Banks Are Catching the Twitter Bug

Sure, you’ve heard about Twitter. You’ve most likely heard about famous celebrities all a-twittering, blogs and websites having their own Twitter following, and you’re probably a big fan of Twitter yourself. Practically everyone has jumped on the bandwagon of this year’s social networking phenomenon called Twitter. But…banks on Twitter?

Update: To follow banks on twitter, check out: Bank Twitter

For the few of those who may have not been kept up-to-date on the latest big thing to hit the Web 2.0, Twitter is basically a micro-blogging site. A person on Twitter sends out “tweets” of 140 characters or less, telling others what he is up to, and at the same time pointing to an URL in the internet using tinyurls. A simple concept yet truly powerful.
But if you think that Twitter is just good for personal updates, and has no place in the financial and business industries, you’d be in for a neat surprise. Politicians, business executives, big companies, yes, even banks, are now making their presence felt in Twitter.

Data from Online Banking Report dated March 13, 2009 shows that as of that time, there were 15 US banks and 22 credit unions actively using Twitter. And that’s not counting the rest of the banks who may have set up their own Twitter feeds within the past couple of months.

Among the big banks which have joined the foray into Twitter are:

Banks on twitter

A quick check of these banks’ Twitter sites show that some of them are using their Twitter accounts purely to promote bank products and announce updates on the latest bank deals, and some are also actively using the social networking site as a way of keeping in touch with and responding to customers’ concerns.

While many bank customers still have to get used to the idea of “twittering” with their bank representatives, the few who do may actually find the service helpful. Wachovia, Bank of America, and Wells Fargo, which are using the micro-blogging media as an extended customer service platform, are enjoying larger numbers of followers.

Wachovia (now owned by Wells Fargo) was the first among these banks to use Twitter as a customer support channel (August 2008) and now enjoys a following of more than 3,000. Bank of America and Wells Fargo have over 1,000 followers each. Chase and Citibank on the other hand, which utilize the site purely for marketing purposes, just have a few hundred following their Twitter updates.

Due to the limited number of characters allowed however, solving customers’ problems sometimes require more than just shooting tweets back and forth. Some of the customer service interaction will involve the client giving out his contact info to the bank representative, and then waiting for that call. Not as quick a response as others may want but then again, that still beats listening to elevator music while being put on hold.

About the banks

 

Citibank

Citi is today’s pre-eminent financial services company, with some 200 million customer accounts in more than 100 countries. Citibank checking, savings, and money market accounts come with a Citibank® Banking Card, which is your key to accessing your accounts online, at ATMs, by phone, or at branches.

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Wachovia

Fourth largest bank holding company in the United States based on assets. Third largest U.S. full-service brokerage firm based on financial advisors.

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Bank of America

Bank of America is one of the world's largest financial institutions, serving individual consumers, small and middle market businesses and large corporations with a full range of banking, investing, asset management and other. It operates in 32 states, the District of Columbia and 30 foreign countries.

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Wells Fargo

Wells Fargo & Company is a diversified financial services company with $1.3 trillion in assets, providing banking, insurance, investments, mortgage and consumer finance through more than 11,000 stores, over 12,000 ATMs and the internet (wellsfargo.com) across North America and internationally.

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Chase

JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM) is a leading global financial services firm with assets of $2.2 trillion and operations in more than 60 countries. The firm is a leader in investment banking, financial services for consumers, small business and commercial banking, financial transaction processing, asset management, and private equity.

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