Happy Birthday to Aaron Patzer, Founder & CEO at Mint.com!

Share|

Happy Birthday Aaron!
I love this picture of you Aaron. Thanks again for flagging it on your facebook page yesterday: "Don't quite know how the media found this picture of me for my Business Network interview..."
Perfect timing for my birthday post. ;)
 
Not only Aaron looks strong (cf the picture) and wears green most of the time, cnn labeled him a hero last year, he is a great guy to hang around with. I had the pleasure to meet with Aaron several times in the US and I look forward to catching up with him in London soon.
 
Aaron is a great inventor and also an outstanding entrepreneur a bit like his own hero Thomas Edison. He did an amazing job building in just a couple of years one of the most exciting, valuable, and successful services in the Online Finance world, Mint.com, recently acquired by Intuit for about $170 million.
 
Aaron's vision for Mint: turn the savings rate for people under 40 from negative to positive taking the pain out of budgeting. Budgeting made easy. Simple yet brilliant and so needed.

You can find Aaron on linkedin, on twitter, and obviously on google.
 
Media Coverage
I invite you to read four of the most recent interviews with Aaron:
1. Mint Founder Aaron Patzer: How Gen Yers Can Sell Big Ideas
2. How This Kid Made $170 Million in Two Years
Aaron shares his advice on how to build a successful business.
* Step 1: Create a product that makes a difficult, tedious task easy and fun
* Step 2: Choose a market that's really, really big.
* Step 3: Develop a business model that actually allows you to, well, make money.
* Step 4: Don't pay to acquire customers. Ever.
* Step 5: Be a compete stickler about who you hire.
3. Mint’s Aaron Patzer: “We Will End-Of-Life Quicken Online” In 6 to 9 Months
4. Making Mint.com: Aaron Patzer on the one-click future of personal finance
 
Interview @ Finovate 2009 in NYC
I invite you to check my post about Aaron's demo at Finovate 2009.

Interview @ FinovateStartup 2008 in San Francisco
I invite you to check my post about Aaron's demo at FinovateStartup08.
 

Interview @ Finovate 2007 in NYC
I invite you to check my post about Aaron's demo at Finovate 2007.

Techcrunch Interview


Mint.com: The Leader in Online Personal Finance Management
In just two years, Mint built an active user base of over 1,5 million people.




 
 
Mint's Traffic
Please find below the latest stats from compete.com.



 
 
Mint's Blog - 'Mint Life'
This is another best practice in blogging this time. Aaron cleverly turned the Mint blog into an online magazine, one of the most valuable destinations for money tips online. It is now a profit center with many advertising deals in place.



The Mint.com Page on Facebook
Mint has already over 38,000 passionate fans on its Facebook page. There is a lot of activity on the page.



Mint on Twitter
@Mint has over 21,000 followers on twitter.





Mint's Money Tweets on Twitter
Mint recently launched Money Tweet to keep track of valuable tweets for the Mint community.



Mint TV
There are currently 17 videos available on the Mint YouTube channel.




Most Viewed Video on the Mint Channel with 293k views, 830+ five-star ratings and 840+ comments: One Trillion Dollars Visualized from www.mint.com

 
Related articles on Visible-Banking.com
* Coverage - Finovate09
* Coverage - Finovate07 & FinovateStartup08
* Visible Banking Directory: Social Media in Financial Services
* Visible Banking Social Media Watch Series (Twitter, Facebook, Blogs, YouTube)

Visible Banking Interviews 2.0
I invite you to check the list of my video interviews with some of the most inspiring entrepreneurs in online finance and the social media champions in the finance industry.

AllState Runs a Virtual Career Fair Today + Financial Institutions Leverage Virtual Worlds & Online Games to Innovate in Recruitment

Share|

The virtual worlds are dead... Long live the virtual worlds!

