Comments on: Petition to Verify Twitter Accounts for Financial Firms

By: Celent Banking Blog » Citi is First Financial Institution to Have a “Verified” Twitter Account

Wed, 14 Apr 2010 16:43:54 +0000

[...] Interestingly banks and other financial institutions have been left behind. In late October 2009, The Financial Brand even started a petition to verify Twitter accounts of financial [...]

By: Luke

Luke — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 20:31:56 +0000

I conducted a client webinar earlier this week that focused on how our clients can leverage our systems educational content in their social media campaigns. But I started out by explaining the techniques for getting the initial approval from their customers to be a part of their online social experience. I highlighted examples of customer service and the Vantage Credit Union model as keys to getting inside. If proper security measures are not taken on both sides (bank and twitter) then I fear most banks and credit unions will avoid going down these paths and won’t have success in getting their customer base to allow them into their social media world. If you can’t generate this acceptance then you might as well throw this marketing approach out the window for the financial industry.

By: Editor

Editor — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 18:49:06 +0000

Thanks David, Sonya and so many others who have adopted this cause. Even if it’s only an incremental step, it’s something that would benefit everyone.

By: Jacob Jegher

Jacob Jegher — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 18:36:48 +0000

Great initiative! It makes perfect sense and in my opinion is long overdue. I blogged back in April about the risks involved here http://bankingblog.celent.com/?p=430

@jjegher

By: David Gerbino

David Gerbino — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 05:32:58 +0000

Jeff,

thanks for taking the lead on this initiative. I, like you, feel this is very important. Actually, more important than verifying Robert Scoble’s @scobleizer or Ashton Kutcher’s @aplusk.

As you know I have sent out dozens of tweets, most DMs, to help move this along. And as we have discussed via twitter DM, the results are horrible. We need to get more people involved to step up and retweet both publicly and privately.

Thanks to Sonya J Mills for helping and all of you who have commented.

We ALL need to be committed to this cause.

Thanks.

@dmgerbino

By: Kasey Skala

Kasey Skala — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 02:23:19 +0000

Great idea…I’m all about it.

In regards to hacking Twitter accounts – that’s why you make sure you never give important information over the Web. Look at what @BofA_Help does. They make it a point to constantly tweet that you should never give account information via Twitter. Instead, they get basic contact information and have a customer service rep get in contact.

By: Todd Dickerson

Todd Dickerson — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 19:10:45 +0000

Great idea. Let’s make it happen.

By: Aden Davies

Aden Davies — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 16:28:55 +0000

A fantastic idea.

By: Finance Answers

Finance Answers — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 16:22:56 +0000

Do we need to make an official petition for this? Hyperpetition [dot] com might be a good resource to do this. Let me know I’d be glad to support this and reach out to my twitter followers to do the same.

By: Editor

Editor — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 14:23:43 +0000

Thanks for the note Paul. I think what you’re talking about boils down to the personal responsibility of the person staffing the organization’s Twitter account. I have confidence that Twitter accounts are as safe and “unhackable” as any other one could have somewhere else online. If your financial institution (1) uses a secure, mixed-case, alpha-numeric password, (2) changes that password regularly, and (3) doesn’t allow itself to fall victim to social engineering ploys like the one in the article you referenced, then there’s no reason to worry.

Verified account or not, there isn’t much we can do to stop someone from surrendering their own username and password to a hacker. Personal accountability.

You’re right though. A compromised account with a verified badge would be bad.

To be clear: I don’t think verification fixes the problem. It’s just a easy, positive step forward. It’s a win-win-win — for Twitter, for financial firms, and for consumers.

By: Paul Jonas

Paul Jonas — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 13:39:04 +0000

Jeff,

This is a great idea – Thanks for doing it. The FIs using social media need as much security/verification they can get in this highly unregulated realm.

With verified status, however, the people behind the accounts will have to be that much more careful not to fall victim to phishing. As you said on your 10/15 phishing post:

“If the hackers knew what they had, they wouldn’t have squandered their opportunities pushing $300-a-day, work-at-home schemes…”

What if this happens to a verified account? And what if the hacker realizes what they have?

Just like the FDIC stickers on the windows of all FDIC-insured banks, a verified Twitter account is inherently trusted. A compromised account with a verified sticker could be a very dangerous thing.

By: Trish Voss

Trish Voss — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 12:46:48 +0000

Thank you so much for pushing the issue. This needs to happen.

By: Tom MacIntosh

Tom MacIntosh — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 12:07:02 +0000

Thanks for bringing this to the foreground. Twitter should do this as a matter of good business practice and not need to be coaxed into it. The downside of not doing it is substantial.

By: Karen Licker

Karen Licker — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 02:18:57 +0000

Jeff,

Thanks for being a pioneer for the safety of all financial institutions!

By: Sonya J Mills

Sonya J Mills — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 23:20:15 +0000

Verification of Financial Institutions on Twitter is hugely important! Thanks for initiating this petition!