Accenture Interactive Point of View Series

Moving Beyond Listening

and Monitoring
Social Media Marketing for
Financial Services
Dont just listen; learn and earn
Social Media Marketing
for Financial Services
Today, fnancial services
consumers have moved beyond
just using the Internet as an
information-gathering tool,
to using both the Internet and
mobile channels for an interactive,
even social, experience.
Social networks are growing at
pace; by 2017, the global social
network audience is expected
to total 2.55 billion.
1
In the UK, the percentage of customers
willing to give personal information to their
bank online in exchange for better value
or tailored services more than doubled
from 2012 to 2014.
2
And recent Accenture
consumer research shows that nearly a
third of consumers use information from
social media sites when evaluating retail
banking products and services. While still a
minority, many consumers want companies
to get directly involved in contributing to
discussions on social media, and nearly one
in four are more likely to do business with a
company that they know they can interact
with in a social media environment.
3
Many fnancial services frms have responded by
using social media to listen to their customers
and monitor their brands. However, they are
not yet using it to generate tangible business
benefts. With advances in optimization tools,
analytics and software, social media is now
much more a science than an art. It can be a
very efective means to build a community and
engage with the consumer in a more personal
way. By harnessing the power of analytics and
integrating social media insights holistically
into the companys marketing strategy, fnancial
services frms can drive growth, increase
operational efciency and reduce risk.
1
Social Networking Reaches Nearly One in Four Around the World, eMarketer Inc., June 18, 2013. Retrieved September,
8th 2014 from: http://www.emarketer.com/Article/Social-Networking-Reaches-Nearly-One-Four-Around-World/1009976
2
Winning the race for relevance with banking customers, Accenture 2014, Retrieved September, 8th 2014 from:
http://www.accenture.com/SiteCollectionDocuments/PDF/Accenture-UK-Financial-Services-Customer-Survey.pdf
3
The Digital Customer: Its Time to Play to Win, Accenture Global Consumer Pulse Research 2013. Retrieved September,
8th 2014 from: http://www.accenture.com/us-en/Pages/insight-digital-customer-play-to-win-summary.aspx
Social innovation
Leading fnancial services companies are increasingly using social
media marketing with strong results. American Express pioneered
several successful online initiatives that monetized the unique
features of social media, such as location check-ins for discounts
with Foursquare (Sync, Explore, Save) and discounts through
Facebook (Link, Like, Love).
4
These programs worked by linking the
individuals American Express cards to their Facebook account and
delivering deals and ofers based on Facebook activity, pages that
were liked and shared, as well as the activities of Facebook friends.
With just one click, the discount was attached to the users account.
When the related transaction occurred with the corresponding
Amex card within a specifc time period, a statement credit was
automatically applied. The promotion ofered customers an
integrated way to earn rewards for using their Amex card, promoting
loyalty and afnity with the brand. What was the beneft to American
Express? A positive response and greater sharing of content by users
due to highly tailored ofers both leading indicators of greater
customer satisfaction and retention.
Social innovations getting results:
Launching a competition to make consumer engagement
more robust
Launching an innovative digital campaign allowing new
customers to choose their relationship manager
Launching a stock trading application to attract the
new class of retail investors
Providing customers with a wide range of products, ofers,
and initiatives via social media
Using e-commerce ofers to promote the online branch
Ofering personal customer alerts and customer care
Creating dedicated accounts for any customer segment or
topic to enable followers joining live discussions around
several areas of interest.
4
American Express Launches Link, Like, Love on Facebook, American Express, July 2011.
Retrieved August, 28th 2014 from:http://about.americanexpress.com/news/pr/2011/link.aspx
Getting real results
Figure 1: Tangible Business Results from Social Media
While most fnancial services frms are using social media to some extent, the vast majority
is stopping short of using it to engage customers leaving substantial business benefts
unrealized. Social media marketing is no longer about passively listening to customers or
conducting stealth experiments. A successful social media program hinges on:
Understanding the relevant social audience and the organizations goals and limits
Mapping customer needs to a social experience that the organization can deliver
Enabling the organization with the right capabilities to execute.
Financial services frms have the opportunity to build on their market presence, brand awareness
and marketing expertise to drive signifcant business impact through social media (Figure 1).
