June 26, 2009
Big Bank Joins the Conversation
We’ve got a big Zeitgeist & Coffee initiative going on for a major financial institution, Bank X. (The name has been changed to protect the innocent.) Although they recognized the growing importance of marketing through social media, Bank X was not actively listening to and marketing against the many conversations being had about it, its products and its competitors. So we started by plugging in to all of the chatter.
We analyzed conversation streams from social media platforms including Twitter, blogs, message boards, user forums, wikis, social networking sites such as Ning, and MySpace and Facebook (to the extent they are open) and video and photo sharing sites like YouTube and Flickr.
We looked at the data through both a quantitative and qualitative filter, which gave us a complete picture of the social media landscape for Bank X, including, among other things, topics, themes, tone and influencers.
With this knowledge in hand, we are now able to use our proprietary Z&C dashboard to provide Bank X with daily updates on relevant chatter along with recommendations on how to respond and/or amplify. The information we’re collecting along the way will become core to monthly Mine & Dine reports, which will include a macro-level review of the conversation stream along with insights and go-forward implications.
Gee, I can’t imagine why you wouldn’t want to publish the name of a major financial institution that is a “Z&C” client.
You’d think that they helped cause one of the biggest financial meltdowns in history or something!
Our shyness concerning the client’s name is contractual. But, as your comment makes clear, banks have some work to do to rebuild the trust they’ve lost (see this recent AdWeek article: http://bit.ly/HAQw3). We believe social media, a communication form that all but demands personal and honest relationships, may be the best first step, for our anonymous bank and all others, as they begin their climb back up the trust ladder.