Nielson Online in their latest Press Release yesterday highlighted that social networks and blogs are now the 4th most popular online activity ahead of even email. Of particular interest to financial services marketers was the finding that the social network and blogging audience is becoming more diverse in terms of age: the biggest increase in visitors during 2008 to “Member Community” Web sites globally came from the 35-49 year old age group (+11.3 million).
I know from personal family experience that sites such as Facebook and MySpace are becoming increasingly important socially as the 35+ age group are using them to stay in contact with younger family members such as nieces, nephews and children, as well as getting in contact with their old alumni.
To date many financial services marketers have been hesitant about targeting consumers via social media sites. Given the amount of time people are now spending on these sites together with their rapid adoption, this will have to change. Those who are prepared to be the first to dip their proverbial ‘toe’ in the water are likely to benefit most.
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I agree. The challenge is that many traditional financial services firms are approaching this new media with an antiquated mindset – either looking to extract the maximum ROI or trying to “own” the experience… when they should just be participating in the conversation and contributing to the dialogue.
The most successful players will be the ones that use the medium to gain closer contact with their customers, not use it as another advertising venue.
Interesting you should write about this subject as earlier this week I was discussing with my team the need to produce an effective social-media strategy.
From the wider business there has been some headshaking whenever I’ve mentioned it as they merely look at it from an advertising perspective and relate it too the furore over the launch of Facebook Beacon a couple of years back.
So, one or two hurdles to overcome but it certainly will be interesting to see how this area develops in the realm of financial services.
I’m going to be writing some further posts around this issue as I’m being sent stuff all the time. Watch this space…
Many thanks for your comments.