2014 Accenture. All rights reserved.
Drive organic
growth
Increase customer
acquisition
Improve cross
selling/SoW
Increase customer
retention
Increase operating
efciency
Lower cost to sell/
cost to serve
Optimize marketing
spending/efort
Reduce risks
Manage brand
reputation
Innovate risk
management/fraud
prevention
Driving organic growth
Social media ofers new customer information
such as personal attitudes, hobbies and needs
that could help acquire customers and nurture
existing relationships, both of which drive
organic growth. This new customer information
can enhance customer intimacy and customer
insight and move marketing toward delivering
personalized sales and service experiences.
An enriched customer profle can help identify
sweet spots in existing segments, select micro-
targets and launch personalized cross selling
and acquisition campaigns.
In this way fnancial services frms can gain
actionable insight on customer needs (using
such techniques as interest graph analysis
and activity feed analysis) and life events
at an individual, friends and family level.
They can also leverage marketing automation
and campaign management platforms to
deliver personal marketing campaigns.
For example, they can identify individual
customers through connections on LinkedIn,
position personalized interest/hobby related
ofers based on Facebook likes and directly
initiate customer dialogues using Twitter.
Gamifcation is another key tactic to enrich
the customer experience, as well as to design
products whose properties evolve according
to social sharing. And fnancial services
frms are able to design experiences with
network dynamics in mind. A signifcant
part of the buying decision process now
happens in review and comparison sites,
communities or crowd sourced content
services. In this environment, fnancial
services frms can extend their sphere
of infuence through proactive analysis,
outreach and relationship management
activities, and by enticing loyal customers
to spread their infuence.
Social In Action
In 2013, Indian bank ICICI launched
Pockets by ICICI Bank, an app allowing
customers to access their accounts
and conduct a wide variety of banking
transactions directly from its Facebook page.
This social media strategy targets the more
than 82 million Facebook users throughout
India, 40 percent of whom are under age 30.
Since launching its Facebook page the bank
has amassed more than three million likes
and continues to build out new Pockets
capabilities to make banking simpler and
easier for its customers.
Source: http://www.informationweek.in/
informationweek/news-analysis/282804/icici-bank-
launches-facebook-app-allows-customers-pay-friends-
split-expenses?utm_source=reference_article
Reducing risks
A big component of the fnancial services
business is about sizing, anticipating and
managing risks. For insurance companies,
risk is a core component of the value
chain; for banks it is a long-term bet and
for capital markets it is a driver of higher
returns. Furthermore, Accentures consumer
research showed that brand reputation and
trustworthiness are key satisfaction drivers
among customers.
6
By identifying early signals and acting
on (not just gathering) intelligence from
consumer and business social data, social
media could help to dramatically innovate
reputational risk management. Looking at
the customer within this broader network
of relationships would introduce new
approaches to help prevent fraud and
better assess risk profles.
Banks are already starting to understand local
businesses by analyzing bill payments, money
transfers and evaluating the micro-market
from an economic standpoint to better assess
default risks and capital requirements for
specifc loans. Through social media marketers
and risk managers will have an extended
view of customers within their network.
Social In Action
UBS, a leading global fnancial services
provider, observed that understanding what
is being published in social media is vital to
efective communications, risk management
and brand protection. Working with Accenture,
UBS built a more functional social media
monitoring capability delivered through global
standardized services, scalable technology
and methodology. The service operates in four
diferent languages utilizing native speakers
with industry backgrounds to eliminate
mundane postings, spot irony and understand
context. UBS gets a more comprehensive view
and may conduct campaign-related monitoring
at short notice and at a relatively low fee.
Through this new capability, UBS has a holistic
perspective in the digital social world and may
fulfll important business objectives in the area
of reputation management and customer trust.
Source: UBS: Outsourcing Social Media Monitoring,
Accenture. Retrieved September, 8th 2014 from:
http://www.accenture.com/us-en/Pages/
success-ubs-social-media-monitoring.aspx
Increasing operating efciency
Social media can be harnessed to improve
the basics including lowering cost to sell
and cost to serve and optimizing marketing
spending. By seamlessly integrating current
customer service workfows with social media
components, fnancial services companies
are already able to leverage the crowd efect,
exploiting the potential of user-generated
content such as in Q&A platforms.
