Section

D, Group 5, Banking on Social Media

1. How has FNB used digital and social media to engage with its customers?
FNB used multitude of digital and social media tools to engage with its customers. The engagement is
represented in the following methodology;
Banking Application and Internet Banking: FNB has developed transactional banking application
and target tech savvy customers and develop ease of usage for customers. It was also the first to
develop and introduce Internet banking services for the South African market.
E Wallet Money Magnet Facebook Game: The Facebook game Low cost solution to drive
customers to FNB, and educate them about the services offered by the bank.
CEO Engagement: The banks CEO was highly proactive on social media platforms, particularly
twitter that helped the bank to further its cause of being a proactive and customer oriented bank. This
also helped the bank to develop trust among online community.
Consolidated Social Media Presence: FNB limited its social media presence on three platforms;
Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn to deliver high quality content.
Selective Targeting and Platform Differentiation: FNB used selective targeting, such as using
LinkedIn for professional communication and business banking. Also FNB engaged in identification of
capabilities of different platforms and aligned interaction on each channel differently.
Investment: FNB laid special emphasis on investment in digital marketing and in building and
managing online social networks; despite the costs associated with it.
Personalization: The bank launched advertisement based on the theme of personalization with a
character Steve, which presented FNB as a solution to commonly experienced pain points. This
allowed the bank to develop better connections with its audience.
Innovation and Mobile Revolution: The bank focused on innovation and planned to target mobile
platforms and mobile handset revolution, which the bank kept as high priority growth segment.
Operational Efficiency: The bank had developed in house agreements with various service
departments on decreasing response times on social media complaints
Educational Services on YouTube: FNB launched educational services on YouTube, to develop the
knowledge and awareness among customers and potential customers.
Presenting a cool image (FNB Guy): The bank presented itself as a cool and modern bank using
RBJacobs (FNB Guy); which allowed the bank to connect better to its audience.
Loyalty Programs and dotFNB Store: The bank launched various initiatives such as launching a
dotFNB store and loyalty programs and reward schemes to develop customer relationship.
Value added Services: The Company plans to launch various Value added services such as
Banking via Facebook and integration of banking on various platforms.
2. What benefits does FNB obtain for investing in social media strategy?
ANSWER : Customer Attitude and Perception: FNB involvement in social media and digital
marketing helped build positive perception and developed positive customer attitude towards the bank
Publicity (Transactional Banking App) : The transactional Banking App launched by FNB helped
garner widespread publicity in the South African market.
Profits growing: A strong online and digital presence lead to an increase in profits of the bank with
the bank registering a 30 percent Year on Year increase in its profits
Growth in Customers: Digital marketing and social media lead to an increase in the growth of the
banks customer base, which increased, by 5 percent Year on Year.
Market Leader in Internet banking: Due to the banks efforts in social and digital space enabled it to
become the market leader in Internet banking.
Human Resources : Due to the banks efforts to become tech savvy, it was able to attract and retain
the right talent which was a result of the Cool Revolution
Improved brand Image: Due to CEO participation in online channels, 71 percent of the respondents
observed an increased brand image of the bank.

Section D, Group 5, Banking on Social Media

Better Communication: Due to CEO participation in online channels, 78 percent of the respondents
observed better communication while 64 percent said that it provides increased transparency
Marketing: Online channels improved the banks marketing efforts by increasing awareness,
Information, and discovery about the banks services.
Sales: Digital media and Social media marketing helped bank to acquire new customers and
therefore increase the transactional value in sales.
Support: Social media presented a host of support advantages to the bank including education of
customers, feedback, advice and complaints
Transacting: The online and digital efforts of the bank helped it increase its transactional values
including social commerce and loyalty
Core brand Value: Social media and online marketing enabled the bank to propagate its core value
of How can we help you
Gain Insights: Through social media and digital media the bank was able to develop understanding
of needs and social behaviors, lifestyle choices, interests
Bank representation: Approachable, trustworthy, likable and technology savvy
Business Contribution: Net contribution to business due to Facebook game was R1.6 Million
Creation of Positive Brand Ambassadors: The bank was able to create positive brand
ambassadors due to focus on quality and consolidated presence on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn
Receiving real time feedback from customers: The bank received real time feedback from
customers, which was shared with different service departments enabling the bank to improve.
3. What might be the risks for a company to engage customers through social media?
Competition catching up: There is a threat of the competition, which will quickly catching up, and
the competitors were rapidly integrating digital tools in their suite.
Litigations on Twitter: The allegations made by such as the one made by standard bank may
decrease the brand Image in public.
Increasing Costs: Digital and social media cost time and money and building and managing online
social networks can lead to escalation of costs.
Threat of new entrants: There is always a threat of new entrants, which in the case is captured by
Capitec Bank and African Bank, which were rapidly advancing in digital space.
Decreasing Loyalty of customers: In a free information world there is a increased rate of customer
attrition and the loyalty of customers is solely dependent on service.
Few differentiators and homogenization: When all competitors start using the same tools the
digital space ceases to be a differentiator.
Increased expectations: The online mediums may lead to increased customer expectations, which
may not be fulfilled by the company and will lead to negative online reviews.
Underestimating the power of social media: Some companies may underestimate the power of
social media for online community growth and regret later.
High-level awareness required: The social media teams needs to know about the company
products services and launches and agility and speed on various operational levels
Human resources constraint: Employing social media writers from various backgrounds
Technological challenges: Building Application Programing Interfaces to pull social media in other
online content channels. Apart from these some other challenges are;
Downward pressure on non-interest revenue
Turning customer insights to action
Developing visual and audio brand recognition
Data and security concerns
Legal and compliance concerns
Effect on Employee productivity