Citi, LinkedIn 'Connect' for Women's Financial Advice Group

Citigroup (NYSE:C) is once again showing its willingness to venture outside of traditional banking to build a social media strategy, as it has in both its talent acquisition and content.

Its new venture is the Connect: Professional Women's Network group on LinkedIn. Through its support of this group, the New York bank is also extending beyond typical banking products to include career development content in the hopes of building a rounded destination driven by social networking.

"We're hoping to provide a forum to facilitate conversations about issues that are important for women," says Vanessa Colella, a managing director at Citigroup.

The partnership with LinkedIn is part of a broader strategy to partner with companies in the digital space to diversify the content delivered by both parties, she says.

In the case of Connect, the partnership will include editorial content and moderated discussions about professional strategy and related issues, such as financial decision making.

For Citi, the LinkedIn partnership presents an opportunity to provide financial advice and links to broader services to an audience that is already receptive to discussing such topics.

"We want to get information to people at the time and venue that makes the most sense, getting them information when and where it's needed," Colella says.

The forum will include polls, video profiles of members, events and LinkedIn discussions. There will also be links to content from other sources, such as Women & Co, Citi's financial information and educational site for women.

Women & Co.'s content includes educational materials, links, blogs and advice columns on subjects such as managing finances, wealth management, retiring, career management, hiring financial professionals and managing budgets. Contributors include users and financial professionals who provide content that's tailored based on research into past usage and the interests of the site's audience. Women & Co. also includes links to personal financial management tools.

The LinkedIn partnership joins an earlier deal Citi struck with BabyCenter, a Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) website related to pregnancy and childbirth.

By reaching women with targeted content and networking venues, Citi is can influence household financial discussions.

"Women make over 80% of the financial decisions in households, and having a baby changes that equation," Colella says.

Other banks use social networking to reach specific demographic groups.

Wells Fargo (WFC) recently launched an online community to study and obtain financial tips when planning to finance college educations.

Aimed at students, parents, guidance counselors and financial advisors, the community allows people to post questions, communicate with each other and ask experts from the bank about a variety of issues related to saving and investing for college.

Like the Citigroup/LinkedIn partnership, the issues aren't limited to financial services, and include topics such as choosing a college.

"Social media is integrated into our digital strategy with the primary goal of engaging and building relationships with all our customers," says Beverly Butler, a vice president at Wells Fargo's Internet Services Group.

Butler says customer comments posted in social media about products and services are integrated into the bank's Voice of the Customer database, where they are evaluated against customer feedback from market research, user testing, ethnography, syndicated research, customer service and other sources.

"We have used social media to gain customer insights in a structured way where we asked our customers about the products and services that are important to them," Butler says.

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