Even though I have always doubted the value of opening a virtual branch on Second Life (except if you are the first bank to do so), I believe financial institutions could leverage the virtual worlds to:
1. drive more collaboration internally: increase productivity and cut travel costs
2. provide financial education in an entertaining way: US Wells Fargo was the first large financial institution to launch an island on Second Life back in 2005, Spain Bankinter opened a branch in whyville in 2007
3. recruit talented people online: France BNP Paribas is a leader in innovation & recruitment. They ran a v-recruitment campaign on Second Life in 2007 and they currently providing online games such as Ace Manager or Starbank.
 
Even in the current context, especially in the current context, it is critical for financial institutions to be seen as innovative to attract the best talent out there. But HR Teams are challenged to achieve their ambitious targets with smaller budget. It is time to be smarter, and embrace social media to initiate conversations, increase your reach, change brand perception, and eventually convince your future leaders to join your organization.

And remember that your employees are your best advocates: give them a voice and turn them into 'rockstars'!
  
Today AllState is running a Virtual Career Fair where their employees will interact with the virtual audience and share information regarding Allstate employment and business opportunities.

There are three main sections to the site: the virtual fair itself, the auditorium with on-demand resources on recruitment, and the Networking Lounge.
 
For more info, I invite you to watch the demo.
 
 
















 
















 
























   
Related articles on Visible-Banking.com
* Visible Banking Directory: Social Media in Financial Services
* Visible Banking Social Media Watch Series (Twitter, Facebook, Blogs, YouTube)

EverythingCU - Finovate09 Interview #9: Morriss Partee, Chief Experience Officer

Share|

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 #9 - Everything CU: Morriss Partee, Chief Experience Officer
EverythingCU.com is the premiere online resource for credit union marketing professionals. In the last ten years, it has become the central hub connecting thousands of credit union executives across the country. 

They recently introduced a new service, PlumWall, which is a new way to display and share member testimonials and stories, as well as displaying local and national general news stories and features about credit unions.  
 
I invite you to check the Everything CU World 2.0 Adventure blog.
 
Morriss Partee, Founder & Chief Experience Officer
Morriss is a great guy: he is passionate, very knowledgeable, and a lot of fun to be around with. Morriss is extremely well connected in the Credit Union world, and he is regularly asked to deliver presentations and workshops to Senior Executives throughout the US..  
   
You can find Morriss on linkedin, facebook and twitter @mmpartee.
 
Morriss and I were sitting together during Finovate and at the end of the day we had a lovely dinner with Charis Palmer and Nichelle Stephens.

I shot my interview with Morriss at the Restaurant which was quite dark. But again I am confident you will find the content very insightful. We talked about social media initiatives from Credit Unions, their focus on members - transparency - advocacy, the social media champions from the industry, the most engaged Senior Executives.
 
I invite you to watch my interview with Morriss.

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 Financial Services
* Visible Banking Social Media Watch Series (Twitter, Facebook, Blogs, YouTube)

Financial Institutions Must Support Their Customers on Twitter (Slides + Links)

REDIRECTING TO VISIBLEBANKING.COM

Share|

Please find below the presentation I will give today at SOMESSO Zurich 09 with all the relevant links.

Slide 2: Finovate 2009
* Finovate 2009 - Visible Banking Wrap Up: Blog Coverage (#8) + Video Interviews (#16) + Tweeps (#35) + Pics (#120)

Slide 3: Visible Banking 100% Social Media
* Visible-Banking.com
* Visible Banking on Twitter
* Visible Banking Page on Facebook

Slide 4: Visible-Banking.com: Exclusive Content
* VB Interviews
* VB Directory: Social Media Initiatives in Financial Services
* VB Social Media Watch Series: Twitter, Facebook, Blogs, YouTube

Slide 7: Still doubting the Power of Social Media?
* The Facebook Group: HSBC Stop the Great HSBC Graduate Ripp-Off!!!
* YouTube Video: Debtors Revolt Begins Now!
* Video - UGC: YouTube Videos from Bank Detractors & Advocates

Slide 8: A Phased Approach to Social Media
* Video - The Four Kinds of Social Media Projects

