SOCIAL MEDIA IN FINANCE
Financial Services Is Negativity Inevitable? Financial services, as a sector,
is mired in negativity. Comparing finance brands’ social tone with those
from other sectors, the
difference in communicative style is significant. For obvious reasons, financial brands are prone to face more friction from disgruntled customers than most others. It may be argued that this is an inevitable facet of consumer attitudes to financial services that will not cease purely by giving attention to social media. However, as Andrew Schrage of personal finance forum Money Crashers states, to ignore discontent entirely will be much more detrimental to the brand and its reputation. More than just mitigating
Financial Services As a Sector is Mired in Negativity
Personal Computer Restaurant Retail
Telecoms
Pharmaceutical Media
Banking Investment Oil & Gas Insurance Credit Card Tobacco
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100% • Positive
•Neutral Source: IPSOS reputation snapshot report
the negatives, we will shortly look at a modern financial services company which is exceeding customer expectation and, as a result, building a remarkably positive reputation through its forward- thinking approach to social media and consumer communications.
Security & Privacy Fears around security and privacy issues, combined with heavy regulations on the matters, can seem a daunting problem for financial services companies looking at venturing into the very open and public social web. Financial bodies such as FINRA, the SEC, FSA,
IIROC and PCAOB set out requirements that brands must adhere to. However, with the right technology and internal policies in place, social profiles can be secured and compliant with these regulators’ legislation. For example, as HootSuite advises regarding technology: “Look for a social media management
policies, strategic planning and tactical deployment of social business. The benefits of expressing brand personality to
foster a better relationship with the consumer and a clearer, stronger identity are sought by a vast number of consumer-facing organizations today. Many are taking the opportunity to use humour, informal language and a more “human” originality than brands have historically been comfortable with.
When it comes to financial services, however, it
may be viewed that this kind of approach is at odds with maintaining a trustworthy, cautious, informed and authoritative image – likely very important for a company ultimately in control of people’s money.
It’s clear that, though there are complexities to the financial services industry
...there are significant gains to be exploited if handled intelligently
system that offers centralized control of corporate social accounts. These are strategic assets, and should be secured as such. Retain ownership of them at all times, especially during personnel changes. As a basic compliance measure, be sure that your social platform has a multi-layered permissions system and supports automatic archiving of both internal and public social messaging.” The bottom line here is that, while security and
privacy are very real concerns for financial services companies, they can truly be overcome. They should in no way prevent companies from taking advantage of the huge benefits to social media, but simply may require additional accounting for in the
A closer inspection of a UK-based organization
proves insightful, as many financial service companies there also offer non-financial products so can be comfortably compared, as exemplified by Tesco. We can observe the different approach taken in the Twitter accounts of their mobile network brand and their banking brand. Tesco Mobile is operated as an interactive, humorous and engaging account – so notoriously informal that it generates significant publicity – whereas Tesco Bank remains strictly corporate and broadcast-driven. Also indicative is that the former also enjoys over 25 times more followers than the latter.
March 2014 63 •Negative
BEST PERFORMERS
WORST PERFORMERS
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76