The event had speaker panels and interactive sessions to
facilitate exchanges of information and ideas between a strictly
limited audience of senior European banking executives from over 10 countries.
An encounter of 'the Gigabit' type Jean-Michel Billaut, Founder of the Networking Company, is one of the first people I met at the EFMA event in Paris last week. We shook hands and introduced ourselves just to find out that we had both been following each other's blog for quite sometime!
We ended up sitting next to each other and sharing our views on social media for most of the day.
We even talked about the 'Social Media & Finance' Workshop I
organize in San Francisco on April 29th (on Jean-Michel's birthday! What a coincidence...), and Jean-Michel was able to
give me a few key contacts in the San Francisco Bay. Thanks again
Jean-Michel!
I want to mention that Jean Michel has been promoted « Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur » (the high french distinction) by President Chirac for the promotion of the Internet in France.
Jean-Michel wasn't one of the speakers, but he was invited by one of the connections we have in common, Patrick Desmares, EFMA's Executive Director. Interview with Jean-Michel (Paris, 19-Mar-09)
I am delighted to be part of the excellent line up of speakers
from the following companies: AOL People Networks / Bebo, Cadbury,
Cafédirect PLC, British Heart Foundation, E.ON, FT.com, Guardian.co.uk,
LOCOG, M-Brain, MORE TH>N, Motorola Inc., MySpace, NixonMcInnes,
Randomreality.org, The Spectator, Vodafone Group PLC and
Visible-Banking.com.
Blogger's "Speak Out" Panel I have been invited to participate to the Bloggers' "Speak Out" Panel scheduled at 2:20pm. I will share my experience of blogging with the other speakers: * Paul Murphy, Development Editor at FT.com
* Pete Hoskin, Deputy Web Editor at The Spectator
* Tom Reynolds, Independent Blogger at Randomreality.org
Please find below the topics we will debate. * Why do bloggers blog? Get into the minds of bloggers to understand their motivations * Learn how bloggers like to be approached to positively position your company from the outset and establish successful long-term relationships with online users * Discover how to resonate with the internet-savvy generation to ensure your proactive and reactive blogging strategies positively influence your brand reputation * Plan your approach: question journalists and bloggers to determine how to best engage with both
Earlier this week, Tim Collins informed me of the launch of the latest Wells Fargo blog, The Wells Fargo - Wachovia Blog. The goal of this new blog is to support the recent merger with Wachovia.
You are aware of any other social media initiatives used to support a merger? Please don't hesitate to leave a comment!
Again, the Experiential team at WF came up with an innovative way to leverage social media. It shows that Wells Fargo is still "the most web 2.0" bank in the world. Congrats to Tim, Ed, and the rest of the team.
Wells Fargo, a pioneer in social media Since 2005, the Experiential team have been busy launching many social media initiatives in blogging (5 blogs to date), video sharing (centerstage and someday stories) and virtual worlds.
It shows on this blog, Tim's team definitely know what they are doing. * Blogging policy & guidelines: there is (of course) a moderation process, and if you don't respect the rules don't expect your comment to be published. Fair enough. It also helps WF to deal with spam and abusive comments. * The box to leave a comment, with a picture: genius. It makes it easy to leave your comment even if you don't know anything about blogging. It is also great to put a face on a name, it urges you to get in touch with the contributors. * Employee advocacy: giving so much visibility to your employees is an efficient way to drive employee retention and employee advocacy. Your employees become "rockstars"! In this case, they have the opportunity to participate to a unique
initiative in banking. * External links disclaimer: icon displayed next to every external link to avoid any liability
With Social Media, Executive Sponsorship is critical * John Stumpf himself, John is Wells Fago's CEO, wrote the first blog. Great way to demonstrate the blog is serious and credible. But John didn't respond to any of the comments. If you are looking for best practices for Executive Blogging, I invite you to check RaboPlus Australia's Executive Blog (promoted on their homepage)
* In addition to the official contributors, the following executives responded: Andrea Bierce, Customer Experience and Loyalty Director at Wachovia and Ilieva Ageenko, SVP, Emerging Trends Marketing Director at Wachovia. (I met Llieva at the online_banking_summit_2007 in Charlotte, North Carolina. We were both speakers at the Royal Media Group event) Please note that Ed Terpening, VP Social Media at Wells Fargo responded to a few comments himself.
