Online Marketing Performance » Facebook

Bank of America: A tale of two social presences

Scott McAndrew — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 00:56:58 +0000

Bank of America has a presence on both Facebook and Twitter. The brand perception that one walks away from after visiting each one couldn’t be more different. In a presentation I recently did I used the contrast between the two as a way to illustrate success, and failure, during the strategic planning process.

A Few Common Strategic Planning Pitfalls

During the planning process for a social media presence some commonly overlooked questions include:

Do we have the right goal?
Who will be the brand owner of the social effort?
What should our tone/voice be?
How will we handle negative interaction?
How do we define success?
Are we prepared for the depth of commitment required for this to be successful?

There’s plenty more pitfalls, but we’ll focus on those above in reviewing Bank of America’s Facebook and Twitter presences.

Bank of America Example #1: Facebook Group (the failure)

If you go looking for Bank of America on Facebook, you’ll find a few different Groups and Pages. From the get-go, not all of what came back looks great. For Groups there’s “Bank of America Are Crooks!”, “Please BOYCOTT Bank of America”, and no shortage of “Bank of America Sucks!” Groups. This is a bit beyond the context we’re talking about (these Groups were created by non-Bank of America personnel), so I headed over to the Group that I guessed was the official Bank of America Facebook presence as it was listed first and had the most members (over three-thousand).

It’s simply called “Bank of America”. Here’s a screen capture below of what you see on arrival:

Fairly innocuous. Clicking on the “Wall” tab reveals the conversation being had here, and it’s quickly clear that things aren’t sunshine and rainbows. The Group has become a soapbox for anyone and everyone who is unhappy with Bank of America, and Bank of America is nowhere to be found to stand up for itself.

Considering the social media strategic planning pitfalls above, see how the Bank of America Group fares:

Do we have the right goal?

Of course I have no way of knowing what the creator’s actual goal was, but we do have a publicly stated goal under the Information heading: “Help build the biggest BOA Facebook group.”

Well, they succeeded at that goal. This is the biggest Bank of America Facebook Group. Unfortunately its now clearly an anti-Bank of America Group.

How do we define success?

If being the biggest was success the metric being used this would then be considered a success. I’m fairly certain this isn’t what the creator was hoping for. And, a little more poking around shows that this Group wasn’t intended to be for the general public. In the Description it says the Group is open to “Bank of America employees and alumni.”

Who will be the brand owner of the social effort? What should our tone/voice be?

For Bank of America, this is where the plot thickens. This Group, which appears to be an official Bank of America Group, was created by an employee – a teller at Bank of America. His role of Bank of America Teller is listed as a previous job he held, so it’s safe to assume he’s no longer with the bank.

So, although this looks and feels at first glance (before you read the Wall content) as its likely an official Bank of America Group, it’s something a teller created hoping to create a gathering place for past and present Bank of America employees, not a ‘formal’ effort Bank of America corporate undertook.

How will we handle negative interaction? Are we prepared for the depth of commitment required for this to be successful?

Things get a bit more complicated here. How is negative interaction being handled? Hear no evil, see no evil, respond to no evil. To which one might say “you just said that Bank of America didn’t officially create this Group.” My response is that while they didn’t create it, they certainly don’t need to be ignorant of it.

It’s not beneficial when your most popular presence on the largest social media site in the world sets up a regular association between your brand name and the word “sucks.”

This Group uses their trademarked name, and was created by someone who is easy enough to track down. There are plenty of options that Bank of America could explore to be a part of this conversation and help shape perception.

As it stand now, the inmates are running the asylum.

Bank of America Example #2: BofA_Help on Twitter (the success)

Here’s something completely different. Bank of America created a presence on Twitter where you might think they’d be at even more risk to get eaten alive by negative criticism. Unlike Facebook, Twitter welcomes profiles that don’t require the real person behind them be readily apparent. In situations like this, getting beaten up verbally can go haywire as people can hide behind an ambiguous profile name and complain to their heart’s content.

The interactions on Twitter, however, are far different from those on the Facebook Group page above.

Do we have the right goal?

I’m paraphrasing from what I’ve read about BofA Help on Twitter. In the broadest of strokes the purpose of this social presence is to “provide timely customer service to Bank of America customers.”

That’s a good goal. Social media is well suited to customer service. It’s also a goal that Bank of America could (and likely does) apply real metrics to so their progress can be measured.

How do we define success?

For this question I’m at a loss for an answer. I haven’t spoken to anyone at Bank of America (although I’ve tried), but from an outsider’s view I’d have to assume that their efforts are successful (if you work for Bank of America specifically with their social media efforts feel free to contact me!).

The interactions seem to be reasonably prompt, and people aren’t attacking Bank of America, they’re looking for issue resolution, and it would appear that Bank of America is using Twitter as a place to intercept complaints and concerns, and to then move the conversation to a medium where issues can be resolved.