Slide 12: Wells Fargo 2.0
* Video Interview: Tim Collins, SVP Experiental Marketing
* Video Interview: Jim Smith, EVP - Head of Internet Services
* Wells Fargo 2.0
* Wells Fargo Blogs

Slide 13: Advanta, Ambassador for the SME Sector
* Video Interview: Ami Kassar, Chief Innovation Officer
* Ideablob.com, BlobLive.com, EquityBiz.com

Slide 14: Severus CU's "Young & Free in Alberta"
* YoungFreeAlberta.com
* Slidehsare - Tim McAlpine's "Young & Free: Building Relationships Through Social Media"

Slide 16: Twitter in Numbers
* Visible Banking on Twitter: Follow @Visible_Banking
* Giga Tweet, compete.com

Slide 19: Visible Banking Twitter Watch
* Visible Banking Twitter Watch on Visible Banking (#13 updates so far)
* Visible Banking Twitter Watch on Twitter (#VBTW)
* Visible Banking Social Media Watch Series

Slide 20: FIs & Customer Services on Twitter
* @BofA_help, 1st Mariner Bank's @FMBCustServ, @ANZ_Responds, @Ask_TDBank, @Ask_WellsFargo, @AskAmex, @AskPayPal, Blue Cross Blue Shield -  @BCBSOK - @BCBSTX  - @BCBSIL - @BCBSNM, @Westpac_help
* More on the VB Social Media Directory

Slide 21: Start Now... Leverage Later
* WellsFargo, Ask_WellsFargo

Slide 22: Follow Tweeple to DM Them & Listen
* AskAmex, Ask_TDBank

Slide 23: Smart Marketing & Social Media
* Wachovia - Contact Us

Slide 24: Deal w/ Hacking & Don't Be the Spammer!
* Financial Institutions + Spam + Twitter #1: You've been hacked... So what? Deal With it!
* Financial Institutions + Spam + Twitter #2: Don't Be The Spammer!

Slide 25: @Ask_WellsFargo - Best Practice
* @Ask_WellsFargo
 
Slide 26: @UBank - Customer & Employee Advocacy
* @UBank
*  Breaking News (Video) - Social Media - UBank Launches their Time Capsule to Celebrate their Anniversary and Asks People to Upload Content
* Visible Banking Twitter Watch: UBank (backed by NAB) Rewards its Followers by Giving them a free 1gb USB Flash
 
Slide 27: Twitter & ROI - Success Story 1
* news.com.au

Slide 28: Twitter & ROI - Success Story 2
* denuology.com

Slide 29: Twiter & ROI - Success Story 3
* technosailor.com

Slide 30: Innovation: Banking on Twitter
* vcu.com
 
Visible Banking Social Media Watch Series: Tracking over 1,300 initiatives in 40+ countries
To find out more about social media in finance, I invite you to follow me on twitter, and check my four social media watch series:
* Visible Banking Twitter Watch - 800+ accounts / 40+ countries
* Visible Banking Facebook Watch - 250+ pages / 35+ countries
* Visible Banking Blog Watch - 135+ blogs / 15+ countries
* Visible Banking YouTube Watch - 165+ channels / 20+ countries
   
Visible Banking Quick Wins
Most of the time, you can identify a lot of areas for improvement, easy to fix, which would make your social media initiatives more successful:
* simplify and optimize your interface
* identify passionate contributors among your employees
* produce a stronger editorial line and more valuable content
* identify your influencers (advocates and detractors) and start building relationships with them asap
* promote your initatives on your own assets (public website, online banking...)
* fully leverage all the key social media sites to cross-market your initiatives and your content
 
And above all, find the best way to REWARD people for visiting, contributing, sharing, and promoting your initiatives!
 
I would be delighted to have a chat with you about your social media strategy, so please do not hesitate to call me on +44 7736 446 357 or send me an email to christophe[dot]langlois[at]visible-banking[dot]com.
 
Visible Banking Interviews 2.0
I invite you to check the list of my video interviews with some of the most inspiring entrepreneurs in online finance and the social media champions in the finance industry.

