Social networks in FS – Facebook remains the best option

Guest blog post by Stephen Dunnigan, Country Manager UK & Ireland, MicroStrategy

I can empathise with some of Scott’s recent FStech blog on the use of Twitter and Facebook in FS. We have all seen too many ‘amusing faces in the pub’ photos, but I just can’t agree with the idea that Twitter has replaced Facebook as the social network of choice in FS.

Of all the social networks, Facebook has by far the highest number of active users – around 900 million at the last estimate – and also the richest data on its users. Using that data, the potential for targeted and relevant marketing is huge. Users can be segmented based on their  interests, psychographics, demographics, preferences and likes. Segments can be targeted with personalised content, special offers, and recommendations based on who they are, where they come from, and what they like.

The best way of doing this is via closer integration of IT and marketing to forge social CRM strategies. At last year’s MicroStrategy Social Media Marketing and iCommerce Summit, Facebook’s Tim Campos spoke about how organisations can monetise their Facebook data by converting the site's social graph data structure into a relational data structure, enabling the use of existing Facebook data for enterprise applications. These apps enable personalised messaging based on the rich and constantly updating Facebook data – ideal for customer engagement and building brand loyalty.

The Corporate Insight research cited by Scott last week does reveal that 88 per cent of the FS companies surveyed were on Facebook and 92 per cent on Twitter. Yet so many Twitter accounts are inactive or spam and the user numbers do not come anywhere near to those on Facebook. And the nature of Twitter – 140 characters per update – means that the users it does have do not reveal much of substance that could be used by FS marketers. I do not mean spam, but relevant, targeted and personalised offers based on that user’s profile and interests.

While many of the status updates may seems trivial, only Facebook allows FS firms to engage with customers and prospects in a meaningful way, so the odd un-flattering picture of a friend in the pub is a price worth paying.

Flip-flopping on social media

Investment information portal, assetinum, recently examined the world's 50 biggest private banking and wealth management institutions' social media activities, scoring them out of 100. The results weren't great.

A third of those under examination did not have an active Facebook profile and that included Facebook investor Goldman Sachs. D'oh! (insert muppets joke here).

Further info on the research at the FStech website.

Quora, what is it good for?

It arrived in a blaze of hype but it hasn't really happened for Quora, has it?

It had great pedigree (set up by former Facebook employees) and in 2010 received $11 million in funding from Benchmark Capital, valuing the start-up at $86 million. But as time went on it became clear that it wasn't any better than competing sites. A redesign last year underwhelmed. And I think the emergence of Google+ could be the death of it.

During my time as Editor of FStech's sister title, Retail Systems, I set up a presence for the title on Quora as I liked the idea of a Q&A social media site created, edited and organised by its community of users. Unfortunately, the layout was clunky, making it difficult to find information and ask the right questions and those running the site ruled with an iron fist. After putting my name as Retail Systems, I received a terse message, informing me that commercial entities were not allowed and ordering me to use my actual name. I struggled to attract followers and eventually lost interest, focusing my attention on Twitter instead.

Anyone else have a similar experience or do you think there is life in Quora yet?

Embracing social media in customer communications

Guest blog post by Mark King, Senior VP, Europe and Africa, Aspect

In its 2011 report Social Banking: The Social Networking Imperative for Retail Banks, Accenture claims that while 90 per cent of financial institutions will dedicate funds for social media initiatives by 2012, the majority are still novices in the field. Forty two per cent of online adults are keen to engage with their financial providers using social media, according to a 2010 Forrester Research study.  However, Accenture suggests that few firms yet know how to generate significant business value from engaging with customers, partners and employees via this channel.

Aspect offers the following best practice tips for organisations looking to embrace social media in customer communications:

1. Engage with employees first: Before reaching out to customers, trial social media with your own staff. Find people that embrace the social scene and create ambassadors that can reach out internally and externally. Also engage social media-aware executives to influence more senior managers.

2. Align social initiatives with business goals: Such as how to grow revenue, or retain profitable customers. Campaigns that engage large numbers of people can sometimes end up creating lots of contacts but little value.

3. Monitor and analyse: Don’t just monitor social networks for positive and negative mentions of your organisation. Also identify and monitor networks where customers, competitors and commentators gather. Find out what they’re discussing, what technologies they’re using and feed this into your social planning.

4. Set business rules that determine how and when you engage with customers: This, together with the subsequent workflows that ensure issues are resolved rapidly and effectively, can unlock significant business value. Integrate social media communications into your overall customer contact strategy as a distinct channel and compare social media performance in the context of your total engagement strategy.

5. Set up direct customer contact options:  Where appropriate, provide customer contact options on your company Facebook and Linked In pages – including self-service pages and helpful Q&As – enabling customers to contact you directly. When Bank of America adopted Twitter for customer service, users said it was easier and faster than traditional channels. 

6. Use customer segmentation techniques: To target specific customer groupings. Accenture reported that Chase created an online community of mass-affluent consumers, working with them to design the highly successful Chase Priority Club Rewards card. 

7. Choose your technology wisely: Identify and implement what’s right for your business – and make use of existing customer contact investments such as workforce optimisation capabilities, workflow rules and call centre performance analytics to maximise efficiency and performance.

8. Bring experts into customer conversations: Using Presence technology, service agents can see the location of specialists and know whether they’re in meetings or available to talk. Customer interactions that start with customers hitting click-to-call buttons and speaking to agents can now progress to screen sharing with at-home experts.