There’s also plenty of “thank you” tweets commending B of A’s representatives for a job well done.

Who will be the brand owner of the social effort? What should our tone/voice be?

BofA_Help is manned by six representatives. Looking over the interactions they each have with the customers that come with problems, they’re all representing their brand well. Each representative smartly signs their tweets with their initials (good thinking) and communication is professional; empathetic even. All the representatives respond and interact in lock step with a calm, helpful approach.

I did see some representative Tweets that look as though they are canned responses. I’m assuming this is an aid to the volume of inquiries they receive.

How will we handle negative interaction? Are we prepared for the depth of commitment required for this to be successful?

This is all about customer service and issue resolution. The nature of the beast is that the interaction starts out with negative overtones. From where it goes form there everything seems to be handled very professionally and with the (serious) commitment required.

Bank of America’s goal on Twitter isn’t to create something to point at and say “Look how great our customers think we are!” Their goal is to provide better service for their customers. By focusing on that goal, however, they’re achieving the other in the form of the feedback their customers are providing in return.

Three Facebook Predictions for 2010

Scott McAndrew — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 18:13:26 +0000

I recently had the opportunity to sit on a Facebook Deep Dive panel which allowed me to think about Facebook looking forward into 2010. Here’s a few of my Facebook predictions for 2010 that I shared:

Facebook will go far beyond Facebook.com

Facebook interaction isn’t always on Facebook.com, and that trend will accelerate in 2010. While Facebook would love for you to spend all of your time on their site, they know that they can’t force that agenda, nor do they need to. Content and interactions between real individuals and brands are the bedrock of their value, and while page impressions help with advertising, capturing interaction data and building ubiquity is far more important.

Adding “Share” and “Become a Fan” links are a first step, but they are rudimentary. And, of the hundreds of thousands of sites leveraging Facebook Connect, most are merely scratching the surface. Expect to see progressive brands performing much deeper integrations in 2010 that better take advantage of Connect/Open Graph API, and in turn Facebook itself.

Facebook’s on-site search will evolve

Facebook has dabbled with their on-site search, but they haven’t done anything all that impressive. The promise of a true ‘social search’ where results are catered to the individual user is something that Facebook is uniquely qualified to provide. Facebook’s latest redesign (still not ‘live’ at the time of this posting) is a clear indication that search is something they will be giving heightened importance to.

How Facebook handles on-site search results of its own content as well as content from the greater web will evolve throughout 2010, creating both challenges and opportunities for marketers. What Facebook delivers with search on their own site may very well be something completely abstract to how we understand search at present.

Facebook will do far more for local businesses

Businesses are flocking to Facebook – there are currently more than 700,000 local businesses with Pages. And, these local businesses are important to Facebook. Last year nearly 75% of Facebook’s TOTAL revenue came from local businesses and advertisers ($~229 Million). The rapid uptake in Facebook user mobile usage (currently 65M of their 350M active users) as well as the popularity of sites like Yelp present a further case for Facebook.

On search engines local continues to be a hot topic and area of rapid growth. Numbers vary, but depending on what data source you believe somewhere between 20% and 40% of all Internet searches today are local in nature. Expect Facebook to expand its offering and presentation of local businesses in ways that pay dividends to businesses that are active with Facebook’s various interaction points and have Fans that interact in-kind.

What predictions do you have for Facebook in 2010?

Facebook’s money for nothing

Scott McAndrew — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 04:19:59 +0000

Virtual gifts are flying off of Facebook’s shelves. Since opening the Gifts store in 2007 millions of virtual gifts have been sent between Facebook friends using the Gift store alone. When words alone can’t express one’s feelings, a virtual cupcake, puppy, roll of toilet paper, bff charm or shot of tequila are just a click away.

Although virtual, the lion’s share of gifts cost actual money in the form of a Facebook-only currency, called Facebook Credits. Credits are purchased from Facebook by credit card at an exchange rate of 10 credits per dollar. Most gifts cost 10 credits, which equals one dollar, but like in vegas, credits likely spend faster than dollars and cents. How many dollars and cents the social networking site takes in is up for speculation.

Facebook hasn’t revealed exactly how much money it is making from the sale of virtual gifts, but Silicon Alley Insider recently guesstimated the breakdown of Facebook’s $550 million annual revenue, pinning $75 million dollars a year to virtual goods. From the July 2, 2009 Silicon Alley Insider blog post:

Earlier this week, we spoke to several sources who each have some insight into Facebook’s financials (none of them know precisely). Taking the sources’ input together, we’d estimate the company’s expected 2009 revenue this way:

$125 million from brand ads

$150 million from Facebook’s ad deal with Microsoft

$75 million from virtual goods

$200 million from self-service ads

Total: $550 Million

If the numbers are correct, in addition to being highly popular virtual gifting also represents a respectable amount of overall revenue. Looking forward, Facebook is experimenting with new ways for users to spend their Facebook credits.

