Consider forwarding this to your Management Team!

Since I’m on vacation, I’m posting material that some of you already have (if you attended the Mega Conference).   Because smaller, community-based banks are slow to adopt social media, the following talking points could be shared with your management team to help them get on the same page about some facts of Social Media.

Talking Points for Social Media:

• Bank of America is closing 10% of its branches in 2010.  That’s because they have experienced 30-50% fewer transactions inside the bank in the last four years.  In fact, 70% of all banking transactions happen outside of the branch.  Thus, the cost of an in-branch transaction is 40% higher than it was four years ago.
• OLB (On-line Banking) is the dominant communication channel.  The fastest growing on-line channel is social media.
• If your bank-wide business strategy is to reinforce “we are a Community Bank”, know that social networks are about community.  You can’t show up for one Chamber event expecting to be considered a part of the community.  Regular and persistent participation creates your position in the community.
• See sidebar (below).  It is critical that we use social media (and mobile banking and any other communication channels) to help our customers cut through Information Overload.  Answers to questions, apologies, and actionable information all have meaning.
• Community is about conversation.  Listen first, comment second.  Meanwhile, use social media to listen in on the conversation about your bank.  Become a party to that dialog.
• Assign ownership to each social media channel.  One “voice” should be responsible for your Facebook account, one for your YouTube account, your LinkedIn account, your Twitter account, your blog, etc.
• Give customers a reason to follow you in social media
• Don’t be afraid to allow your community to see criticisms addressed.  Loyalty is increased when problems are repaired, rather than when problems are non-existent.
• Right now rebuilding trust is essential, and social media is the greatest place to do that.
• Yes, there are risks with social media, and thus we need access controls, real time moderation, proper disclosures, staff usage guidelines, staff site usage guidelines, record retention controls, compliance controls, responsiveness controls, etc.
• See mega2010.infotex.com for “management guidelines” as well as other social media controls, including a user-level policy that has undergone legal review.

Sidebar!  Meaning in Information

• One of the reasons Mobile Banking and Social Media are both in such high demand from Millennials and everybody else is that these two communication channels offer a solution to the problem of Information Overload.
• Examples of Meaning:  How am I doing?  What should I do next?  How do I compare to my peers?  What should I do?  When should I act?  Who should I contact?
• Examples of Meaning:  How am I doing?  What should I do next?  How do I compare to my peers.
• Mobile Banking offers the ability to cut through “information overload” by adding “meaning” to information
• User defined limits and prohibitions:  A feature of mobile banking apps where threshold parameters are user-defined and whenever thresholds are exceeded, the user is alerted via text messaging, and the text message links to a response mechanism.
• Information that requires action is meaningful information.  A link in a text alert back to an interface that allows balance transfers makes that alert more meaningful.
• Text alerting offers meaning by sending specific, actionable information to customers that they want in real time, with links to the action which must be taken.
• Just last week Chase released a new mobile banking alert:  Real Time overdraft alert in text message.  It’s a two-way message in that the recipient can click on a link to the interface that allows the recipient to choose from balance transfer options.
• What ISO would not be interested in an ability to deliver security alerts (such as phishing response messages) in real time?

Next Week:  Talking Points to help move the Management Team closer to the immediate adoption of Mobile Banking.

This has been a Dan’s New Leaf posting . . . . a weekly post about whatever happens to be on Dan’s mind at the time, related of course to IT Governance in banking.