a few stats (08 January 2009) * 5 official contributors so far: 4 WF, 1 Wachovia (3 women / 2 men) * 2 category so far: "News" and a second category "History" added today * 6 posts so far: 1 from the Group CEO, 3 from WF, 2 from Wachovia * 92 comments so far: an excellent average of just over 15 comments per post (with the latest post added moments ago)
Focus on the most commented post so far - Matt Wadley: "This Blog Is About You" Congrats to Matt for such a popular post which counts over 55 comments. Matt responded to only 4 comment so far. Shame considering that initially they weren't capturing the email addresses...
Please find below a few screenshots illustrating the following points. 1. customer & employee advocacy Giving exposure to your employees and your clients is an excellent way to drive advocacy and retention.
2. negative feedback As long as the comments fit the guidelines, you can't afford not to publish them on your blog. Transparency is critical, and having negative comments makes your effort genuine. 3 negative comments out of almost 100 comments confirms Tim's 3% theory (please watch my video interview)
3. positive feedback Employees, customers, and subject matter experts will be enthuastic, and will respond to any negative or abusive comments themselves.
4. Suggestions Show you listen, and action the best suggestions listed in your comments.
Suggested next steps * WF & Wachovia should market the blog on their websites & intranets * The contributors should aim to respond to most of the comments * WF should demonstrate they listen to people's feedback and: 1. welcome more internal contributors who will adopt a less corporate style (employees who don't work in the marketing, communications or brand teams) 2. create a few podcasts or webcasts (which would fit well to their youtube channel) 3. leverage/promote Wachovia's Twitter feed(today's stats: over 160 updates and over 985 followers) * Capture more info from the commentators, like BoA's Customer Reviews (employee? client? for how long?) * WF should collect the email addresses of the commentators (please note an optional field has just been added)
I believe the success of any Social Media initiative is linked with your ability to engage with your community and urge them to contribute. It is critical to REWARD your members, your fans. Rewarding could mean many things such as producing exclusive content, or giving visibiliy / exposure to your contributors. I intend to do both on the Visible Banking Page.
35.Ben Knieff, Director, Strategic Research and Development at Fidelity National Information Services (USA): Ben has been very active on Linkedin with 28 answers. Ben is a member of the "Payment and Fraud Professionals" Group on Linkedin. I like the term "Fraud professionals". :) I used to be one myself hen I was International Sales Manager for Accuity, a leading Payment and AML solution provider.
36.Jatin Dewan, Requirements Manager atCitibank (USA): Citibank provides one of the most successful online banking services in the US. Jatin went to the National University of Singapore.
Posted items I posted 17 items so far. please find below the latest 3 items: * Wells Fargo Hitches Its Wagon to Social Media * Strands Blog: Strands to power BBVA's Personal Finance tool for its 4.1 million online users * DB Research - Banking, Financial Markets and Regulation
Don't hesitate to leave a comment or post any relevant items.
Reviews There is still no review. Could you please take a few minutes to review my Facebook Page?
My goal is to convince my peers that banks must embrace social media and web 2.0 now.
It gives us a unique opportunity to connect not only with our clients, but the whole market. It gives us the opportunity to show we listen and we care. It will help us drive customer advocacy.
I will publish a video response for every single reason I listed. Please find below my response to the reason around the ROI for social media projects.
No clear ROI
Contribute... and challenge me! What do you think a my video (content, format)? I created the initial post to start a discussion. An interactive online discussion. Please don't hesitate to leave a comment and add a new reason to the list: challenge me! I will post a video response for every single additional reason.
My goal is to convince my peers that banks must embrace social media and web 2.0 now.
It gives us a unique opportunity to connect not only with our clients, but the whole market. It gives us the opportunity to show we listen and we care. It will help us drive customer advocacy.
I will publish a video response for every single reason I listed. Please find below my response to my all time favourite reason "UGC is too risky".
