How First National Bank (FNB) Used Social Media To Enhance Its Marketing Strategy

The Benefits of FNB’s Social Media Strategy

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Subject: Management Communication

The adoption of social media has become trend in the companies for the purpose of dealing with a variety of reasons related to marketing, customer service, internal communications, corporate social responsibility and public relations. Similarly, First National Bank (FNB), which is one of South Africa’s ‘Big Four’ banks has opted for a social media strategy for increasing its market presence along with humanizing the brand and building customer knowledge (Mazinter, et. al., 2015).

For the purpose of engaging its customers FNB extended its operations in different social media environments including blogs/forums (such as Hellopeter.com and Facebook), micromedia (Twitter and Mxit) and mainstream media (such as online news sites). Since micromedia and blogs/forums are the medium that attract the customers by providing a medium to raise complaints and offer feedback, therefore has occupied the position of prime focus for FNB. Nowadays, the customers are found to be less loyal and plan switching of their banks due to various internal processes of the banks (poor experiences with branch, high charges/fees, etc.) and environmental impacts (increasing competitive pressure or regulation in the retail banking) Moreover, the various sources of revenue pressure (low credit growth, low interest rates, fee income pressure, subdued trading income, increased cost of funding and competitive activity)  required FNB to bring innovative processes and offering in the market by the way of including social media as a part of their marketing strategy (News24, 2013).

Since 2004, social media platforms have been utilized by FNB for growing customer engagement. They later on became creative experimenters such that they can learn more from social media projects while increasing customer engagement. eWallet, the mobile banking product of FNB was familiarized in the market through the use of a Facebook game as the customers lacked proper understanding regarding the working of the product (Mobile Payments Today, 2012). Moreover, the introduction of eWallet Facebook game further created awareness in the market regarding the advantages of the product and provided guidance to the customers regarding its working. This strategy worked in the benefit of FNB as the customers gained confidence in the product and this ultimately turned into financial benefits. Also, the customers were engaged in a fun way and the viral effect of the strategy encouraged the customers to further invite their friends through Facebook platform. The use of Twitter has been made as a customer relationship management tool for bringing about an improvement in the brand experience through virtual interactions with the customers in a 140 words message.  This created an effective way for FNB to respond to the queries and problems of their customers. This was made possible with the help of building effective systems and processes that work in a shift system from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. even on weekends and public holidays. Also, FNB has also included LinkedIn in its social media platforms to support the brand and engaging with professional communications and business banking market segment. 

FNB’s Social Media Platforms

Financial agreements can be often termed as high involvement purchases. FNB believes that customers are a part of the organization and co-create value. The investment by FNB in the social media strategy has resulted in several benefits including the creation of better understanding regarding the social behaviors, needs and interests such that tailor made approach can be adopted for their fulfillment. Moreover, investment in social media strategy has provided the obtainment of higher responses and tagging from the social media users through a viral effect by only straightforward status updates which requires less brainpower to understand it. Also, feedback of the customers can be actively collected and appropriate responses can be provided to the questions or complaints. It also provided the benefit of easily educating the customers regarding the working and benefits of the products such as eWallet (Digitlab, 2013). Different approaches are opted for different platforms of social media depending upon the type of users of that platform as it creates the image of the bank as likeable, trustworthy, approachable and techno-smart. Also, the marketing campaigns helped in attracting new customers along with the retention of existing customers. It has also benefitted FNB in terms humanizing the brand with the RB Jacobs character.

Various lessons can be learned by FNB about the development and implementation of a social media strategy.

• Analyzing the requirement of a response plan to deal with the social media crisis for the purpose of managing the incidents like use of social media by Standard Bank for announcing the lodgement of complaint.
• Investments should be retained in brand building activities.
• A lot of start-ups are entering into the market and therefore, the entrance in the digital world need to be backed up by a strong brand such that it is not lost in the course of increasing globalization of companies (Britten, 2011).
• World is rapidly changing due to constant innovation and technological changes, therefore, all the industries face a challenge of digital disruption.
• There is also a threat to the existing market share of FNB due to the evolvement of competitive landscape within South Africa with the emerging market players such as African Bank and Capitec Bank.

For an organization which wants to enhance the experience of their customers on social media, there are a variety of factors which must be kept in mind during the use of social media for establishing communication with the customers.

• Analyzing what a customer wants to say which involves proper consideration of feedback whether positive or negative, account specific or technical questions and the time when the most of the customers are active on social media.
• Correct and timely consideration of the customers query or grievance.
• Processing the data for identifying the opportunities and trends in order to offer better services in the form of new features or products to the customers (Marketing Land, 2017).
• The members of the digital marketing department should be placed in every department in order to obtain creative processes such that broader range of products can be developed.
• Treating the customers like humans is the most important factor in order to make them feel valued.
• Determining when to take a conversation offline in cases when back and forth replies are being made from both the sides or in cases when private information is required to be obtained from the customer (Zendesk, 2017).

Conclusion

The management of social media strategy by First National Bank (FNB) has helped it to remain competitive in the market (Muller, 2012). Social media has significantly changed the manner of daily communication between the companies and the stakeholders by offering a variety of opportunities for participation, collaboration, engagement and interactivity. Moreover, it will bring together all the departments of the organization for engaging audience and providing a variety of offers to them. 

References

Britten, S. 2011. Are banks and social media a good fit? Take a look at FNB, [Online]. Available at: https://memeburn.com/2011/11/are-banks-and-social-media-a-good-fit-take-a-look-at-fnb/ [Accessed on: 2 January 2018].

Digitlab. 2013. A NEW ERA OF MANAGING YOUR MONEY – SOCIAL BANKING, [Online]. Available at: https://digitlab.co.za/2013/01/social-banking-welcome-new-era-managing-money/ [Accessed on: 2 January 2018].

Marketing Land. 2017. 4 steps to enhancing the customer experience with social media, [Online]. Available at: https://marketingland.com/4-steps-enhancing-customer-experience-social-media-226632 [Accessed on: 2 January 2018].

Mazinter, L., Kleyn, N., Goldman, M. and Renton, J. L. 2015. Banking on Social Media (A), [Online]. Available at: https://hbr.org/product/banking-on-social-media-a/W14684-PDF-ENG [Accessed on: 2 January 2018].

Mobile Payments Today. 2012. First National Bank of South Africa offering mobile POS, wallet, [Online]. Available at: https://www.mobilepaymentstoday.com/news/first-national-bank-of-south-africa-offering-mobile-pos-wallet/ [Accessed on: 2 January 2018].

Muller, R. 2012. Why FNB is rated as the top bank in SA, [Online]. Available at: https://businesstech.co.za/news/banking/17467/why-fnb-is-rated-as-the-top-bank-in-sa/ [Accessed on: 2 January 2018].

News24. 2013. FNB uses technology for advantage, [Online]. Available at: https://www.news24.com/Technology/News/FNB-uses-technology-for-advantage-20130319 [Accessed on: 2 January 2018].

Zendesk. 2017. Providing great social media customer service, [Online]. Available at: https://www.zendesk.com/resources/customer-service-through-social-media/ [Accessed on: 2 January 2018].