Fidor AG Aims to Bring Fun to Brokerage with their New Service iBrokr.com (Currently in Private Beta)

I met Matthias Kroener, Founder at Fidor Bank AG, for the first time in Paris at the EFMA event on Social Media earlier this year. I invite you to check my post on Ficoba and my wrap up of the event.
 
Referring to my wrap up of Finovate 2009, Matthias told me he wanted to prove bankers wrong and demonstrate Financial Services companies could be fun and have real fans such as Apple or Amazon. Bring it on Matthias, the industry needs new and fresh approaches to banking such as Ficoba, Mint, UBank or SmartyPig!
 
I look forward to catching up with him next month in Zurich at SOMESSO, "Corporate Social Media in the Finance Sector", where we are both speaking.

I recommended Matthias who I believe will be a perfect fit with his vision and his presentation skills.

Interview with Matthias (March 2009)

About iBrokr.com
Last week Matthias contacted me to make me aware of their new service, iBrokr.com. Please find below more info Matthias sent me over earlier today:

"As mentioned in my email from last week, this is a platform, that:
- combines the behavioural patterns of stock trading with "thrill" and "fun"
- enables users to participate at the stock exchanges with a minimum investment of 1 euro… (that is real micro banking)
- allows you to "just do it with toy money" on www.brokr.de
- minimum transaction fees
- no admin hurdle, easy registration
- internationaly scalelable
- no back office admin (therefor, this is not to replace a traditional broker)
- high educational standard (e. g. limited investments for untrained users etc.)
- sometimes high risk, but also high return
- no investment-banking-black box in the products and applications, therefor very transparent.

A combination of FUN and BROKERAGE."

Small Private Beta Test
They started their Private Beta and invited just 30 people to contribute. I just had a quick call with Matthias who told me that I was the only blogger to be invited to share his feedback at that stage. Das ist Wunderbar! 

I can't tell you much more info at that stage, but the service is currently divided into three main sections: 1x2 Financials, Best Performer, and Easytrader.

Please find below some of the first screenshots (please note that the interface may still changed following the comments gathered during the Private Beta Test)
 
Stay tuned on Visible Banking for an update later this year!

Please note that later today Matthias will give a presentation at the exclusive Techcrunch Munich event. The title: “With traditional banking dying, and community banking up, what does this mean for the startup economy”. Congrats Matthias!
 
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)

Bienvenido a HipoListo.es la versión española de Smarthippo.com!

Share|

Last week has been an important week for SmartHippo.com the first-ever website that uses the power of community to help consumers find the best mortgage rates and save money launched its beta version back in September 2007.
Not only they introduced their new CEO Lori Collins, who was one of SH's founding Advisory Board members as well as the former GM at LendingTree, but they also announced the launch of HipoListo.es, their new Joint-Venture with Financialred in Spain.
 
I first heard about SmartHippo in early 2008 on Jim Bruene's excellent Netbanker blog. I met George Favvas, Founder and now VP Corporate Strategy, at FinovateStartup 2008 in San Francisco.

I invite you to watch my interview with George (shot in April 2008).

You can find George on Linkedin, on twitter @georgefavvas, and on his on blog, "The G Spot". :)
 
HipoListo.es
I invite you to read the official press release. At the moment, the HipoListo homepage is a carbon copy of SmartHippo's but in Spanish.
 







 
Please find below a quote from Jesus Perez Sanchez, CEO at Financialred.com.
 
"The web finance space is in its infancy in Spain and we believe we have an opportunity to rapidly establish HipoListo as the dominant player in a market of 50 million consumers" said Jesus Perez, Chief Strategy Officer of FinancialRed. "By leveraging the SmartHippo platform we were able to significantly reduce our time to market."

You can find Jesus on linkedin and on the finanzas20.com blog.

