“Chance to be one step ahead and a step further”, among others yes Robert Stalmach, our CEO in an interview for the NBS Nowoczesny Bank Spółdzielczy describes media monitoring. The interview was conducted with industry experts. It concerned the activity of banks in social media and practical ways to use media monitoring. Below the statement of the CEO of Newspoint.
How do cooperative banks cope in social media?
Our observations show that cooperative banks are not particularly active in the area of communication in social media, they treat it as a channel of current communication and information for their recipients. They are not used by them, for example, for the purpose of creative marketing campaigns. It seems that cooperative banks have not matured yet.
Commercial banks have successfully adopted social media for communication with clients. Should cooperative banks also follow their clients in this direction?
These mechanisms – regardless of whether it is a global, nationwide or local coverage customer – are similar. Of course, a cooperative bank can reach a smaller audience, but still be interested in how its offer looks compared to the competition. It works on the competitive market, and even if this competition for a given customer is not global, only local, it is. The image on its background is crucial for the bank to gain an advantage. In today’s knowledge and information world, you can not be competitive without an information advantage. For example, the bank needs to know about the weaknesses of the competition presented by customers. 1 use it when building your offer and reaching out to the recipients.
Who in the information society era manages the value of the bank: he or the client?
The change over the last years is very large. Customers decide today. We have a market where competition is increasing, we have an unlimited flow of information and it is certainly more difficult to build a competitive and informational advantage than it used to be. Characteristic for a younger group of clients, and this is confirmed by research, there is less loyalty, which is connected with the continuous flow of information. However, the recipients do not have access to aggregated information. Rarely does anyone take such trouble to analyze all statements and draw conclusions from it. Consumers see what they are getting at the moment. They do not have the tools to gather full information about a given cooperative bank and compare its image, which, after all, consists of many dimensions, with the image of other institutions. On the other hand, the bank, using media monitoring, is able to draw conclusions that are not available to the end user. It’s a chance to be a step ahead, but also a step further. This is possible only using automated methods.
How can the analysis of monitoring data help the bank gain knowledge about customers?
Here the role of social media reveals itself in acquiring all information that is interesting from the perspective of building communication with the client. This, moreover, must be treated in an extensive way, it is not just monitoring those resources that are at the discretion of the client; fanpage, blog, website – means the so-called own media, it would be easy. This is the monitoring of the entire spectrum of social media, not created by the client, but nevertheless places where this communication appears. About the client, or competition, because this is an additional aspect of monitoring. We are talking about forums, blogs, users’ statements on profiles other than customer profiles, on discussion groups. This is what the bank should be interested in if it wants to manage this communication. Do not leave it alone, only to influence it and be able to control, react to what people say. You can not count on the fact that this communication is only in the place where we are at the moment we manage, which we run. She can appear anywhere and you have to be prepared to react in any place.
What to pay special attention to in the area of building a communication strategy?
If you enter communication, you need to be aware of the possible negative repercussions. Even if it is unprofessionally conducted, it may give rise to many inflammatory situations that need to be dealt with and neutralized. If you make such a decision, you are already aware that you have to do it in a repetitive, professional, current way. Communication must be up-to-date and above all have a place, because the biggest mistake is to recognize that it is one-sided, that is, treating it in a similar way as communication through newsletters, websites or traditional media. If you already enter the communication channel, which by definition is two-sided, then you must also carry it out, that is, answer users’ questions, neutralize their anxieties. The consumer is a party to the discussion, a partner.
To what extent can Internet monitoring support the management process?
In this way, the customer is able to receive first-hand information, it is full information about themselves from the competition. While using traditional research methods, such data could be obtained on a sample, we are able to collect all information that raises the subject of interest to the client, and at the same time give aggregated management information, that is, show what these data result from. And although, for example, customer communication so far has focused on Facebook, it may turn out that in his case Instagram, or forums and bliss will be a more adequate communication channel. And that’s where the discussion about this type of product offer should be conducted. This information and the impact on business management may consist in the fact that we are able to capture how well the client’s advertising communication was effective. Whether it was positively or negatively received by consumers. How it was assessed against the background of communication that the competition leads. This is information about how much money spent on advertising is spent effectively. Our advantage is that we also include traditional media monitoring, that is, we collect information relevant to cooperative banks, because they function in reality, where precisely these media are a very important communication channel all the time.
What do you observe trends and development trends in social media and media monitoring? What can we expect in the next years?
What we observe in recent years is a definite extension of the spectrum of people who are natural recipients of media monitoring. For many years, the PR was the exclusive recipient of this type of data. Now, marketers, people managing crisis situations, HR, sales and customer service have become an important partner. It is also worth mentioning the use of media monitoring in product development. From our perspective, a comprehensive measurement of the value of communication in various media will be important in the coming years: traditional, digital, including social. In this respect, we rely on the AMEC (International Association for Measuring and Evaluation of Communication) guidelines, written in the so-called Barcelona Principles, or a collection of good practices regarding the principles of measurement.
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