Apr
16
Financial companies have increasingly turned to social media services as a way of promoting products, engaging with customers, recruiting new employees and responding to customer feedback. But when it comes to the different social media services banks and lenders rely on, which is the most popular?
A recent study conducted by research firm Corporate Insight, polled 90 financial services firms and evaluated their use of social media. According to the results, Twitter beat out Facebook in a number of categories, namely because it provides customers with brief, up-to-date information on various services.
For example, the results show that Twitter was not only embraced more by firms than Facebook, but is also quickly becoming banks’ most widely utilized customer service platform. However, both Twitter and Facebook were listed as effective recruitment tools for new workers.
Facebook, in contrast, was listed as having great “social value,” which measures the level and effectiveness of certain types of consumer engagement, the study explained. For example, Facebook shares were perceived to have more social value than comments about a company. However, comments were seen to carry more weight than Facebook “likes.”
“Engagement is truly what sets social media apart from more traditional business-to-consumer communications, and this direct interaction with current and prospective clients is a major benefit of a well-executed social media offering,” said Alan Maginn, Corporate Insight senior analyst and social media expert.
In addition, the study showed that financial firms that drew from a large amount of social media platforms had greater success communicating with customers, responding to feedback and creating and maintaining relationships with customers. For example, many of the top-ranked financial services report having multiple Facebook pages and frequently-updated Twitter feeds to give its customers constant access to its services.