The Hippo & Social Media
* SmartHippo (North America): twitter, facebook, blog
* HipoListo (Spain): twitter, facebook

I believe the HipoListo Team hans't started blogging yet. It is interesting to see two different approaches to Social Media and Advocacy which in Spain reflects the local market adoption of twitter: SmartHippo is focused on twitter, whereas HipoListo is focused on Facebook.
 
It is a Small Small World
I love the Social Media / Online Inovation space in the Financial Services industry. It is such a small world. I met George through Jim, I first got in touch with Jesus when he was working at BBVA and I was Senior Innovation Manager at Lloyds TSB, and while I was in NYC three weeks ago to cover Finovate 2009, I met with one of Jesus' colleagues, José Ruiz Cristina - Chief Strategy Officer at Financialred and Avi Karnani the Co-Founder of Thrive and now VP Strategic Innovation at LendingTree, Lori's former employer.
I LOVE my job!
 
SmartHippo is not the only innovative startup in online finance which recently launched outside the US: in the last 12 months Wesabe partnered with the Telegraph in the UK and SmartyPig partnered with ANZ in Australia.
 
I invite you to watch my recent interview with the SmartyPig Team (the 1st ever video interview with Bob Weinschenk their new CEO), and last year's interview with Marc Hedlund, Wesabe's CEO.

 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)

Financial Institutions, Why Are You Using Social Media? United Bank for Africa Tells Us Why They Listen

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

7 Reasons You MUST Check the Newly Redesigned OPEN Forum, the Online Community for SMEs Powered by American Express

I have already sent a few updates on twitter about the newly redesigned OPEN Forum community (check the email sent to their members on the left handside), but it is such a good redesign that it is worth dedicating a few minutes this afternoon to write a proper post on Visible Banking.

Social Media is all about people. Don't reinvent the wheel and don't spend too much money on the interface! Unfortunately this proved to be too costly to Join2Grow.biz, the innovative online community for european entrepreneurs launched back in February 2007 by Fortis Bank in Belgium, which shut down just two years later.
 
Success lies in your ability to convince people of the value of your platform and to give them a good reason to use it. It needs to be intuitive and simple to register and use.

Then you must find the most appealing ways to REWARD your members for visiting, contributing and promoting your platform.

One of your initial key hurdles will be to drive adoption of your platform and reach a critical mass of users.
 
 
Let me reassure you: your interface won't be perfect at launch and that is not a big issue.

You will observe how your founding members are using your platform, then you will ask them to share their comments and suggestions. You will take those ideas into account, review them, categorize and rank them, and you will deliver the ones which will have the biggest immediate impact. Simple, isn't it?

Context: Online Communities in the Finance Industry
Since 2007, most of the online communities launched in the Finance industry (banking, financial services and insurance) happen to target the Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) market which does make sense. Indeed, entrepreneurs are seeking new ways to increase their recognition from their industry and give more exposure to their business. If executed well, an online community is the best place to network, find useful information, share with your peers, and trade.

But very few communities have managed to sustain a decent growth and generate a good amount of activity: I would like to mention two of the most successful communities: Ideablob w/ bloblive by Advanta (congrats to Ami Kassar and his innovation team) and the award-winning smallbusiness online community by Bank of America.
 
OPEN Forum 2.0 or How to Reward your Customers
But let me get back to the OPEN Forum. It is rare to find an online community with a simple and sleek interface, and with the right level of features. It shows me that American Express worked with subject matter experts who really get social media.
At Visible Banking we too are totally focus on helping our clients leverage social media to drive client and employee engagement. Social Media is all about people, not technology.
 
