April - June 2015 •
The Lion King
• 7
S
ince Instagram, Facebook and Twitter
have become the way people now
live and connect, banks have also
moved online to ensure that their custom-
ers can seamlessly do their banking trans-
actions without getting out of their social
media world. This new trend has been
termed social media banking.
“Social media banking is inevitable,” so
says a report by global accounting firm
Deloitte. The report emphasizes that banks
that want to stay competitive and differ-
entiate themselves must begin to build a
social media banking business.
And many banks are already building their
businesses on social media or using social
media to enhance their traditional banking
services. Some of the areas that banks are
using social media to drive their business
include managing customer relationships,
conducting market research, expanding
customer base and retention, marketing
the bank’s products, public relations, sales
and recruiting.
Pan-African financial services group, United
Bank for Africa (UBA) Plc is one of the banks
driving social media banking on the African
continent. U-Social, which comes as online
based Application on facebook, is easy to
download and immediately synch’s with
the user’s Facebook account. U-Social
users are able to pay for bills, buy airtime,
confirm cheques, cancel or initiate new
transactions all from their Facebook page.
UBA is also the only pan-African bank to
have a twitter notification transaction alert
for its customers. This enables the bank’s
customers to receive transaction notifica-
tions as direct messages on their twitter
handle. The application can be down-
loaded from the bank’s website.
US based American Express, also has cre-
ated
, a site that
helps business owners connect with each
other and offers useful advice and tips on
running a business. The idea behind the
website is to portray American Express as a
reliable partner for small businesses.
Fidor Bank in Germany is another bank
using social media to creatively inter-
act with its customers, according to the
Deloitte Report. The bank uses its social
media interaction to get feedback from
customers, when creating new products
and even when making pricing decisions
on products. The bank also builds its online
community by offering higher interest pay-
ments on specific accounts to customers
that have “Liked” its Facebook page.
National Australia Bank (NAB), on the other
hand, is using its social media channels to
deepen its customer service relationships.
The bank offers customer service agents
on Facebook, Google+ and Twitter. It
engages its audience by accepting cus-
tomer feedback and suggestions on its
social media channels and it also draws
customer involvement by offering eco-
nomic updates and informative articles on
Linkedln and videos on Youtube.
Gamification is the strategy adopted by
Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentina (BBVA).
The bank offers its customers points, sta-
tus, and badges for performing specific
transactions on its website. Some of the
actions that customers get points for on the
bank’s website include: performing fund
transfers, watching videos that promote
financial literacy, inviting friends to join the
bank and much more. This strategy helps in
driving customer acquisition and building
customer loyalty.
Building a social media marketing strategy
by banks must be holistic, says Accenture.
“It must connect to the firm’s digital strat-
egy holistically, including mobile apps,
website, and email, as well as its customer
service channel, to begin to achieve the
scale and impact desired.”
Accenture also warns that, “A lack of inte-
gration of social channels with established
customer interaction channels can result
in conflicting messages being sent to con-
sumers and a bumpy, frustrating customer
experience.”
Banking on
social media
By Anthony Osae-Brown
History shows that
banks always go where
their customers go. This
is proving true in the
digital age as banks
follow their customers
online in a world that
is increasingly getting
digital.
Banking on Social Media |
Cover Story
