2:10 – Bob Pearson introduces Joel Nathanson — VP, Social Media Programs, Wells Fargo
2:11 – Joel: The past 12 months has been deemed one of the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. It wouldn’t have been a surprise to us to have gone into an engagement lockdown, but we didn’t. We actually launched engagement programs.
2:13 – Joel: We’re an old brand, I say: Embracing change since 1852.
2:14 – Joel: March 2006: We launched our first blog — first US bank to do that.
2:15 – Joel: Whether during crisis or during everyday business, these are the key components:
1. It’s complimentary to the other channels you already have and should be used together.
2. Counter vacuum risk: If you’re not there, someone else will be and may be answering the question you should have been.
3. High value, low cost. Reach more people through SEO, RSS, and WOM.
4. But, be ready. Slowly build your infrastructure. You don’t want to be building this program when you’re in a crisis, build it now.
2:17 – Joel: Consumer communication in financial services is not without regulation and oversight. There’s a lot of policies that come into play. When you’re building a program at scale, as we are, there are a lot of things you have to take into account.
2:18 – Joel: We have to be careful of certain words: Promise, expert advice, guarantee, investments, etc.
2:19 – Joel: Our engagement evolution:
1. Listen – Know what was being said, what consumers needs were, and get a handle on the conversation.
2. Publish
3. Expanding out to the social networks, as appropriate.
4. Engagement
2:20 – Joel: Benefit of listening, you’ll know: “What is normal?” You’ll have a baseline to measure spikes against.
2:21 – Joel: First blog was safe, and continues to be: Focused on history, archives, and it remains to be a very popular blog.
2:22 – Joel: Now have product blog, B2B blog, SecondLife community.
2:22 – Joel: Recently opened up on Twitter to use as a service channel.
2:23 – Joel: Social media as a service channel represents unique challenges:
1. Third-party platforms are not always reliable. (Joel talks about the “fail whale” example on Twitter and the need for backup channels to make sure people can get the service they need.)
2. Unofficial customer service reps: Folks that maybe work for you, maybe don’t, but their answers may not be accurate.
3. Credibility and transparency. For us in the financial services industry, this is critical.
4. Abuse. Who can be the loudest can get what they want, so you need some plans to address this.
5. Online security. Again, especially critical in the financial services industry. We can not talk about accounts in a public forum, so we take these conversations offline.
6. Enterprise ready? Can you manage multiple accounts? How are you going to pass data across your organization so you can track it. Who’s holding onto this information?
2:26 – Joel: Fundamentals of a successful social media program:
1. Clear goals
2. Willing
3. Adaptable
4. Thoughtful and focused
2:26 – Joel: You’ve got the data, now what?
1. Organize and analyze
2. Identify and target opportunities
3. Get to know your relevant channels
2:27 – Joel: Err on the business side of business casual. Remember that you’re a business, and you should probably always take the high road in your engagements.
2:28 – Joel: You’re determining the voice when you’re engaged. Understand the voice of those that represent you. You need to have a sustainable content plan: Are you going to staff this thing 24/7? How do you handle questions when they come up?
2:29 – Joel: Just because you can’t, doesn’t mean you should. You shouldn’t join every single conversation if there’s not a reason for you to be there.
2:30 – Joel: Behind every post, is a real person. And when you’re responding to anything, you’re responding to many.
Q&A
Q: When you started launching your first blog, and as you added to them, was that from within your already existing copywriters? How did you control the content?
A: Our first blog was a serial blog focused on history. We had a lot of photos, stories, etc. on history. Social media at Wells Fargo is in a group called experiential marketing.
Q: I work in a highly regulated industry as well. When you’re faced with questions that deal with topics that you have to avoid, how do you do that?
A: I think you can engage those folks and acknowledge their question, you can say: I’d love to help you, but that’s not my area of expertise. Let me direct you to someone that can help.
Q: How is your virtual world doing?
A: It’s very successful. It focuses on youth and financial literacy.
Q: Can you elaborate more on, as we all know, crisis can occur — a Tweet can get in mainstream media, etc. At that sort of level, do you have a structured approach at how you manage that type of crisis?
A: We have a great relationship with our corporate communications team. They would help us in that instance, and have the relationships with mass media.
Q: What does your education program look like for new bloggers or tweeters coming on board? How do you identify who is right for the job?
A: All of our bloggers have full-time jobs also. They are experts in their own rights in those fields. We want to find folks who have tremendous personality. We will train folks to use the tools.
Q: Is there a mandatory program bloggers need to go through?
A: Yes, all bloggers are trained by our team.
Q: Wells Fargo has a very diverse range of products — if I tweeted into the mass Wells Fargo, what’s your network to ensure that request gets to the right person?
A: First thing we do with @ask_wellsfargo on Twitter is to set the expectation for what’s on topic and what’s off topic. So when we do get questions in, we do have internal structures in place. Nine times out of ten, we’re going to take that conversation offline so we can talk about specifics.
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