NJ Bank Marketers Show Interest in Social Media

Last Wednesday, I spoke to the New Jersey Bankers Association on the subject of protecting your brand during this kind of economy. Part of my presentation had to do with the growth of social media. I talked about the fact that things like "blogs" are reminiscent of the chat rooms and user groups that had seen some momentary popularity when the Web was first introduced. They were basically the same kind of information dissemination techniques that people today use, such as Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and others. The main change is that the number of users today is significantly greater, of course.

A fellow speaker, Steve Lubetkin from Professional Podcasts LLC, talked more about social media and the work he does delivering audio and video over the Internet. I was most interested in what he had to say, given that we offer the same kind of disciplines and programs. Steve used his blog to show how important it has become as a tool for growing his business. Over the years, he has garnered hundreds of followers and many of the discussions today revolve around the usage of social media. This is yet another indication of what we are seeing and hearing from New Jersey businesses, large and small.

As for the banking industry, there has yet to be any noticeable use of social media. In a business that has been so "behind the scenes" with the confidential nature of the financial business in general, that is understandable.  However, it will be hard to convince people that you are offering "personal banking" when you avoid the new two-way media other businesses are starting to adapt.

Things will change. For example, one of our newer clients is a leading title search firm. One of the disciplines we perform for them is a turnkey blog program.  In the beginning, there was some question about whether a blog was a good idea for this sector of the financial industry. Then, one of the principals of the firm attended a recent trade show focused on the category and one of the major topics discussed in a very positive way was blogging. How convenient that we were off and running with their blog before the competition could even think about it!