FreshNetworks Blog

We’ve already looked at two of the key topics  from our social media in financial services round table event (niche communities and customer driven markets) and now it’s time to move on to a topic that comes up time and again in relation to the financial services industry – the issue of transparency.

The current situation

Matt Colebrook, CEO of First Direct bank, defines transparency in 2 ways:

1. People need to feel secure and know that their money is protected – part of this is knowing what banks and other financial services institutions are doing with it.
2. Clear, simple fee structures  and products that are easy to understand and help people make sure they know what they are signing up for.

While the conversational, sharing mentality of social media has enabled this information to exist intrinsically, albeit on a small scale, very few financial institutions are hosting open discussion platforms for customers and investors because of data and security restrictions.

A recent survey from the Institute for Private Investors (IPI) has shown that high net worth investors are integrating social media into their lives more than ever before. The survey, conducted in May this year, found that 38% percent of respondents actively participate in social media, such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, forums and blogs.

Other recent studies indicate that wealth management clients are increasingly using social media to compare notes on advisors, funds, fees, strategies and deals.  And according to the findings from a report in the Harvard Business Review in June, private equity firms, venture capital and private investors are also using social networks to discuss industry related information.

Whether social media use of this kind actually exposes bad practices and forces better levels of transparency is debatable. However, the increased use of social media in the financial services industry certainly highlights the need for greater transparency online in order to stay ahead of the game.

What does the future hold?

The willingness to engage in open conversation through social media is vitally important for building trust in today’s world. In the future, customers will need an increased level of disclosure, peer review and transparency from their financial services providers, and social media offers the perfect medium by which to do this.

A recent article in Computer Weekly highlights that when new modes of social media interaction intersect with the regulatory demands for transparency, it will form essential part of how financial services function online. Failures in transparency (like the Madoff scandal) will be challenged more robustly and at an earlier stage as customer and investor decisions will be predicated on better practice, better communication and clearer fee and product structures.

Transparency through social media may even take the form of something similar to what  Saffron building society do. The Chief Executive, Andy Golding, writes his own blog offering his views on Saffron news and the industry as a whole, as we all communicating with Saffron’s members and staff, in order to develop a level of transparency.

Yes, Saffron is a relatively small institution but perhaps Golding’s activity is what’s needed in order for financial services brands to retain and acquire new customers and investors in the future.

Our next blog post will look at the risks and regulations surrounding the use of social media in the financial services industry and what the future holds for the sector.

A few weeks ago we held a senior executive round table event in order to debate the future role of social media in financial services.

One of the key topics that we discussed was the rise of niche online communities and how this will impact financial services brands in the future.

The current situation

Over the last few years there has been a rise in financial services communities that are on the long tail. In other words, there has been an increase in online communities that focus on a very specific audience rather than appealing to a wide range of clients and consumers.

Several banks have chosen to focus their social media strategy on one section of their customer target base. Royal Bank of Scotland, one of our clients, has developed a niche online community called Keep Britain Biking to appeal to  motorcyclists in order to encourage customer interaction with their Devitt insurance brand. Barclays bank is using a niche community called 100 voices to appeal directly to students with the promise of a community that contains information “written by students, for students”.

Young & Free Alberta, an online community powered by Servus Credit Union,  also utilises the “youth” niche community idea.The site aims to give 17 to 25 year olds  a head start with their finances by providing them with useful, relevant information about their financial requirements.

Not only is the site aimed at a specific demographic; it  is also aimed at  a specific region – Alberta, Canada. And with  ‘Young and Free’ initiatives in Alabama, Mississippi, Ontario, South Carolina, St Louis, Tennessee and Texas, all powered by local banks, these niche communities clearly aim to capture people at a time when they are selecting their first bank account. By building up a relationship with a young target audience, the Young and Free communities are engaging with customers in the early stages of their financial planning with the hope of then building up a life-long commitment to their bank or institution.

The Young and Free Alberta community uses blogs, forums, YouTube, Twitter and Facebook to encourage discussion. It also contains lots of relevant information and activities – like inviting people to an open-air movie -to attract its key audience.

The site also contains an “ask the experts” section to answer the financial concerns and queries of their target market in a timely and appropriate manner. The community manager has videos, blogs, comments and a very visible presence on the site, perhaps as way of further positioning the bank as a voice of authority.

What does the future hold?

Considering the rise of the niche community in financial services, indications for the future direction of social media in this area could include:

• An increase in targeting specific groups based on demographic. Social media could be used to uncover and engage more with micro communities, based on key demographic segmentation, that are enthusiastic, passionate and keen to become customers.