You MUST check the OPEN Forum for the following reasons:
1. Sleek Interface - It is clear and simple. You are not overwhelmed by too many features or options
2. Twitter integration - I invite you to follow OPENForum on twitter. It is quite rare to find a major social media initiative from a financial institution with an embeded live twitter feed. Bloblive (used to?) and UBank's thank you page also include live twitter feeds.
3. Focus on Ideas - Now, there is a clear emphasis on crowdsourcing which I believe brings more clarity to the American Express initiative
4. The connectodex - This feature is useful and straight to the point: find the right contact and trade
5. Content - They partnered with recognized social media experts such as Guy Kawasaki @ alltop or Pete Cashmore @ mashable who are likely to spread the word and reach out to their sizable audience of influential people
To reach your crical mass of users and attracts potential new customers, you must make your online community as open as possible and at the same time you need to find ways to give extra value to your clients. I believe it is the first time I see a community achieving that. Bravo!
6. Reward your clients - Easy Login - Amex made it easier for their clients to register using their existing americanexpress.com ID & password (it sounds obvious, but it is genius)
7. Reward your clients - Full Features - Even though the community is open to any business owners, only their clients get full access to its content and services

I am not a huge fan of communities hosted (or worse 'embedded') on corporate websites which could be perceived as too salesy, but it works well for American Express. The community even has its own URL http://openforum.com.

According to compete.com, it looks like OPEN Forum generates more traffic than some of the very best online communities in finance.
 
Well done Amex. You deserve your spot as 48th most engaging global brand in Charlene Li latest study. It looks like butterflies are leading the way in Financial Services!
 
 

Online Communities Reviewed on Visible Banking
Please find below some of my reviews of the most innovative online communities in Finance: BoA - Smallbusiness Online Community, Fortis - Join2Grow.biz, SEB - the Benche, Vancity - changeeverything

Over 20 Online Communities Listed in the VB Social Media Directory
You will find below a list of 20+ online communities in 10 countries (the idea generation platforms are not listed there).
I invite you to check my social media directory to get the links and flag any missing initiatives.

* US: Advanta - Ideablob, AllState - Good Hands Community, American Express - Open Forum Members, Bank of America - smallbusiness online community, Capital One - Slingshot, Embrace Pet Insurance - Community, NYSE - NYSE Connect, Scottrade - Online Community
* the Netherlands: ABN Amro - flametree, Rabobank - Starterscommunity Ultrecht
* Canada: Scotia Bank - MyVault, Vancity - ChangeEverything.ca
* Australia & New Zealand: ANZ - The SB Hub
* Spain: BBVA - Tu Cuentas (in Spanish), BBVA - Actibva
* France: Caisse d'Epargne - Benefices futures (in French)
* UK: HSBC - The HSBC Business Network, firstdirect - Little Black Book
* Asia: Citi - Clear after hours
* Belgium: Fortis - Join2Grow (offline), Fortis - mine.be,
* Sweden: SEB - The Benche

Related Articles on Visible-Banking.com
* Visible Banking Twitter Watch
* Directory 2.0: Social Media in Banking

23 Ways to Reach The Youths Banking on Social Media

I look forward to contributing to a high-profile roundtable discussion on 'banking for the youths' organized and hosted by Google in Paris later today.
 
Patrick Kervern, Industry Leader Finance, and Anissa Talbi, Senior Industry Manager Finance, invited me to share my passion for social media and discuss the key initiatives from North America and Europe focusing on the youths.
 
Context
The junior group (teenagers and young adults up to the age of 30) represents a very interesting market for banks and insurers. They tend to be a disloyal, fickle but informed sector.
Key challenges:    
* Attracting juniors: Banks must capture youngsters at an early stage rather than later. This is a difficult group to attract and retain, so banks may need to adopt an aggressive pricing policy and offer exciting auxiliary products and services.
* Keeping juniors: Once banks have attracted juniors, they must try and keep them and make them customers for life (if possible). Young people easily change loyalties, so banks need good offers and must innovate continuously to keep their interest. It’s important to use the right language as the attitudes and nuances of this market constantly change.
Source: "Financial Services for Youths", EFMA.com

In the last couple of years, financial insitutions have started to leverage social media to engage with the youths. Their goals vary from recruiting talented graduates to providing financial education to teenagers and young professionals.
 
Let me share with you a list of social media initiatives from the banking industry focused on the Youth Market and sorted by country.
 
