Community banks, meet social media?

I posted these thoughts on January 30 to my DCSpring21 blog… as I move away from sharing bank-specific thoughts on that site (in favor of this one), I thought to re-post in advance of a few pieces I’m working on.

55%…

… or, the final percentage that correlates to the results shared from a Q&A with bankers earlier this week. Sorry, it is not the percentage of turtle tiles found at the Phoenician’s pool. That would be too easy; although, the image does fit when you consider the number of banks using social media vs. those that are not.

No, this is a post about building a brand — and with it, customer loyalty and engagement. For those of us that have been in a business development position, it is oh-so-true that its not easy to build a brand. But make no mistake, the rewards can be immense should you succeed. And yes, the 55% foreshadows the end to this piece.

Admittedly, I thought about taking this post towards my last few company’s efforts to employ various social media tools. However, the importance of building a recognizable, memorable and relevant brand came up with numerous bank CEOs and Chairmen at our recently-concluded Acquire or Be Acquired conference. To a man, they acknowledged the stakes to successfully position a bank are higher than ever, what with the growing popularity of credit unions, new technology and ever-emerging social media platforms. Even more so when a bank customer’s product adoption and brand loyalty is measured at the speed of a tweet or a post. Clearly, the integrity of a brand becomes critical.

So I was/am SHOCKED that more community banks haven’t hitched their wagons to the social media wagon. This is not speculation or wild assumption. Its based on hard fact.

Let me take a step back and explain. We welcomed 275 banks to the Phoenician for our 19th Acquire or Be Acquired this past Sunday, Monday and Tuesday — with a CEO, Chairman, CFO or director attending. I believe (but don’t have the final numbers in hand) that of the 720+ attendees, 575 worked for a bank. I share these numbers as a lead into this question I raised:

Question: How many of you are successfully using these on a daily basis to engage with your customers and potential customers. I’m going to ask ONLY the bankers in attendance to answer this one — and answer on behalf of your bank, not yourself. So you might be a proficient twitter’r, have more than 500 connections on your personal LinkedIn account and have been sharing pictures of this conference on FaceBook with your friends and family. But we’re curious how the banks here are making social media work for them.

The results pulled via an audience response system are startling — and suggest that those in the social media business have ample opportunity at community banks if they can show a bank’s directors and officers how the following ties into their business. The raw results:

• Facebook = 33%
• LinkedIn = 11%
• Twitter = 4%
• Pinterest = 0%
• We do not use social media = 55%.

Wow.