Analyse the ways FNB have utilised social media to engage customers and enhance the Bank’s brand and image.
To: Lana Strydon, Head Digital Marketing and Media, FNB
From: Prerna
Date:10/01/2018
RE: Business Case Analysis
Based on the case study, I will analyse the ways FNB have utilised social media to engage customers and enhance the Bank’s brand and image. As a responsible digital marketing and media engineer, I consulted with Lana Strydom, head of digital marketing and media to understand how social and digital media could be used for making the business successful. According to Mazinteret al. (2015), First National Bank is one of the most popular financial institutions in South Africa that has influenced the consumers’ attitudes and behaviors through huge investments in social media strategy including the transactional banking app (Berthon et al. 2012). Use of social media for Customer Engagement
From the case study, it could be understood that various issues were faced while using social media as a communication tool, because one of its competitors named Standard Bank criticized the inappropriate advertisements and promotions for enabling innovation done by FNB. It was Standard bank’s own way of managing communication by using Twitter while FNB used the micro blogging service for facilitating the communication process (Mazinteret al. 2015). As a responsible employee and operations manager, I personally believe that the use of social media by FNB could be a revolutionary approach, because it had been very responsive, customer focused rather than brand focused and it had aligned the social media involvement with the positioning of the brand (Bruhn, Schoenmueller and Schäfer 2012). Many of the CEOs of well known brands have agreed to the fact that it facilitates the management of communication with the customers and results in positioning a good brand image to improve the level of awareness among the customers. By involving social media, it has become easy for internet banking and even banking through use of facebook. There were many banks that introduced banking apps available while FNB promoted its services by showing positive messages video and benefits of using the financial services on LinkedIn, facebook pages to attract more people towards the company.
Though the use of social media has made it possible for FNB to achieve this aim to a certain extent, still it could spread negative messages at a faster rate and even deteriorate the brand image. The Facebook page managed by FNB already have many complaints provided through comments and posts and most of those have been left unanswered by the bank authorities too (Dwivedi et al. 2016). A proper social media strategy could allow FNB to establish itself as a good marketer within South African banking industry because of its organic nature that had been driven by preferences and behaviors of people within the community rather than the brand itself (fnb.co.za 2018).
Based on Lana Strydom’s statement, the investments done for implementing the social media strategy have brought fruitful results and allowed FNB to operate in three differentdigital media platforms including blogs and forums in Facebook, Micromedia in Twitter and mainstream media on various news websites. The blogs and forums were managed through Facebook involved, where the customers provided their views and opinions regarding the services provided. There were also many complaints regarding the brand, which have grabbed the attention of many and created mindset about how FNB had been misleading people (Macnamara and Zerfass 2012). FNB also invested in developing an innovative app named eWallet Money magnet app for grabbing the attention of service users andprovide them with information about the necessaryfeatures of the brand. Previously, the customers were considered as external stakeholders but now they had been considered as creators of value and profit for the business. The management of communication was essential for making them an integral part of the company, which had been possible by investing on social media strategyimplementation. With the investments in social media marketing strategy, with the radio advertising and social media involvement, more than 11,000 accounts were opened and swiping of cards were done by account holders of FNB (Mitic and Kapoulas 2012).
Though the rate of attrition rate was high and many people switched banks, I thought that the approach undertaken by you had been successful because with the investments made , an innovative centralized group was created that managed the social media projects properly. It further helped in developing policies and procedures to integrate the social media technologies with the working practices of employees. Thus, the emerging trends and success stories of other competitors were understood and social media platforms have been involved for enhancing the awareness of products and services among the customers and make them learn mobile banking too (Mazinteret al. 2015). People surf Facebook often and with this involvement of social media platform, FNB has easily penetrated different market segments and understood the needs andpreferences of theirs.
It could be learnt by me that by implementing the social media strategies, FNB would spread positive word of mouth messages and even raise awareness among the customers regarding the products and services delivered by the company. Due to the digital media involvement, the statuses would remain updated consistently and people should be kept informed about the company, which further could increase through more responses from the people due to tagging and following options available on Facebook. The feedbacks and responses of customers should be reviewed and responsive services could be forwarded accordingly, though many had been ignored as well till then (Stokes 2013). The social media strategies can develop close relationships between the brand and its customers and a deep understanding of the lifestyle, social behaviors and choices of customers will be possible.
