Comments on: Netfinance2007 meeting notes – Vancity changeeverything.ca

By: Ted Josephson

Ted Josephson — Tue, 01 May 2007 12:18:39 +0000

Hi William – I’m enjoying following the various postings and musings out here!

Not so coincidently, I’m actively working on my own executive team to educate them a bit more on the whole Social Media space – and am happily grabbing thoughts from your presentation, Michael’s and Shari’s and a number of the blog postings to craft what is hopefully an educational, motivating and “only controlled-fear-inducing” proposal. Thanks to all for being so open with your thoughts!

By: Ned

Ned — Mon, 30 Apr 2007 19:32:24 +0000

Banks fear of social media is a percentage game in my mind. The bigger and older you are, the better the chances are that you’ve upset some customers along the way. At the same time, bigger and older also often means that you’ve lost touch with your customers and I think there’s tremendous opportunity for banks to leverage social media/blogs to better understand their customers needs.
Colin – was great meeting you at Net Finance.

By: William Azaroff

William Azaroff — Sun, 29 Apr 2007 21:35:19 +0000

Hi Ted, thanks for the comment. Glad to see you in the blogosphere…

By: The Devolution Of Social Networking? « Marketing ROI: Whims from Ron Shevlin

Sun, 29 Apr 2007 14:15:32 +0000

[...] recent discussion on Bankwatch helps to highlight the potential danger here. Regarding the Social Networking portion of the recent [...]

By: Ted Josephson

Ted Josephson — Fri, 27 Apr 2007 12:18:01 +0000

Just to ring in here with a thought from someone who went home early Thursday (mostly because I had to remind my family who I was…).

I think a good chunk of the reason the traditional bankers left was due to general ignorance of the Social Media phenomenom’s impact, as well as maybe not the most effective conference marketing of that day’s real relevance. I for one am sorry I had to leave – but am thankful for the openness of folks like William and Shari for sharing their insights so willingly.

By: William Azaroff

William Azaroff — Mon, 23 Apr 2007 14:07:47 +0000

Sorry Ron, I missed the sarcasm. It’s true, many people came up to me, but many more had gone home. It’s too bad because it was actually the most impressive day of the whole coference.

Great comment about brand degradation, it’s not like most banks have a whole lot to lose.

By: Martin

Martin — Sun, 22 Apr 2007 20:45:30 +0000

I think your all comments are all right. Talking to banks we’ve seen many hurdles to overcome:

- Executive buy in; was it Shari Storm from Verity Credit Union who said they did it without telling anyone? And got away with it. It would probably get you fired at Citi.
- Ownership; who owns it and have overview; mktg? PR? … Legal’s overview?
- Brand; Every bank is afraid of social because it may potentialy hurt their brand (could they drop further?). Vancity did it right and what a positive impact for the brand they got (even if it’s indirect). Could I join Vancity from Montreal? Bravo William!

Overall I think banks with weak brands would only get weaker because opening this gate would only make it worst. I wouild advice them to clean up their transparency and trust issues first. Then join the bandwagon. At best try to do both in parallel. Be proactive.

By: Colin

Colin — Sun, 22 Apr 2007 20:15:31 +0000

Ignorance is likely the root cause, real reason, yet a survey in Finextra a few weeks ago cited brand as a concern.

By: rshevlin

rshevlin — Sun, 22 Apr 2007 14:19:15 +0000

I honestly don’t get it. Worried about “brand degradation”? Degradation from what? The stellar reputations they have in the marketplace today?

Are they worried that a blog will become one big “bitch session” for their customers? Twitter has proven that there a lot of people with way too much time on their hands, but come on — people have better things to do than just bitch about their bank on the bank’s blog site. The credit unions who have blogs aren’t perfect and their sites aren’t infested with complaining members.

I really think what’s keeping most large banks away from blogging is ignorance. And I can’t help but believe that the people that William ran into at the conference are part of a small minority.

By: Colin

Colin — Sun, 22 Apr 2007 04:53:09 +0000

@Ron .. I would add to your two things, the fear of brand degradation.
Re ROI: the thing that really struck me about day 4, “innovation day”, was that many of the the traditional bankers had gone home. A future blog post might be on the topic of organization, and who ought to be responsible for what. Current org structures does not require Product folks to attend “Day 4″, yet they are the ones in control in most Banks, because of ROI (feel free to contradict that statement).
The most striking slide of the conference for me was Asaf from Jupiter, showing that Banks have lost most products with the exception of checking accounts. Looking forward to getting my hands on that slide.

By: rshevlin

rshevlin — Sat, 21 Apr 2007 14:37:15 +0000

I was being facetious. I wouldn’t be surprised if the threats of “what’s the ROI?” and “who’s going to fund this?” are what’s keeping many banks away.

By: William Azaroff

William Azaroff — Sat, 21 Apr 2007 01:06:48 +0000

I’m not so sure based on all the people who came up to me from the banks interested in social media and blogging. There is interest and also so much fear.

I also like this quote: “All social web projects are inherently authentic.” If the company is not being genuine then neither will the project be.

By: rshevlin

rshevlin — Sat, 21 Apr 2007 00:58:47 +0000

regarding the quote… maybe they HAVE looked in the mirror… and that’s why there are no banks (except one) blogging.

By: William Azaroff

William Azaroff — Sat, 21 Apr 2007 00:10:32 +0000

By the way, that quote is from the always impressively insightful Rob Cottingham at Social Signal.

Ed, in my presentation at Net.Finance I mentioned many of the things you folks at Wells are up to. Thanks for the inspiration.

By: William Azaroff

William Azaroff — Fri, 20 Apr 2007 23:30:33 +0000

Thanks for the mention. Glad to finally meet you!
Wm

By: Ed Terpening, Wells Fargo

Ed Terpening, Wells Fargo — Fri, 20 Apr 2007 22:13:28 +0000

Love that quote. So true.