Social Governance’s Relevance to Social Banking

In most industries, governance represents a key and important part of the social world.   I’ve lost track of the number of people whose companies disallowed social interaction of any kind because they fear the capabilities of this new generation of tools.  Many executives fear what will be said about the company.  They wish for the days when a company could control the conversation and so, company policies restrict who can use social technology of any kind.  What many executives in many industries miss is that they no longer control the conversation.  Think of a few examples:

• United Airlines destroys someones guitar as the owner watches.  The owner makes a video and puts it on YouTube.
• Ocean Marketing had the worst blunder on the internet with examples of horrible customer service.  Twitter brought it to light and the blogosphere  found many other blunders on their part.
• FedEx, generally known for fast delivery and decent customer service, had one bad delivery………..and it was caught on video.

Good UX Means Good Business

In a world where technology is rapidly advancing and user expectations are rising, it’s no longer enough to have an average user experience; to delight your users and surpass your competition you must strive for the exceptional.

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 I could give more examples but the fact is that social media has increased the transparency and speed at which people can communicate the good and the bad.  Frankly, it’s not a matter of if your bank will get into the social media world, it’s a matter of when.  Your bank simply cannot afford to NOT take part oin the conversation.  You can try to ignore what’s being said about you and suffer the same fate as United Airlines.  Or, you can recognize that while you cannot control the conversation, you can influence and turn potentially bad interactions into good one.  Best Buy provides a great example of that.

So what am I saying?  I’m saying that before you dive deep into this new game, it’s ok to consider what you should do and how you should do it.  It’s called social governance and by taking the time to define the general rules of engagement, you can move forward in the social banking world.

This is a blog post so I won’t bore you with the intricate details of what it would entail.  However, the Social Media Banking blog has an example social media policy.  It’s worth taking a look.

BANK SOCIAL MEDIA POLICY

 

Bank recognizes the importance of the Internet in the day-to-day operations of the Bank.  From marketing to reputation management to recruitment of new employees, the Internet plays in major role in the Bank’s overall strategy.  And now, the Internet is generally synonymous with social media and its popular social networks such as Facebook and LinkedIn.  Use of Facebook, LinkedIn, blogging, wikis and other online social media vehicles are commonplace.

 

This policy is intended to assist employees in making appropriate decisions about work-related blogging social media interaction.  This policy must be used in conjunction with other tools provided to employees, including the Acceptable Use Policy, Employee Guide to Information Security, Human Resources Guide to Social Media Risks, and related training.

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