The Top 35 Banks on Facebook

The top 35 banks on Facebook claim nearly nine million fans among them. Of those, 71%, or 6,259,027 fans, belong to the top three.

Chase tops the list with 2.9 million. Amex is second with 2.4 million, followed by Barclays with over 930,000.

The 35 banks in the list claim some 8,817,837 likes out of a combined 1.5 billion customers. That means they are reaching an average of 0.6% of their base, or one in every 173 customers. If you exclude the three top-performing banks from the calculation, the average drops to one in every 525 customers — only 0.2% of their base.

Previous research conducted by The Financial Brand found that across all banks — not just the big boys — there is an average of one Facebook like for 710 customers. Banks included in that study had a combined customer base of 85 million people, 120,448 Facebook likes, or 0.14% of all customers.

Trying to express fans as a percentage of customers is tricky business because you can’t assume every like on Facebook comes from a customer. The Financial Brand has estimated that as many as 35% — maybe even more — of social media connections come from spammers, social media experts, industry insiders and those who live outside a company’s geographic reach.

Non-Financial Facebook Promos Generate More Fans

Ironically, those financial institutions who claim the most fans tend to craft their Facebook presence around anything other than personal finance, ranging from charities to sports teams.

Chase was able to accrue nearly three million fans by giving away millions of dollars to non-profit civic organizations through its “Community Giving” campaign, first launched in 2009. Now in its third year, the bank has announced a further two-year commitment to its philanthropic Facebook initiative totaling $25 million. That’s not chump change.

Barclays climb to nearly a million Facebook fans has been fueled by a focus on football. Similarly, RBS has used its affiliation with rugby to build a fan base totaling over 600,000.

This indirectly proves how difficult it is for financial firms to organically grow a social media following by staying within the confines of their business model. It seems the subject of banking is just too boring to draw a crowd.

The Financial Brand has previously estimated that it costs approximately $1 for every Facebook fan a financial institution would like to add.

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Bank Facebook Likes Customers % 1 Follower
for Every [x]
Customers
Chase 2,900,179 55,000,000 5.27% 19
American Express 2,428,059 48,900,000 4.97% 21
Barclays 930,789 48,000,000 1.9% 51
RBS 611,116 40,000,000 1.52% 66
Akbank 542,182 8,000,000 6.78% 15
Garanti 524,592 9,800,000 5.35% 19
Visa 311,289 408,000,000 0.08% 1,250
Citi 197,412 300,000,000 0.07% 1,420
BNP Paribas 153,617 18,000,000 0.85% 117
Santander 137,125 25,000,000 0.55% 180
ING 86,215 85,000,000 0.10% 1,000
Deutsche Bank 80,528 24,900,000 0.32% 310
BofA 66,066 57,000,000 0.12% 825
HSBC 58,142 95,000,000 0.06% 1,650
Commonwealth 53,972 10,000,000 0.53% 184
Standard Chartered 51,688 14,000,000 0.37% 265
Crédit Agricole 49,945 49,000,000 0.10% 1,000
Standard Bank 35,802 10,500,000 0.34% 293
ABSA 35,013 11,300,000 0.31% 317
BBVA 32,022 47,000,000 0.07% 1,420
TD Canada 23,289 11,000,000 0.21% 475
ASB 19,318 1,000,000 1.93% 52
Capitec 14,508 2,500,000 0.58% 172
US Bank 13,907 15,000,000 0.09% 900
Wells Fargo 11,605 70,000,000 0.02% 5,000
Arvest 10,307 450,000 2.29% 44
Erste Bank & Sparkasse 8,869 17,400,000 0.05% 2,000
Commerzbank 8,177 15,000,000 0.05% 2,000
NAB/UBank 6,806 10,600,000 0.06% 1,650
First Tennessee 6,323 1,100,000 0.57% 174
Lloyds TSB 5,316 30,000,000 0.02% 5,000
MB Financial 5,221 500,000 1.04% 96
Nedbank 3,305 5,100,000 0.06% 1,650
Dexia 2,710 800,000 0.34% 293
Isbank 1,791 14,000,000 0.01% 10,000
SunTrust 1,748 6,500,000 0.03% 3,333
TOTAL 1,525,350 8,817,837 0.58% 173

Source: Retail Banker

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