Comments on: Social Media In Banking: Made In Heaven Or Marriage From Hell?

By: Bob Henderson

Bob Henderson — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 14:52:21 +0000

Again, there is a big difference between engaging your customer in SM and keeping your ear to the ground for problems, concerns and consumer trends. I would suggest a deeper review of the analysis that SM Command Centers are using this medium to position products and services.

I would also suggest that there is a huge generational bias in the debate of this topic.

By: Editor

Editor — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 22:52:30 +0000

Thanks for the comment Christian. There are so many challenges with social media (not least of which are regulatory, compliance and privacy concerns), it’s surprising how many financial institutions have jumped into it.

By: Christian Burke

Christian Burke — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 22:27:23 +0000

Thanks to FB for giving some tasty perspective on this topic. Yes, banks are slow adopters by nature–painfully so at times. For our bank I think the biggest factor isn’t fear of not being “liked”, it’s the fear of unknown risk. Dodd-Frank adds 2,300 pages of new oversight to an already complex web of compliance. Great for consumers, challenging for smaller institutions trying to get it all right under the threat of getting shut down if they don’t. In addition auditors are aggressively enforcing in a much more subjective way than ever before–esp social media presence. A careless online exchange or promotion can potentially violate a myriad of regulations.

Emotional intensity generally wins over intellect in the social media world, at least in the short term, and in that regard makes for a fast and fluid exchange of ideas ( Arab Spring, Susan G Komen, Whatever Ashton Kutcher is doing )– however, for industries like banking, who are expected ( and legislated )to avoid volatility and maintain a higher state of control and accuracy, social media remains a dicey experiment. I think our bankers prefer the face to face conversations with their customers, good or bad.