The Reserve Bank
of India, RBI , the regulatory body for banks in India, has been consistently highlighted the need for
banks to increase their presence on social media. The Institute for Development
and Research in Banking Technology (IDRBT), established by RBI, released a
report ‘The Social Media Framework for Indian Banks’ to underscore the use of
social media by the banking industry and give recommendations—from a governance
model, security implications and a social media checklist for banks. The report
rightly says that Gen Y can be tapped more easily at social media sites than
brick-and-mortar branches, provided that banks design guidelines for engagement
and the same needs to be communicated to the front-line staff representing the
brand on social media.
While
banks have invested heavily in transaction processing systems and achieved huge
productivity gains, they have not leveraged their huge information base
gathered over decades. Few other industries have such
detailed information on customers, such as demography, spending patterns,
family history, etc. Some banks have invested significantly in DataWarehouse
and Business Intelligence (BI) tools, but with little effect in capturing
customer life-time value, and increase in the number of products per customer.
The present organisation structures and business processes are
the primary challenges to be overcome in view of a serious social media foray. The
structures are still branch-led, and that is the area of focus. The other big
barrier is the delay in process upgrades and updates. Centralised processing needs
to be used more effectively. Poor social media skills is another requirement
which needs to be addressed.
The report has a checklist for banks which asks banks to first
identify its goals and objectives. Thereafter it expects them to evaluate and
identify the audience, and examine its competitors. In determining its focus on
the social media effort, the report suggests that the bank ask the following
questions :
- Are
you adding a URL for each of your Products/Services?
- Do
you have a schedule or routine for interacting on social media?
- Do
you use contextually relevant calls-to action to encourage participants to
take the next step?
- Do
you want increased traffic to your social media site?
- How
do you staff, vendors and customers use social media now?
- What
are the apps used by the bank on social media?
- When
was the last update made to the social media page by bank?
- Which
social media platforms are most important for your business?
- Who
handles your bank's social media engagement?
- Who
has the responsibility for populating, maintaining and monitoring your
social media presence? Do they have skills and time?
In terms of content creation the report suggests to keep the
posts succinct, consistent and useful.
It is has set the tone for the banks to make a foray into social
media, though much work needs to be done.
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