It's been a while since we first started the conversation. And last year suddenly the dialogue changed complexion.
Instead of saying:
"Really? No it's just another Gen Y fad" or
"Sure, that will work for Coke but not for our (insert financial services brand here) audiences" or
"I don't think we need twitter or facebook. Not really our audience"
...many senior executives started to ask...
"How do we get there?"
And what drove the change? Well there was carrot and stick I suspect - from above, below and outside.
Before I start sounding too much like a Dr Seuss book, let me explain.
Many times recently I have heard (forgive the paraphrasing if you recognise yourself):
1. The Board want to know what we are doing about social media
2. Our staff feel we really should be using social media / using social media more
3. We had this issue that started on twitter/facebook/on a blog/online but we couldn't deal with it properly because we're really not set up to.
And so now we have social media religion. Yes, it's a touch feverish but doubtless that will settle down after the first blush of conversion wears off and social becomes the 'new new new normal'.
We've had the "new normal", post GFC. We've had the "new new normal" of volatility and GFC Mark II threats. Now I'm calling a similar major shift - the new new new normal.
Okay it's kind of hokey jargon but long term, social media will fundamentally change how we communicate as people and organisations far more than a couple of bouts with liquidity issues, bank failures and sovereign debt issues.
Possibly it already has.
If so, most in financial services are playing catch up.
Showing posts with label GFC. Show all posts
Showing posts with label GFC. Show all posts
Friday, February 24, 2012
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Dr David Morgan & Dr Keith Suter - ASFA Conference Day 1
Global Financial Crisis, and the rise of China and India, were the twin themes that dominated the first day of ASFA's annual conference in Melbourne today.
Dr David Morgan, former Westpac CEO provided his perspective on these key issues in the opening plenary, and Dr Keith Suter, social and political commentator and Sunrise regular, closed with them this afternoon.
The common threads? That while the GFC may be over, the aftershocks will be felt for a long time. As we congratulate ourselves on how Australia has escaped the worst of the GFC, a new era is upon us.
BlueChip Communication MD Carden Calder is attending ASFA.
Wednesday, May 06, 2009
What the big 4 banks are up to on Twitter
To twitter or not to twitter?
Westpac, nab, ANZ are there. And recent media coverage on Commonwealth shows it is definitely monitoring the site.
As a Westpac customer, I’d follow them on twitter; alas, it’s not to be. While Westpac is following nab on twitter, its own updates are protected, meaning no one can follow them unless they are approved by Westpac.
However, you have to credit ANZ. They’ve developed something really useful; a budget planner tweet that follows more people than it has following it. Sounds like a bank that is keen to listen as well as it talks!
Not only does anzmoneymanager interact well with it’s mostly Gen Y target market, it also delivers a valuable, free online service. More importantly, for financial services industry sceptics to note, the ANZ twitter presence delivers leads to another site, anzmoneymanager.com, as well as ‘buzz’.
The author and her firm are not currently engaged by any of the brands mentioned.
Westpac, nab, ANZ are there. And recent media coverage on Commonwealth shows it is definitely monitoring the site.
As a Westpac customer, I’d follow them on twitter; alas, it’s not to be. While Westpac is following nab on twitter, its own updates are protected, meaning no one can follow them unless they are approved by Westpac.
However, you have to credit ANZ. They’ve developed something really useful; a budget planner tweet that follows more people than it has following it. Sounds like a bank that is keen to listen as well as it talks!
Not only does anzmoneymanager interact well with it’s mostly Gen Y target market, it also delivers a valuable, free online service. More importantly, for financial services industry sceptics to note, the ANZ twitter presence delivers leads to another site, anzmoneymanager.com, as well as ‘buzz’.
The author and her firm are not currently engaged by any of the brands mentioned.
GFC + social media = new religion
How financial services players are turning to social media
With all the hubbub about twitter in conventional media, financial services execs seem suddenly to have found religion. Or at least, the curiosity to search for their social media spirituality.
Shrinking budgets and greater public scrutiny - thanks to the global financial crisis (GFC) - have helped send many of our financial services clients, and their audiences, online.
As investors open superannuation emails or statements, many feel cold hard fear. The fear is that they’ve lost a large amount of their life’s savings with anxiety over whether their super will recover. In such a time, some institutions stand out as using social media well - to contact, educate, reassure or interact with nervous clients and customers. Success of these efforts will partly be judged in the long-term by how many investors stick with their investment strategy, riding out the cycle.
Within the finance sector, Australian banks, perhaps, have least to lose by taking their PR and marketing online. This could be why they’ve made significant steps to do so, fast followed by others such as fund managers and financial planning firms.
So what’s new in financial services online communication since the GFC hit home?
Interactive newsletters and investor reports, weekly email investment updates, bank blogs, regular fund manager video updates or podcasts, ever-better online media centres and far, far better content. There’s a growing realisation that home-grown content must be as good, or better, than what mass media produce. This is particularly important as online communication deals direct with a real, live and sometimes vocal public.
Beyond monitoring social media, the financial services industry is more active in protecting and managing their reputations online. The GFC has been responsible, in some part, for a more sudden shift online.
With all the hubbub about twitter in conventional media, financial services execs seem suddenly to have found religion. Or at least, the curiosity to search for their social media spirituality.
Shrinking budgets and greater public scrutiny - thanks to the global financial crisis (GFC) - have helped send many of our financial services clients, and their audiences, online.
As investors open superannuation emails or statements, many feel cold hard fear. The fear is that they’ve lost a large amount of their life’s savings with anxiety over whether their super will recover. In such a time, some institutions stand out as using social media well - to contact, educate, reassure or interact with nervous clients and customers. Success of these efforts will partly be judged in the long-term by how many investors stick with their investment strategy, riding out the cycle.
Within the finance sector, Australian banks, perhaps, have least to lose by taking their PR and marketing online. This could be why they’ve made significant steps to do so, fast followed by others such as fund managers and financial planning firms.
So what’s new in financial services online communication since the GFC hit home?
Interactive newsletters and investor reports, weekly email investment updates, bank blogs, regular fund manager video updates or podcasts, ever-better online media centres and far, far better content. There’s a growing realisation that home-grown content must be as good, or better, than what mass media produce. This is particularly important as online communication deals direct with a real, live and sometimes vocal public.
Beyond monitoring social media, the financial services industry is more active in protecting and managing their reputations online. The GFC has been responsible, in some part, for a more sudden shift online.
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