What Bank Marketers Should Do With Twitter
Report Summary
What Bank Marketers Should Do With Twitter
Twitter’s ineffectiveness as a bank marketing channel is caused by banks’ lack of understanding regarding who follows them on the platform.
Boston, November 28, 2012 – A new report from Aite Group analyzes the tweeting approaches of banks with large follower bases and evaluates the demographics, behaviors, and attitudes of consumers who follow their bank or credit union on Twitter. Based on a Q2 2012 Aite Group survey of 1,115 U.S. consumers, the report provides recommendations on how financial institutions can use Twitter more effectively for marketing purposes.
Aite Group finds that many banks are just going through the motions on Twitter, tweeting about things that are irrelevant to their followers or simply repeating what is sent through other channels. But that isn’t to say that banks should give up on Twitter entirely. Based on an analysis of consumers who follow their banks on Twitter, Aite Group believes that the ineffectiveness of Twitter as a bank marketing channel is caused by banks’ lack of understanding regarding who follows them on the platform.
“With so few consumers following their primary financial institution on Twitter, banks and credit unions are deceiving themselves if they think their tweeting activity is meaningfully impacting the quality of their customer relationships,” says Ron Shevlin, senior analyst with Aite Group and author of this report. “Institutions that want to reach a larger percentage of customers and have a measurable impact on their consumer relationships must focus their Twitter strategies on the management of their customers’ financial lives in areas like shopping deals and personal financial management.”
The report presents the Twitter statistics and strategies of Ally Bank, Bank of America, Citibank, JPMorgan Chase, TD Bank, USAA, and Wells Fargo.
This 20-page Impact Note contains 15 figures and one table. Clients of Aite Group’s Retail Banking service can download the report.