Financial institutions can also employ a
resource sharing approach, converging
diferent media and channels. In this way
skilled customer service workers can provide
services through diferent channels achieving
higher efciency at a lower cost.
From a brand awareness perspective,
traditional marketing techniques, such as
word-of-mouth and member-get-member,
might increase their power by leveraging
greater reach and resonance of the marketing
message, where a single commercial meme
could reach a huge audience instantly.
The famous Oreo tweet during the XLVII
Superbowl You can still dunk in the dark
generated more than 500 million impressions
with 0 dollars in media spending.
5
While the Oreo tweet is impressive in the
reach and impact it achieved, these kinds of
successes are opportunistic. Social now needs
to be much more of a science, orchestrated to
seek success without requiring a spontaneous
moment or event. In a data-centric way, social
can methodically drive operating efciencies
and optimized spending.

Social In Action
The Barclaycard Ring MasterCard, ofered
by global fnancial services provider Barclays
PLC, is the frst credit card to be designed
and built through crowdsourcing. The Ring
community platform allows community
members to share ideas with Barclaycard and
to help each other on a variety of fnancial
questions. Customers are engaged in the
product design and enhancement, building
loyalty, peer-support and word of mouth.
Combined with other voice of the customer
initiatives this program has decreased
customer complaints by 50%, and increased
customer retention by 25%, resulting in an
annualized beneft of over $10 million.
Source: Barclaycard Ring, Barclaycard, Retrieved
September 8th 2014 from: http://www.barclaycardring.com/
The Barclaycard Story, Lithium. Retrieved September, 8th
2014 from: http://www.lithium.com/why-lithium/
customer-success/barclaycard
5
Dunking in the dark, 360i, Retrieved August, 28th 2014 from: http://www.360i.com/work/oreo-super-bowl/
6
The Digital Customer: Its Time to Play to Win, Accenture Global Consumer Pulse Research 2013. Retrieved September,
8th 2014 from: http://www.accenture.com/us-en/Pages/insight-digital-customer-play-to-win-summary.aspx
Making social pay
To build the right social media marketing approach, companies have
to start by deeply understanding their social media readiness across
all aspects of the organization, procedures, processes and technologies.
In particular, the organization has to be aligned with the social media
marketing strategy and have a group responsible for social media activities.
Procedures have to be adapted to incorporate social media as a
possible channel through which the prospect and customer can
interact with the organization. Specifc processes need to be in
place in order to guide the execution across all customer-facing
touchpoints. The right technology must be available. Not only
specifc social media marketing components, but also more
traditional components need to be social media ready.
While every journey will be diferent, social media pioneers have
followed four basic steps to improve the potential of social (Figure 2).
2014 Accenture. All rights reserved.
Figure 2: Steps to Harness Social Media
Defning the social media
marketing strategy begins
with identifcation of social
media marketing goals, and
understanding the brand and
product characteristics that
can drive value in the social
media context. A personalized
social media marketing strategy
answers four key questions:
What is the goal?
Which tactic is more
suitable to achieve the
selected business results
given the companys
particular DNA
(e.g. brand perception)?
Who are the target
customers/ prospects?
Through which social
media platform?
Defne the social
media marketing
strategy
Defne
There are benefts to dipping a
toe in the water before taking
the plunge. By experimenting a
company reduces IT investment
and runs a simple social media
marketing pilot to gain the
overall marketing organizations
buy-in before planning the
bigger moves. This could be
done based on already available
technology or through a
managed service approach.
Execute the social
media marketing
frst pilot
Experiment
With strong results from the
pilot, companies can develop
the business case to extend
the social media marketing
approach. This may involve
broadening programs into
additional targeted segments,
expanding the number of
tactics utilized or adding new
social channels, depending
on the targeted business
outcomes the frm is targeting.
Financial services frms
should do deep technological
due diligence and, based
on the defned strategic
goal, adapt the social media
platform, introducing new
components or services
available in the market.
Add targeted
outcome segments
and tactics
Extend
When the due diligence is
complete, fnancial institutions
can scale their social media
marketing strategies and may
be able to transform social
into a new growth engine.
