Advanta - Finovate09 Interview #7: Ami Kassar, Chief Innovation Officer

As you all know, I was very much looking forward to participate to my third finovate event.
 
And what a day! Kudos to Jim Bruene, Eric Mattson , and the rest of their team for putting together such a smooth event with hardly no technical glitches.

I invite you to check my wrap up on Visible Banking, add yourself to the list of tweeps @ FInovate09 (for those you attended the event), check the pictures and videos I shot at the event (and add yours) on the Visible Banking Facebook Page.

16 Video Interviews
I have been incredibly busy while staying in NYC. Indeed, I managed to shoot 16 video interviews between Monday 28th and Wednesday 30th September.  I will be posting all of them on my blog soon. Stay tuned!
 
If you can't wait to watch them, I invite you to visit my Dailymotion page and the Visible Banking Facebook page.
 
Interview #7 - Advanta: Ami Kassar, Chief Innovation Officer
Advanta manages one of the largest portfolios of credit card receivables in the small business market in the US.
 
Since 2007, they have been one of the most innovative financial institution in social media. They do a great job engaging with US entrepreneurs on facebook, myspace, twitter and their own websites / online communities: ideablob, bloblive, bizequity and kivab4b.
 
It is interesting to notice that Advanta haven't focused on building their own brand presence on the most popular social media sites, they did it mainly through their award winning ideablob service.
 
You can find Ideablob on facebook, myspace, twitter @ideablob, and the ideablog.
 
Ami Kassar, Chief Innovation Officer
I have been in touch with Ami for over two years now. At the end of 2007 I tried to record an interview about Ideablob via skype but the bad quality of our connection made it impossible.

I always talk about Advanta's social media strategy in my presentations. From my opinion it is one of the best examples of how a financial services firm should engage with their target market online, not only their clients. Think outside the box, don't focus on your products, help your target market in providing them with a meaningful and valuable service. That is exactly what Advanta accomplished with ideablob and bloblive.
 
I compare them to Dell which established themselves as social media experts and now share their experience with Small Business Owners on their brilliant Facebook page "Social Media for Small Business – Powered by Dell".

You can find Ami on linkedin and on twitter @advantacio.
   
I invite you to watch my interview with Ami.

Our Sponsor
A big thanks to my sponsor for this US trip, Finroad the online community for Financial Markets professionals.
 
Related articles on Visible-Banking.com
* Coverage - Finovate09
* Coverage - Finovate07 & FinovateStartup08
* Visible Banking Services
* Visible Banking Directory: Social Media in Finance
* Visible Banking Twitter Watch (710 accounts tracked in 38 countries)