A pair of recent reports reveal how prospective financial services customers are using social media and how financial institutions are capitalizing on the trend.
Budgets for social media will increase this year at two-thirds of the nation’s banks, according to a recent survey of depository financial institutions.
Plans to increase spending on social media resources
during 2017 reflect the significance of the medium, with three-quarters of bankers calling it important.
Those findings were derived from
The State of Social Media in Banking. The report is based on a survey of 780 banks conducted by the American Bankers Association.
The report said that the largest share of social media users are between 25 and 44. Facebook is utilized by
62 percent of online adults. A fifth of LinkedIn users are at least 65.
Just a quarter of banks
have used social media for five years, ABA said. But the share of new adopters is quickly growing.
Facebook is preferred by 90 percent of banks, while 69 percent prefer LinkedIn and 52 percent prefer Twitter.
The activities that social media is most utilized for are communication, marketing/sales, and risk management functions like complaint monitoring.
“The great majority of banks have realized that they can’t afford to be on the sidelines when it comes to using social media,” Christine Walika, executive vice president of ABA’s Community Bank Group, said in a statement. “With millions of Americans connecting on social media every day, innovative banks are winning big by connecting with customers in an engaging, interactive and personal way.”
Bank of America Corp. recently noted in its Homebuyer Insights Report that Pinterest is a resource utilized for prospective homebuyers for inspiration on the kind of home they want.
Among millennials searching for home decorating ideas, nearly half use Pinterest, while 37 percent turn to Facebook and a third utilize Instagram, according to BofA. In the Generation X group, nearly a third use Pinterest, 37 percent prefer Facebook and 11 percent favor Instagram.
The
Independent Community Bankers Association last year recognized Bank of Ann Arbor, Busey Bank and Seacoast Bank for their ability to be innovative in their utilization of social media platforms.