• An increase in targeting specific regions or areas. Social media could be used more to target regional rather than global areas. Local branches of banks and other financial services institutions could use niche communities, based on location, to attract new customers by appealing to people near to, or in, their own physical space or location.

• A decrease in corporate communities. As communities become less “corporate” in feel the will move away from using the direct branding, look and feel of the institution they represent. Instead the branding, tone and style of the community will be dictated by the needs and requirements of the people they wish to target rather than the bank or institution itself.

• Niche communities will become more social. They will utilise more user generated content and will form the hub of all social activity, from blogging, to Facebook, to Foursquare, as well as whatever other new tools arrive on the social media landscape. Niche communities will form the permanent base for social media activity – a space which can grow and develop in line with both market changes and new developments in social media technologies.

Our next blog post will look at how social media is helping to develop customer driven markets and what this means for the future role of social media in financial services.

We recently held a senior executive round table for a small group of financial services brands in order to debate the future role of social media in financial services.

As we’ve developed the social media strategies for several financial services organisations, including business divisions of  LV=,  Royal Bank of Scotland, LloydsTSB, American Express and SNS Bank, our aim was to facilitate an open discussion about the future direction of social media among senior level decision makers from the financial services industry in a relaxed, informal environment.

Registered attendees included senior executives from American Express, Credit Suisse, Friends Provident, Homeserve plc, ING Direct, Investec, Lloyd’s of London, Moneysupermarket, More Than, Simply Business and UBS.

On the day 11 people turned up to join in what turned out to be a very lively discussion about social media.

Charlie Osmond, FreshNetworks co-founder and Strategy Director, kicked off proceedings by introducing some of the  leading social media case studies in the  industry in order to assess current social media activity within the financial services sector. The discussion then turned to the main issues facing financial services brands and also future predictions for social media.

The event served to highlight the various themes and concerns facing senior level decision makers in the financial services industry including:

• The rise of niche online communities
• Customer driven markets
• Transparency
• Regulation and risk
• Resourcing

Over the next few weeks we’ll be visiting these topics in detail and will share with you the discussions and insights that occurred on the day.

When working with the big banks and insurance companies, as they embrace the potential of social media, their adoption of change can be fairly slow. The highly regulated (and risk averse) financial services industry often lacks the appetite to engage in online social conversations and (they could argue) “why do we need to?”. The answer is that, if you don’t, then you get left behind. There are competitors and some new entrants already building a successful social media presence.

As an example of a new entrant, in the banking sector, I’ve been following Zopa for some time. It started in the United Kingdom, and promotes itself as the first marketplace for social lending. This means that members of the Zopa community lend and borrow money with each other, sidestepping traditional banks. The premise is that both lenders and borrowers get better rates, because Social Lending is more efficient than traditional banks, which, with large overheads, must take bigger margins on the money that passes through them.

With over 400,000 members, Zopa appears to have hit upon a successful formula, and one that is now being copied in other countries, such as Prosper in the US, Smava in Germany and Boober in the Netherlands

And because it has empowered their online community, it becomes natural for it to add the social media features that further enhance its proposition, such as frequent blogs and online conversations between its members.

Time will tell whether this business model will be successful and sustainable. But it demonstrates that a new entrant into the marketplace such as Zopa can shake-up an otherwise cautious banking industry, and maybe move them faster towards embracing social media. It’s going to happen – it’s simply a question of when.

Read all our posts about social media for financial services

I have just typed “How do I” in Google today, and the fourth suggestion that it proposes is “…delete my Facebook account.”

There’s clearly some discontent out there. What’s the cause of these rumblings? Well, it was reported last week that there has been a significant review of security policy at Facebook HQ. Facebook user profiles are publicly accessible by default, and it seems that a growing number of commentators such as Jason Calacanis, chief executive of the question-and-answer website Malaho, are calling for a boycott of what is now a “not trustworthy” site.

And yet, this is against the backdrop that Facebook will shortly announce over 500 million users, and that’s 40% of everybody on the internet.

So, the dichotomy for businesses that have online security as a top priority, such as in the financial services or pharmaceutical industries for example, is how they should engage in social media when Facebook, the most popular of social media tools, is so open. And this question is always most loudly voiced in the Boardroom of the banks and insurers, where the decision-makers for a social media strategy will be immediate detractors because they consider the simple equation is “Social Media = Facebook”, and they can see no further!

The important resolve at the Boardroom must be that the social media strategies for banks and insurance companies should not focus upon social media tools. Instead, the message for the Boardroom is that the best uses of social media will demonstrate that it can yield amazing results without compromising security or the confidence of your customers. And to achieve this it can be better to think of more creative ways to engage people. We’ll be looking at some of these in the coming weeks.

Read all our posts about social media for financial services