The social media involvement has made the company tech savvy because of which, an innovative culture has been created where people can communicate with each other as well as with the customers. There are few negative aspects too which may be faced such as huge costs for managing the digital marketing and online social networks. With the new competitors such as African bank, Capitec bank using similar kind of digital marketing strategies, FNB might lose market share. So, it would be essential for implementing the social media strategy as soon as possible for developing recognition among the customers and enhance the brand name and image through innovation and creativity (Yu 2012).
According to Mazinteret al. (2015) from the article, ease of use and creating a positive brand presence are the most important factors to be considered while using social media for management of communication. FNB must consider how effective it will be to use Facebook, Twitter to draw in personal information of clients, which should not be done, rather they must be informed about the kinds of services and its features to influence their buying behaviors as stated by Mazinteret al. (2015). There might be issues due to lack of skills and expertise to handle the websites and involvement of social media while managing business activities could hinder the security and expose personal information and details of clients (Berthon et al. 2012). Another major factor could be the increase in customer base, which could be possible by improving the customers’ services. The social media platforms have created it ease for the company to answer the queries and questions of customers and then allow them to access the banking website to purchase necessary services. This can strengthen the relationship between the company and its customers and also allow them more visibility and enhanced brand image too.
According to Dwivedi et al. (2016), flow of information is another factor to be considered while using the social media strategy, because it would help in promoting the products and services of the brand and enhance consumer brand too. It is alsoseen that to overcome the negative publicity, the social media platforms were used to engage with the customers and gain more exposure through maintenance of a positive brand name and identity. Based on the responses of Stokes (2013), the live festivals and other sponsored events were arranged and made public on Facebook. The customers were informed about the promotions, and features of various financial services for promotingcommunication and high level of customer engagement (Dwivedi et al. 2016). The commitment to social media could further enable availability of substantial amount of resources and facilitate innovation all throughout, as stated by Stokes (2013). I will be highly obliged if you will consider my assumptions that can be derived once an effective social media strategy can be implemented.
The positive aspects outweighed the negative aspects and so the social media strategy could be vital for achieving success in business through better exposure of brand name and image and improved communication. Thank you for all your support and wish to continue providing you with new ideas for improving the business efficiency
References
Berthon, P.R., Pitt, L.F., Plangger, K. and Shapiro, D., 2012. Marketing meets Web 2.0, social media, and creative consumers: Implications for international marketing strategy. Business horizons, 55(3), pp.261-271.
Bruhn, M., Schoenmueller, V. and Schäfer, D.B., 2012. Are social media replacing traditional media in terms of brand equity creation?. Management Research Review, 35(9), pp.770-790.
Dwivedi, Y.K., Mäntymäki, M., Ravishankar, M.N., Janssen, M., Clement, M., Slade, E.L., Rana, N.P., Al-Sharhan, S. and Simintiras, A.C. eds., 2016. Social Media: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: 15th IFIP WG 6.11 Conference on e-Business, e-Services, and e-Society, I3E 2016, Swansea, UK, September 13–15, 2016, Proceedings (Vol. 9844). Springer.
fnb.co.za. (2018). Fnb.co.za. Retrieved 8 January 2018, from https://www.fnb.co.za/
Macnamara, J. and Zerfass, A., 2012. Social media communication in organizations: The challenges of balancing openness, strategy, and management. International Journal of Strategic Communication, 6(4), pp.287-308.
Mazinter, L., Kleyn, N., Goldman, M. and Lindsey, J. (2015). Banking on social media (A). 9B14A070. Pretoria: Gordon Institute of Business Science.
Mitic, M. and Kapoulas, A., 2012. Understanding the role of social media in bank marketing. Marketing Intelligence & Planning, 30(7), pp.668-686.
Stokes, R., 2013. eMarketing: The essential guide to marketing in a digital world. Independent.
Yu, C.S., 2012. Factors affecting individuals to adopt mobile banking: Empirical evidence from the UTAUT model. Journal of Electronic Commerce Research, 13(2), p.104
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