Social Media, UGC... It is too risky!
Contribute... and challenge me! What do you think a my video (content, format)? I created the initial post to start a discussion. An interactive online discussion. Please don't hesitate to leave a comment and add a new reason to the list: challenge me! I will post a video response for every single additional reason.
The Visible Banking Page on Facebook
I
am delighted to see such a promising take off of the number of fans. Twenty days after the soft launch, the page now counts 58 fans.
I believe the success of any Social Media initiative is linked with
your ability to engage with your community and urge them to contribute.
It is critical to REWARD your members, your fans. Rewarding could mean
many things such as producing exclusive content, or giving visibiliy /
exposure to your contributors. I intend to do both on the Visible
Banking Page.
Please find below the names and a short description of my Fans number 21 to 30 (sorted by chronological order): 21. Joris Huijbregts, Senior interaction designer at Info.nl (Netherlands): Joris mentioned on his profile that he is currently "working on a project for a major bank in the Netherlands..." I invite you to check Joris' blog.
22.Aliza Mor, Conference Producer at Marcus Evans (USA): I met Aliza at Online Retail Banking Services 2008 in May in New York. I was invited not only to speak but also to the chairman of the two-day conference. Following the success of the event, Aliza invited me to participate to another event in Miami, but I couldn't make it. I believe Aliza is now working on Marcus Evans' Innovative Payment Strategies event.
In the last 15 months, I had the opportunity to participate to many industry leading conferences in the US and in Europe. I am always delighted to share my vision and my passion for social media with my peers.
Fact is there are still too few bankers who get social media and web 2.0. And there are still too few social media champions and evangelists in the banking industry.
Social media is not a big threat to the banks, it is a Great opportunity to connect with people and show we care. During my presentations, I use the same words over and over again: customer advocacy, transparency, honesty, engagement, Reward.
But is it enough to convince the whole industry? Probably not. I decided to adopt a different approach. I plan to identify all the reasons not to embrace social media. I identified 10 "good" reasons so far, but it is just a start.
I invite you to contribute: please feel free to leave a comment and flag any additional reasons!
Video reponse I plan to shoot a short video for every single "good" reason listed in this post (including the ones you flagged in your comments).
My goal is to challenge all of them, and demonstrate we don't have a choice anymore: social media must be part of your digital media / online marketing strategy.
The Visible Banking Page on Facebook I was touched that after less than 48h, and just a few invitations sent, 12 people became fans of my page. Now, 10 days later, the page already has 39 fans.
I believe the success of any Social Media initiative is linked with
your ability to engage with your community and urge them to contribute.
It is critical to REWARD your members, your fans. Rewarding could mean
many things such as producing exclusive content, or giving visibiliy /
exposure to your contributors. I intend to do both on the Visible
Banking Page.
12.Matthew Aman, ex CTO at Yodlee (US): it looks like Matt is well connected in the Valley. Matt is an ex-colleague of Peter Hazlehurst and he is friend (on Facebook at least) with Aaron Patzer of Mint. Matt worked on Yodlee's next-generation Payments and Aggregation platforms.
Posted items I posted 8 items so far. please find below the latest 3 items: * B2B Spending On Social Networks Could Put Facebook Ahead of LinkedIn * Office of National Statistics: half of UK now banks online | The Industry Standard * Civic Banking: Pioneers in Banking 2.0
Don't hesitate to leave a comment.
Reviews There is still no review. Could you please take a few minutes to review my Facebook Page?
I have always been reluctant to use Facebook for a business purpose. Mainly because I was concerned with the concept of "friends" and the limited privacy options. But I must admit that it is a great tool to keep in touch with people, from close friends to business contacts, and I am sure that at least 90 million of people would agree with me.
And at the end of the day, you decide what you want to share on your profile. Be smart!
Provide some exclusive content & give more exposure to my fans When I decided to create a page for Visible Banking, I had a goal, a purpose: I want to demonstrate what you should do on Facebook. I saw too many companies "on Facebook" or claiming to be on Facebook. Again, like any other social media project, what is your goal? Does it make sens? And if you do it, do it right or at least try your best, connect with people.