US
* Wells Fargo - Stagecoach Island / Financial Education (blog & virtual world)
* Chase - Chase +1 Credit Card / Financial Education (facebook)
* TDECU - Young & Free Texas / Empowering the Youths (blog)
* South Carolina Federal CU - Young & Free North Carolina / Empowering the Youths (blog)
* PSCU Financial Servivces - Project New Age
* The Ohio CU League - Money and Stuff
* Numerica CU - It is all About GEN Y
* Shell Federal CU - iLife
* Mint.com - Personal Finance Management
* Smartypig - Goal-Oriented Savings
* WeProsper / Financial Education

Canada
* Severus CU - Young & Free Alberta / Empowering the Youths (blog)
* Vancity - Changeeverything (blog/online community)
* RBC - Better Student Life (blog) 
* TD Canada Trust - TD Money Lounge (facebook)
* RBC - Bankbook (facebook)
 
France
* BNP Paribas - Starbank / Training & Induction (virtual world)
* BNP Paribas - Ace Manager / Recruitment (Competition)
 
Netherlands
* ING - Planet Orange / Financial Education for kids (micro-site)
* ING - Move Out, Move Up / Mortgages for young couples (microsite)
* Rabobank - Hyves Profile / Social Networking

Belgium
* Fortis - Mine.be / Initiative for teenagers

Australia
* NAB - Ballet Community / Online Community for kids

Social Media Initiatives in Banking for the Youths

Related Articles on Visible-Banking.com
* Visible Banking Twitter Watch
* Directory 2.0: Social Media in Banking

SEB Responds to my Comments on The Benche + ING Pickuradvisor (August 2007)

Being able to reach out and engage with Senior Executives and Top Managers from all around the world is what makes me carry on spending so much time on Visible Banking. In addition to my regular public speaking engagements, blogging gives me a unique opportunity to show I care and demonstrate my passion and my expertise for social media on daily basis.
 
VB Review ING's pickuradvisor initiative - August 2007
Two years ago the ING Asia Pacific eBusiness team impressed me. I reviewed in details an innovative social media initiative in the life insurance space launched by the bank in India "pickuradvisor.com".

In a nut shell, it was a blog with a light touch of online community features (you could find the short profiles of the advisors) coupled to a basic appointment booking system. It was very innovative for the insurance market in 2007. I shared my concerns on their lack of moderation process (I invite you to check my full review for more information)
 
After just a couple of hours David Garceran Nieuwenburg former Asia Pacific Regional Head at ING Group, now AVP - Asia Head e-Services at Sun Life Financial Asia, left a comment on my post thanking me and promising they would quickly address this issue. Just 48 hours later, I received another comment this time from the Head Marketing at ING Vysya Life Insurance in India to confirm they had already improved their moderation process. Very impressive.
 
Please note that before canning the project last year, ING improved the interface and rolled it out in Hong-Kong in Chinese. David was instrumental in most of the social media experiments launched by ING in 2006 and 2007. David is a great guy. At last I had the chance to spend a couple of days with him at the event I was chairing in Kuala Lumpur in April 2009, 'E-Channel Management for Retail Banking'.

VB Review SEB's the Benche - June 2009
I invite you to read my recent comments on The Benche, the online community for Trade Finance Professionals launched by SEB at the end of 2008.
 










This morning I was delighted to receive a tweet from Lars Millberg, Global Head of Trade Finance at SEB, who found my comments useful. Lars, it is a shame you couldn't participate to Chris Skinner's Financial Services Club event on social media and banking last Tuesday.
I look forward to meeting with you face-to-face soon.
 
An hour later, I received another tweet from Martin Björnström this time with a link to his response "Visible Banking comments The Benche" on The Benche blog.

I welcome the Bench to Twitter and facebook and I look forward to receiving their soon to be released WebSurvey.
 
Lars and Martin, I can't wait to start working together on this high-potential project and helping you to take the Benche to the next level!
 

Related Articles on Visible-Banking.com
* Visible Banking Twitter Watch
* Directory 2.0: Social Media in Banking