Visible Banking: Smart Marketing

Earlier today, I enjoyed finding the following twitter updates, new wall post and new note by Anderson Uvie-Emegbo, Head of Web Management & E-Media, on the UBA Group Facebook page.

"As a listening and learning organisation, UBA's official twitter and facebook pages are focused on ensuring that we proactively engage you - your complaints, enquiries, feedback, etc. The results have been amazing!"

I love this approach from UBA in Nigeria. It is great to see such a positive, smart and transparent approach to social media from an African bank. Well done UBA! And no I am not biased, even though I was born in Africa! ;)

So, what are you using Social Media for?
To all my readers, please send me the links to any similar announcements from Financial Institutions all over the world.

Nowadays, it is critical to monitor online discussions on your products, your brand, your competitors and your industry. Brands must show they listen, acknowledge that people's expectations have changed, and demonstrate that they care.

It is also important to identify your detractors and your advocates, and start asap to build trusted relationships with the most influential ones. I invite you to watch my interview with Jim Issokson, VP Reputation Management at MasterCard Worldwide shot in NYC two weeks ago the day before Finovate 2009.

About UBA
UBA Plc is one of Africa’s leading financial institutions offering universal banking to more than 7 million customers in Africa, New York, Paris & London. (source: UBA's official twitter account)

UBA & Social Media
Please find below most of UBA's initiatives in social media:
* Twitter: @UBAGroup, @UBADIRECT, @UBAGroupCareers, @UBAGroupAlerts, @UBAGroupEvents, @UBAGroupIR
Even though I like the fact that UBA obviously sees twitter as a valuable channel to engage with their customers, I would not advise to create so many accounts on twitter. It takes a lot of effort to send relevant updates on regular basis, and build a sizable follower base. Ask 1st Mariner Bank to share their experience of maintaining 3 twitter accounts for instance...
* Facebook: UBA Group, UBA Gunners Galore
* YouTube: UBA Group Videos

Social Media & Financial Institutions in Africa
UBA is not the only financial institution in Africa which is doing a good job embracing social media: I always use First National Bank's FNB Premier Banking page when I share my best practices on Facebook: not only they produce interesting and fresh content, but most of the time they respond to their fans, and their CEO, Robert Keip, even spent some time shooting a video to welcome Facebook's users. Refreshing and brilliant.

I could also talk about other South African banks such as Standard Bank (twitter accounts & blogs), FNB (RbJAcobs' twitter account and facebook page), or ABSA's facebook page...

It is interesting to notice that detractors in South Africa are smartly leveraging social media too.
I invite you to check the Standard Blank initiative initiated by a few angry customers earlier this year.

Their more and more popular twitter accounts and online community on Ning helped them gain some good exposure online.

Social Media Watch
Please note that I am tracking over 1,000 social media initiatives on my Visible Banking Social Media Watch Series:
* VB Twitter Watch (732 accounts, 38 countries)
* VB Facebook Watch (243 pages/groups/apps, 37 countries)
* VB Blog Watch (135 blogs, 17 countries)
* VB YouTube Watch (167 channels, 23 countries)

I invite you to check my social media directory which is the most comprehensive list in the finance industry. And please don't hesitate to flag any missing initiatives!

Related articles on Visible-Banking.com
* Coverage - Finovate09
* Visible Banking Services
* Visible Banking Twitter Watch
* Visible Banking Directory: Social Media in Finance

I am starting a new series of short posts entitled "Social Media in Banking - Smart Marketing".

My goal is to understand how financial institutions market their social media initiatives, and identify the best practices. Let's find out if the most experimental financial institutions in social media really do a great job marketing their initiatives on their own website!

In my posts, I will focus on the public website of the banks and financial institutions active in social media: I will check the amount of exposure on the homepage or the category pages, the format of the marketing message (text or banner) and the landing pages.

It is challenging enough to convince your senior management of the value of social media and find a budget to start leveraging this increasingly popular new media channel, so don't make the most common mistake which is to spend too much money on advertising, too soon.
As a matter of fact, you shouldn't have to spend any money at all to promote your social media initiatives if you managed to connect with your members. Remember, PEOPLE First! Let your members, the prominent bloggers, the journalists, your clients, and (don't forget them!) your employees spread the word.

Start promoting your social media initiatives on your intranet, on your online banking, and on your public website. Your goal must be to quickly reach a critical mass of members to give a reason to your online community to visit your site, (ideally) contribute on regular basis, and promote your initiative.

Banks in Scandinavia: Jyske Bank, Nykredit and SEB
Today, I will focus on three Scandinavia banks sorted by alphabetical order: Jyske Bank, Nykredit and SEB.

Jyske Bank: video & online TV
At the top of Jyske Bank's main homepage (Danish and English), you will find the four latest videos from jyskebank.tv.

The frequency of posting is impressive, the bank clearly believes in online video and they allocated a sizable budget to produce quality clips with their leading experts. Jyske Bank wants to compete directly against the news channels and media broadcasters in Denmark.

Nykredit: blogging, innovation, videocasts & webdesk
I met Thomas Kragh, Nykredit's Head of Internet at the EFMA's Online Financial Services 2008 in Athens last November. I invite you to check my video interview with Thomas and his colleague Lene.
In the last couple of years, Nykredit has launched quite a few social media initiatives such as the award winning webdesk, a few blogs, an idea generation platform and a series of videopodcasts.

On Nykredit's homepage, you can find a banner which launches the webdesk client and a text link which directs to their blogs.

SEB: social networking with theBenche.com
On SEB's Corporate and Institutions category page, you can find a sizable banner which points to the Benche, the online community for Trade Finance professionals launched by SEB last year.

I invite you to check the video interview of Lars Milleberg, Global Head of Trade Finance at SEB Merchant Banking, who launched theBenche.

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