Another issue on Facebook is "the brand ownership" or the alteration/dilution of your brand. Anybody can create a page, a product, or a service using your company name. Mark, could you ask one of your colleagues to comment this post and tell us how you plan to address this issue?
I don't want the Visible Banking Page to be a mere copy and paste of Visible-Banking.com..
As far as I am concerned, there is no point creating and maintaining your own page if nobody but you contribute!
My goals: Reward my Fans & Create some Buzz I was touched that after less than 48h, and just a few invitations sent, 12 people became fans of my page. For the soft launch of the page, I contacted a small group of people made of fellow bankers, industry experts and prominent bloggers.
I believe the success of any Social Media initiative is linked with your ability to engage with your community and urge them to contribute. It is critical to REWARD your members, your fans. Rewarding could mean many things such as producing exclusive content, or giving visibiliy / exposure to your contributors. I intend to do both on the Visible Banking Page.
Please find below the names and a short description of my first 10 "Founding Fans" sorted by chronological order: 1.Chris Skinner, Owner at Balatro (UK): Chris is one of the most famous "banking technologists" in the uk. Chris is extremely well connected, respected and disruptive. I invite you to check the Facebook Group he created to market its successful Financial Services Club. Chris is an active blogger on several websites such as finextra and swfitcommunity. I invite you to check my video interview with him.
4.Allese Thomson, Marketing Coordinator at Wesabe (USA): Allese works with Debbie and Gabe in the dynamic Marketing team at Wesabe. Allese has a lot of excellent ideas, and I am confident she will be instrumental in the next (expected) redesign of Wesabe's interface. I am so pleased she started blogging too. Congrats!
5.Morriss Partee, Chief Experience Officer at EverythingCU.com (USA): Morriss contacted me almost a year ago, after watching the video I shot with William Azaroff. Morriss created one of the most active forums for the exchange of ideas in the Credit Union arena.
Posted items I will use this application to flag the most interesting news in the online finance space. This will be exclusive to the Facebook Page. Bloggers, please do not hesitate to add a link to your posts related to the topics I cover on Visible-Banking.com.
Reviews I would really appreciate if you could spend two or three minutes to leave a comment/review about the page. The idea is to explain how useful the Visible Banking Page is for you.
Please note that I am not expecting a Linkedin like type of endorsement. Endorsements are more than welcome though: please visit my Linkedin profile.
Discussion Board Most of the Facebook pages I visited which have a discussion board hardly have any activities from the readers/fans. I don't want to start dozens of discussions if nobody participates. I would rather keep the list of topics short, and see some regular activity. Please express yourself! And if you fee like starting a discussion on the page, please follow up and invite any of your contacts which may want to participate.
Tim (Tim Collins, SVP Experential Marketing at Wells Fargo), what a pleasure to have you as first contributor. It demonstrates again your proactivity, your understanding of Social Media, and it means a lot to me. Thanks.
Notes I plan to use the Notes application to add the rss feed to my blog. I have a question for the Facebook Team: would it be possible to use a rss feed from the Page wall or the Posted items application. For the moment, I believe the Notes application is the only application which offers you to subscribe to its feed... Am I correct?
Events I would like to flag all the most valuable and innovative online finance events worldwide. I won't succeed all by myself, your help will be precious. I am particularly interested in your contributions in the Middle East and the Asia Pacific region.
Please flag any events, register your interest, share your comments, or capture the questions you would like to ask to the speakers or the exhibitors. Moreover, If you know anyone interested to attend, sponsor, participate or cover the events, please direct them to the page!
Videos For a start, I uploaded a sample of my best videos. In the future, I plan to upload some exclusive videos.
Please share any video of innovative online services, any interviews with an entrepreneur or a banker who is a champion for social media. I would like to make a statement witht this page: "You want to find out more about social media in banking, check Visible-Banking.com and the Visible Banking Page on Facebook".
Photos Same idea. I really urge you to add any pictures related to web 2.0, social media in banking, and online finance. Bankers: add a logo / some screenshots of your PFM tool or any of your innovative online services. Entrepreneurs: add a logo of your company.
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