A scaled program has
numerous components
from listening and planning
to engaging and measuring.
Key prerequisites for
successful expansion include:
Full-time active social
media monitoring is
underway and a process
is in place to inform
strategy and tactics.
Efcient social processes,
policies and actions are
aligned to the
organizations digital
strategy and there is
enterprise-level funding
and ownership
There is high engagement
and social activity across
all desired properties
and experiences
Robust key performance
indicators are defned,
including both social
and business metrics.
Transform social
media into a new
growth engine
Expand
Laying the foundation
Figure 3: Roadmap of Social Media Tactics
Every fnancial institution has its own business priorities and
unique types of customer interactions it wants to conduct.
Accenture has identifed 11 fundamental social media tactics
companies can consider when building personalized customer
relationships. Each tactic involves detailed and customized decision-
making to help achieve the targeted outcome, but the schematic in
Figure 3 provides a high level roadmap of the tactics available.
In considering the combination of tactics to deploy, fnancial
services frms should recognize that these tactics dont exist in
isolation. Social media marketing must connect to the frms digital
strategy holistically, including mobile apps, website, and email,
as well as its customer service channel, to begin to achieve the
scale and impact desired. A lack of integration of social channels
with established customer interaction channels can result in
conficting messages being sent to consumers and a bumpy,
frustrating customer experience.
7
Social Media
Tactics
Description
Build communities around interests and hobbies
to attract prospects and acquire customers
Clustering
Increase community engagement around products/
education content
Gamification
Push personalized offers and transform into a
sales engine
Sales
Perform transactions and retrieve product information Banking
platform
Increase social word of mouth, leveraging viral network
effects by targeting key community influencers
Seeding/
demand leverage
Monitor, respond, ask and promote offers Listening and
monitoring
Leverage the communities to foster product and
service innovation (feedback management)
Crowd sourcing
Use people as a brand/product advocate
(and marketing agency)
Content
Complement physical with social presence Branching
Introduce new tools to stimulate internal collaboration
and to spread best practices through the organization
Collaboration
Add another channel to provide service Customer
service
Revenue Growth
Customer
Acquisition
Cross
Selling
Churn
Mgmt
Cost to
Serve
Fraud
Operating
Efficiency
Risk Mitigation
Impact
Very High High Moderate Some
Brand
Risk
Efficiency
Figure 3: Roadmap of Social Media Tactics
2014 Accenture. All rights reserved.
7
For more information, see Talk With Me not At Me: Playing to Win with Social Media, Accenture, 2014.
Retrieved September, 8th 2014 from: http://www.accenture.com/SiteCollectionDocuments/PDF/Accenture-Playing-Win-Social-Media.pdf.
Listen, learn, earn
Social media is in many respects an unstoppable cultural forceubiquitous and
powerful. For fnancial institutions it has vast potential beyond listening and monitoring.
A methodical, data-centered, approach to social media marketing gives fnancial
institutions the opportunity to increase customer acquisition, improve cross selling,
drive customer retention, deliver operational efciency and reduce risk.
But to capture these benefts frms must make social media a comprehensive and integral
part of the companys marketing eforts. It begins with determining the appropriate
social media marketing strategy based on specifc business goals the target market,
tactics and channels. It involves experimenting through pilots. It requires fexing and
extending capabilities.
In the words of a senior executive of social media for a major international bank, One risk
is not being open enough to social media, actually knowing its role in business and culture.
I still hear stories of executives in the industry not taking social media that seriouslythat
its just a nice to have. But there is great power in it. This can be negative, given the speed
with which issues spread on social media. But it can also be extremely positive. It can foster
better relationships or create additional touchpoints in the digital marketing space.
8

Even more signifcant, social media can become a new growth engine that is integral
to the fnancial institutions business.
8
A Comprehensive Approach to Managing Social Media Risk and Compliance, Accenture 2014,
http://www.accenture.com/microsites/insight-social-media-risk-management/Pages/index.aspx
Copyright 2014 Accenture.
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To learn more about how to evolve your social media
solutions to deliver high performance, contact:
Aneesh Desikan
[email protected]

Marco Magnini
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Shailen Salvi
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