Social media study 2012: Banks lagging behind
Swiss banks are significantly less effective at communicating via social media than their international competitors. Citibank tops the list, followed by Société Générale and ABN AMRO. Credit Suisse, the leading Swiss bank, ranks a mere 22nd.
Assetinum.com conducted a study of communication on Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, Linkedin and social media integration in the websites of the 50 leading banks in wealth management and private banking, using numerous evaluation criteria. The result: Citibank leads the rankings ahead of Société Générale, ABN AMRO, Barclays, Wells Fargo, Standard Chartered, Deutsche Bank and Vanguard, all scoring at least 70 points. The social media strategies of the leading banks do not only focus on financial topics - sponsoring campaigns in the areas of sports, art, science, culture, development aid or sustainability also attract attention on Facebook & Co. The top-ranked banks are convincing not least because of the interaction with users on their social media channels. The best Swiss bank is Credit Suisse in 22nd place.
Lay social media strategies
On average, however, the social media competence of the banks is poor: 27 banks do not even achieve half of the possible score. In the "Facebook" category, there are 27 banks, in the "Website, Mobile & Co" category 25, in the "Twitter" category also 25, in the "Youtube" category 29 and in the "LinkedIn" category 21 banks that do not achieve half of the maximum score. "A surprisingly large number of banks still lack a convincing social media strategy," said Benjamin Manz, managing director of Assetinum.com. Although the desire of bank customers for more transparency and information content is increasing markedly worldwide - not least thanks to digital media.
Using social media to combat "shitstorms
A paradigm shift is underway in the area of social media, which is also permanently changing the media behavior of wealthy bank customers. Digital media are not only used to search for information, but increasingly also to build and maintain reputation and to
Customer acquisition. Reputation-threatening "shitstorms" can best be prevented if a bank itself has a prominent presence in the important social media channels and can thus respond to the accusations made in good time. It is therefore increasingly important, especially for renowned banks with a demanding clientele, to have a presence on the social network. "Banks need to hurry while they can still jump on the bandwagon. Because building an active Internet community takes time," says Benjamin Manz.
Banks on Facebook in hibernation
Facebook has become the central social interaction platform. It is therefore all the more surprising that over a third of the banks surveyed still do not have an active Facebook profile. Surprisingly, this also includes Goldman Sachs, which is itself invested in Facebook. The best performers were Royal Bank of Canada, ABN AMRO, Nordea and Standard Chartered, which actively involve their users in their communications and let them participate in online events. On average, however, the banks achieved just one-third of the possible score - a sobering result. Also, only 18 banks, or around half of the banks with an active Facebook profile, responded to an Assetinum test query via Facebook - a clear sign of the lack of interaction with users.
Twitter and YouTube channels: Just a token exercise for many banks
The banks surveyed are not much more adept at communicating with the social news service Twitter either: Although 42 out of 50 banks have a Twitter account, only 26 or about half of the banks actively respond to users' tweets. Only 13 out of 50 banks consider wealth management topics. Also, only just under half of the banks have an up-to-date YouTube channel, of which again only 15 banks pay particular attention to wealth management topics. At least all banks - with the exception of Bank J. Safra, which comes in last - have a Linkedin profile, which is primarily intended to serve the human resources departments. However, a closer look at the LinkedIn profiles shows that only 14 banks present additional content and just 8 institutions maintain a LinkedIn user.
Poor online and mobile integration of social media
The deficits are also evident on the banks' own websites: Almost half of the banks do not sufficiently integrate social media into their websites. Only 19 banks have their own blog, and only 6 banks allow users to interact with the bank via the website in the form of an interactive blog or chat. Only 33 banks have a subsite on wealth management or private banking topics. Only 22 or less than half of the banks have a website optimized for smartphones, and 14 banks have no mobile app.
