The Trends in Financial Institutions Social Media Marketing - Essay Example

Barclay and Media Introduction In the recent times, the trends of financial s social media utilization marketing have drastically changed. There is a heightened escalation in the number of social media users, and so the banks have to move along with the change. Primarily, most of the financial institutions users are linked in one way or another to social media sites such as Facebook or twitter. Accessibility to these sites is so easy, and most clients do access the sites several times in a day. Additionally, there is an increase in the number of a young generation seeking banking services. Banks have to target the young generation via such social sites. The success of any business lies under one core fundamental factor: being available where the target clients are. It has not been different for Barclays, which boasts of its great success and a huge number of clients in United Kingdom. The bank has been at the forefront in close relation with media, ensuring that it utilizes social media to reach out to its loyal customer base and tap its potential. Barclays Relation with Media Depending on its diverse departments, Barclays has a number of Twitter accounts all branded differently. They are quite active, with the most active being @ BarclaysFooty, an account linked to the sponsored Barclays Premier League. The site has over 159, 000 followers, which is a huge number for a bank twitter account. Most of the times, the posts are often related to football updates and other competitions with the intentions of targeting the football fans. Barclay’s wealth and investment team also have a twitter account labelled @Barclayswealth, which has over 73,000 followers. It does posts financial investment updates and other banking services offered. The customers’ service twitter account is nabbed @BarclaysOnline, having over 48,000 users. It does receive the highest number of interaction with its clients. Its website does grant its clients the link to accessing twitter. During its working hours, the twitter services and responses are quite fast and timely. All potential queries responses are dealt with from Monday to Friday, between 8am to 8pm. The clients have reported satisfaction with the social systems, with the support team responding to a good number of queries, an element that does improve their customer care and public relations with the clients (barclays.co.uk). With over half a million likes, Barclays Facebook wall has maintained a constant service to its clients, similarly to its Twitter account. It does engage its clients all through the whole day, answering all their queries. Most significantly, it does utilize its page as an advertising and a promotional tool such as personalised debit tools. Additionally, its new website has an area that does aim at improving the live discussions with their clients. The clients can respond to their services via the feedback panel. Most importantly, Barclay’s website does possess ideal feature of a platform that does engage its clients at the click of the internet. On analysing it, several key features are an evidence of its concern to their loyal clients. One can conduct several services online without having to visit the branches in person. There is an online banking option, where one is allowed to access personal accounts at any time, follow up the transactions and manage all the finances while still secure of any fraud. Moreover, the website is detailed enough to enhance communication. One can navigate on it pretty easy. Such features of the website do attract huge traffic, which may be seeking services and keen enough to learn more about the firm. Any information spread via social media does reach most people within a short period. In essence, an influential platform cultivates the success of a business. Communication, as aforementioned, remains key to the success of any firm if utilized well. There are continuous interactions, which in the end makes the client have a feeling of ownership. Barclays, Libor crisis and media However, social media is also a pitfall to the success of any firm. It is a two-edged sword that can lead to the failure of a firm within a short duration. For instance, the reputation of Barclays did get to its worst on 2012, when a financial scandal occurred. The scandal even led to the resignation of its top officials- and it did spread within a matter of days. With the current age of twitter and Facebook, the news did spread faster than usual. First, the issue just did rotate as a poor intrinsic management issue. However, on leashing out in the public domain, there was an element of miscommunication. Consequently, the effects was traumatising to a company that had taken too many years to build up. All the confidence it had garnered from it services consumers did fade away. The pressure was too much for the senior officials, ultimately resulting to their resignation. Extrinsic pressure was too immense to the extent that it would affect negatively the reputation and of the brand (Parsons, pg.11). The social media have had a detrimental effect to the operations of the Barclays. The senior officials had to react with rapidity to avoid tarnishing the name of the bank. The Chief Executive Officer did not even spare a moment with the media, such as television. He did refrain from having any interviews with them, a factor that could even have eroded further the initial confidence. The Libor crisis was an event that affected the brand equity. Concisely, a close analysis of how Barclays did respond to the issue via media is quite wanting. It demonstrates an element of lack of concern to their loyal networks. First, their consistent statements were rather unapologetic. The Chief Executive Office held no official statements or television presses to clarify the issue. To add insult to an injury, the bank website did fail to cover the issue via their news or emerging issues, despite the fact that the action was trending in the media for weeks (Resnikoff, np). The executive did owe an apology or clarification to their clients but instead they went mute. Most astonishing, the corporate site laid to poorly drawn statements of apology, Even Diamond’s daughter had the audacity to attack the politicians for the negative comments regarding her father. This is unethical at such a digital era. Barclays does possess considerable influence in United Kingdom and the rest of the world. It could have reacted better than it did during that crisis. It should have come out strongly to condemn the vice, making clear the occurrences at hand. People are thirsty for news regarding the brands they consume o well. The corporate could have ventured out strongly and clarify the issue to the bottom of it. Instead, there was a significant contradiction it the messages that were circulating in the media. One factor remains evident: if the management team had come clean on the conflicting issue, then the loyal clients could have been satisfied with the responses. Leaving the public at the epitome of confusion without effective communication was a bad show for a firm that could have utilized all the social media available. In summation, Barclays has been at the forefront of utilizing media in its daily operations. Most significantly, its contribution to the advertisements and communication to their clients through Facebook, Twitter, YouTube advertisements, Television and website updates is outstanding. It has a team of personnel well equipped with customer care skills and public relations. Its social media utilization remains an exemplary in comparison to other leading firms. However, it needs to do more on the same, especially maintenance of constant communication during moments of crisis and conflicts. Works cited Barclays.co.uk Parsons, Russell. “Barclays Sorry ‘for Letting Customers Down’.” Marketing Week (Online Edition) (2012): 11. Print. Resnikoff, Ned. “Banks Let off the Hook for Libor Antitrust Allegations — MSNBC.” MSNBC. N.p., 2013. Print. Read More