Developing Brand and Community Through Facebook - Eastern Bank

It is always great to see community banks competing with "the big guys" in the world of social media.  One such example is Eastern Bank, headquartered in Boston.  Eastern Bank, originally established as Salem Savings Bank in 1818, is a staple when it comes to community banking in and around the Boston area.

Eastern Bank set up a great Facebook fan page, driven mainly by its Red Sox sponsorship. In early August 2011, Eastern Bank announced its “Grand Slam Sweepstakes.”  In order to enter, participants had to“like” Eastern Bank on Facebook. Eastern Bank has over 7,000 Facebook “likes” - a significant number for most banks.  Eastern Bank has adopted Facebook as a means to develop its brand and engage the community.

Using Video and Social Media to Grow Deposits

According to Marketing Week, HSBC used Facebook to promote its student bank accounts using a video competition.  HSBC decided to use video rather than the email entries. Students wishing to take part had to upload a 90-second video to the Facebook page explaining how the prize money would help them make a mark on the world. Facebook users chose the top 20 videos and the winner was chosen by a panel of judges.

The campaign yielded 149 entries, with 8,940 votes cast. The Facebook page saw 50,000 interactions with people in one month, with more than 2 million impressions. The cost to acquire each student bank account afterwards was six times lower than the previous year.

Officer Social Media Working the Beat

According to Bank Technology News, "when Westpac was recently targeted by web crooks, the Australian bank used another online venue to warn consumers, sending a Tweet warning consumers of the crime. The alert was part of a new trend—using social media to publicly expose online fraud attacks in real time—that Anti-Phishing Workgroup Chairman Dave Jevans says can be an effective way to spread security warnings, if it’s done right."  Westpac tweeted an alert warning of a fake email that claimed to advise customers to download a new security program. The email instead carried a Trojan download. Twitter can warn customers instantaneously, without sending emails that could be construed as a malicious phishing attempt.

Social media has been primarily used by banks as an informational and customer service venue.  Using social media to warn about malware attacks is a new and powerful use, but is also a strategy that requires banks to be aware of how the Twitter, Facebook and other sites can be used by crooks themselves.

NAB's Breakup Campaign

The results of the "break-up" viral campaign by National Australia Bank improved its market share and raised its profile. The "break-up" campaign, which began in February 2011, started with a tweet saying "Sooooo stressed out. Have to make a tough decision and I know I'll probably hurt someone's feelings! Arrggghhh." It then went on to include a standalone micro-site detailing that NAB was "breaking up" with other Australian banks. This campaign also featured heavy use of Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube videos to spread the "you're dumped" message. The campaign resulted in a 50% boost in credit card applications, a 20% increase in mortgage applications, a 35% increase in interest from customers of other banks in moving over to NAB, and a 1% increase in NAB's share of the mortgage business.

Check out the NAB video here.

TD Bank's Success with Radian6

According to Bank Technology News, "The latest incarnation of TD Bank's buildup of a broad social media program for North America—the embedding of Twitter staff within the contact center—is only a few months old, but the bank has already discovered the formula to win an impressive spike in the use of social media to resolve customer queries."

"By embedding its Twitter experts with the contact center, and tying the two staffs' efforts together with a real-time online monitoring and analysis engine, the bank has seen a 25 percent monthly growth in Twitter use for customer service for each of the past three months."


Check out the Bank Technology News article here.

ASB Bank's Customer Service Project on Facebook

A recent post on The Media Online highlighted a campaign by ASB Bank in New Zealand. According to The Media Online, ASB Bank created a virtual banking experience on Facebook, effectively using the social media platform as a conversation platform knowing that this is where their customers spend their time.

Of course, before moving your customer service function over to Facebook, be sure to check out the post on Social Media and Bank Compliance Requirements. 

Social Media and Bank Compliance Requirements

HSBC Launches Social Media Newsroom

HSBC has launched a social media newsroom for journalists, bloggers and online commentators. The site has been designed to be a 'go to' site for all comment and information on the UK Bank's position on key issues and latest announcements.

The HSBC social media newsroom is designed to be a central hub for all bank announcements, staff activity and community events.

The site is divided into two sections to reflect the areas of HSBC Bank Plc: Personal Finance and Business Banking and brings together not only press releases and articles but also video and images hosted on YouTube and Flickr.

Personal Finance: www.hsbc.co.uk/newsroom

Business Banking: http://www.newsroom.business.hsbc.co.uk