World’s biggest banks have poor approach to social media, new report shows

News - Banking

Written by Ray Clancy

Monday, 08 November 2010 09:31

Most of the world’s biggest banks do not have a consistent and comprehensive strategic approach to using social media and their overall presence is poor, a survey shows.

Deutsche Bank, Crédit Agricole and BNP Paribas come out as winners in a ranking of the social media activities of the world’s top 30 Wealth Managers.

In the survey by the Swiss consulting company, MyPrivateBanking Research, Deutsche Bank ranks first, with a total score of 38 out of possible 50 points. In particular, Deutsche Bank scores well with its Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter activities. Crédit Agricole and BNP Paribas score lower overall in these networks, but have strengths in their Youtube and mobile application offerings.

Overall, the report, Wealth Management and Social Media, comes to the conclusion that the social media presence of the 30 biggest Wealth Managers leaves a lot to be desired. Just a small group of four banks, Deutsche Bank, Crédit Agricole, BNP Paribas and Credit Suisse, have a consistent and comprehensive strategic approach toward social media.

Another group of only six banks use bits and pieces of the social media framework to get in touch and start conversations with clients and users. But most leading banks, two thirds in all, either have no presence whatever or only engage in sporadic activities on social media networks. No US based bank is in the Top10.

‘Despite the startling growth of social media usage around the globe, the majority of leading banks and wealth managers have failed to discover the potential of social media and act on it,’ said Steffen Binder, research director of MyPrivateBanking. ‘It is particularly disappointing that 19 of these 30 banks have no official Facebook presence targeted towards their customers,’ he added.

Analysis of the social media offering aimed specifically at wealth management clients shows an even bleaker picture. Even those banks with the best social media strategies have little or no activities targeted towards one of their most attractive client groups.

The offerings of social media applications on the banks’ own websites and mobile applications also leave a lot of room for improvement. Only 40% of the banks use some type of social media e.g. blogs, podcast or videocasts, social bookmarking, on their own websites. Just 50% of banks have one or more mobile apps for general use and none offers a mobile app specific to wealth management clients.

‘We strongly advice banks and wealth managers to take more interest in social media and not to regard it as playground for juveniles. They urgently need a strategy for defining their presence in this interactive phase in the development of the internet,’ said Christian Nolterieke, managing director of MyPrivateBanking.

MyPrivateBanking Research recommends that every bank must open up to social media and decide exactly how it should position itself in the various social media and every wealth manager should be present and active in Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Youtube and Flickr.

‘This measure alone would give banks access to close to a billion individuals at very low cost. However, setting up a presence is only an initial step. The third requirement is that every social media presence must be kept vital and attractive by continuously adding relevant content. Maintaining such a standard is mandatory, as are quick responses to postings and feedback,’ the report says.

The report used 32 criteria and the social media activities of each bank are ranked, on the basis of an individual evaluation for their presence in Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube and Flickr together with their offerings of social media applications on their own websites and their mobile applications.