matter how good you are, someone will always think you’re bad. Having processes and policies to deal with negative feedback is an imperative.
You Don’t Have To Be Big To Make An Impact
After finding the major products and themes consumers of the top 25 banks discussed, we removed any brand bias and searched the web for conversations about the topics. While analyzing conversations about Automated Teller Machines, First Fidelity Bank (Oklahoma) appeared multiple times. Its ATM fee policy thrilled fans enough to elicit online responses. And ones that were found by a national research focus. The insight for marketers here is that thrilling your customers creates buzz and not many of your competitors are doing that.
Advertising Works
The single biggest online conversation impact we found among the larger banks was the amount of positive conversation that focused on the advertising campaigns for Capital One and HSBC. Capital One’s “What’s In Your Wallet” vikings and Jimmy Fallon ads accounted for over 60% of the positive online conversation around the brand. But it’s not just funny TV spots that emerged as effective in driving online buzz. HSBC’s advertising campaign focuses on posters and billboards primarily placed around airports. The “Different Points of View” campaign accounted for 23% of its positive online buzz. Apparently, good ads are worth the investment.
Certainly, looking at online conversations comes with its own limitations and biases. We were not able to ask direct questions of consumers as with traditional market research made of focus groups and surveys. But with our approach comes certain bias elimination, too. Finding online conversations means the consumer isn’t biased to answer one way or another because they know they’re being monitored or interviewed. We mined raw conversations of people speaking freely on their respective social networking site, forum or blog.
This in-the-wild conversational analysis isn’t necessarily better than other forms of consumer insight. But it sure is different and as revealing. It shows us that our assumptions are often wrong, consumers will always surprise you and there are plenty of opportunities to be had for brands in the online space.
Businesses can no longer adopt a trial-and-error approach to social media as all-new research finds a link between social media and business metrics such as consumers’ likelihood to purchase or interact with companies through leading social channels, according to the 
Social novices and mavens, what goals are you setting in 2013 to strengthen your social relationship with consumers? Consumers know what they want from their social media interactions with brands, but do you know how they are looking to engage?
Social media, a non-traditional method of customer interaction is clearly becoming increasingly important for banks to understand.
Social media is continuing to gain traction in the world of market research. While this is an exciting development that offers new opportunities for data collection, there is a potential downside. With so many tools available to so many different types of users, the “wild west” approach to social media data access may be leading us to questionable results. The ability to trust social media data that is delivered by market researchers will be called into question once stakeholders become aware of this issue. Without methodological rigor, results from social media research can at best simply be unreliable, and at worst lead decision-makers to draw wrong conclusions.
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