US Banker  |  December, 2009

By Steve Bills

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For banks using Twitter to reach customers, generic is out, targeted is in.

Though Twitter Inc.'s service is designed to communicate with a vast, online audience, some financial companies are now using it to reach specific groups or even individuals, a sharp contrast to some early efforts that were more akin to e-mail spam.

Bank of America Corp. launched its Twitter channel, @BofA_Help, early this year, and assigned a single employee to "tweeting," as the practice is known. The Charlotte company added five more people in October, and now scans the blogging site for mentions of Bank of America, especially when people have problems or complaints. B of A officials then reach out directly to the customer to try and resolve the issue.

"The goal was to listen, respond and engage with customers who have problems," said Jen McDonald, B of A's digital marketing executive. "It's a real interesting way to extend your reach."

Bank of America's Twitter feed has attracted 3,000 followers, who in turn influence 3 million followers of their own, McDonald said.

Wells Fargo & Co. has had a social media team for four years, exploring Twitter and other interactive online communications services.

Ed Terpening, a vice president at Wells Fargo and its manager of social media, said the San Francisco banking company now has two Twitter channels, three on the popular online video site YouTube, a variety of blogs and pages on the social networking sites operated by Facebook Inc. and News Corp.'s MySpace.

He agreed that Twitter is a good way to engage customers, but warned that the public nature of the service can create privacy and security issues.

"There are new rules and paradigms in social media that you have to understand," Terpening said. "Twitter is almost like chat. The expectation is real time. But it's also broadcast, one person reaching many people at the same time."

Wells Fargo typically uses Twitter to engage people, but then encourages them to move to a more private communications channel.

"We're very careful about setting expectations," Terpening said. "This is not about service. It's about conversation and education.”

Smaller institutions, such as credit unions, seem to be among the most successful in using social media to connect with their customers, said Jacob Jegher, a senior analyst in the banking group at the Boston market research company Celent. "They're smaller, nimbler and they can get these things out the door."

Tim Gluth, the e-business coordinator at North Shore Bank in Brookfield, Wis., said that his $1.8 billion-asset thrift became active in social media largely because he became curious about the phenomenon about a year ago, when he noticed other businesses establishing a presence there.

"I started to think, how can North Shore Bank participate in this?" Gluth said.

"They may not be physical communities, but they are still communities we can tap into and find out what people's wants and needs are."

North Shore has used links on its Web site and signs in its branches to draw customers' attention to its Twitter feed, which it uses for promotions such as offering tickets to the Green Bay Gamblers hockey team or benefits for cancer patients, he said.

"Listening and engaging are the two main things we want to use these tools for."

North Shore uses Facebook, too, which Gluth said is better suited for delivering multimedia content, including photos and videos, and the bank has used social media to conduct polls and contests, he said. "We're learning as we go along, as are all the other companies out there."