Bozeman fired up over officer’s Facebook posts

Scott McAndrew — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 23:05:24 +0000

Bozeman, MT is becoming a lightning rod of sorts for legal issues concerning city employees and social networks. Back in June the City of Bozeman, Montana and social network sites were in the news for a curious job application request:

Please list and and all past, and present, personal or business website or web pages, memberships on any Internet-based chat rooms, social clubs or forums, to include but not limited to: Facebook, Google, Yahoo, YouTube, MySpace, etc.

The list was to include each website as well as the applicant’s user name and password. The uproar caused by publicity surrounding the request has settled for the most part, but social networks and Bozeman were back in the news last month, this time for a different reason.

The City, which defended itself back in June when the City attorney was quoted as saying “…we have positions ranging from fire and police, which require people of high integrity [...] so we do those types of investigations to make sure the people that we hire have the highest moral character and are a good fit for the City” seemed to have a lapse in judgment when they hired at least one police officer.

As a part of a civil rights-related lawsuit filed against the City of Bozeman and some of the police officers it employs, Matthew White and his attorneys cited posts an officer at the center of the case made to his Facebook profile page. The officer, Cody Anderson, who is being accused of violating the prosecutor’s civil rights had the following posted on his publicly available profile:

I think there should be a law saying police can take people to jail for being stupid. Ask a cop a question like, ‘Don’t you have anything better to do?’ and you get a free ride in a cop car. If I had something better to do, I would be off doing that, and not messing with you. Speaking of messing with people … I like messing with people. Just being in a patrol car looking at people while parked at a red light is fun. Make eye contact, squint your eyes like you know what they just did and watch them squirm and avoid all further eye contact. It makes my day fun.

“I’m always amazed at what people will tell a police officer. I think people assume we are like priests and it is all in confidence. It’s not. We go back to the office and talk about everything we saw and heard. Then we laugh at people. Usually it is all on audio as well so we listen to stupid things over and over. If we are lucky, it happened in front of a patrol car with its camera on. Then we get to watch it over and over,” the lawsuit said.

Following the filing of the lawsuit the Deputy Chief of Police and issued a statement of concern. The officer also apologized, citing his “dry sense of humor” and that the postings had been “taken out of context.” Weeks later the officer resigned of his own volition.

The whole episode created a lot of chatter on the Internet, with commenters taking sides either applauding the officer’s resignation or defending his right to free speech, privacy, and even disdain for the public.

Millennials: Nothing personal, Twitter

Scott McAndrew — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 22:30:09 +0000

There’s a recent study that came out regarding Millennials and social meda that is causing a considerable amount of speculation and interpretation. The study, released by the Participatory Marketing Network, shows that while Millennials are active participants in social media in general, what they aren’t is all that interested in media darling Twitter.

The study, which questioned 200 panel members between the ages of 18 and 24, reported that while 99 percent of respondents have a profile on a social networking site that only 22 percent of the group say they use Twitter.

While there’s a barrage of articles speculating on why, I personally don’t find this to be all that surprising. Considering the nature of the networks, and the Millennials themselves, Facebook makes sense. Twitter does not.

High on the list of Millennials core values are authenticity and transparency. And, what do Millennials utilize social networks for? To build and nurture relationships. Stopping right there the preference toward Facebook over Twitter seems obvious.

On Twitter, you can hide behind a profile and be anyone you want to be. Don’t want people to know who you really are? Open a GMail account and sign up. Create your fake bio and go for it. Parade around as whomever you want and say whatever you want. If things don’t work out, start over.

Facebook couldn’t be more different. Facebook is decidedly focused on creating a network of people, not profiles. While it is possible to make it through the registration process with a made up name and empty bio, what’s next? Its akin to showing up at a black-tie party in a bozo the clown suit. You’ll definitely find yourself short on friends let alone interaction.

In terms of servicing their users, Facebook also aligns more closely with Millennials needs than Twitter does. Twitter is a simple messaging platform that allows the broadcast and receipt of 140 character messages. Yes, Twitter has utility. One utility. It does one thing, and not especially well.

Facebook’s offering provides a far richer set of tools, allowing members to interact in a far more dimensional context. Twitter is a simple messaging system, and not one that Millennials have much of a need for in its current form.

DON’T Check kirgo.at – Facebook phishing scam [UPDATE]

Scott McAndrew — Thu, 21 May 2009 16:56:01 +0000

I blogged earlier this morning about a Facebook Phishing Scam. I’m now getting messages in my Inbox on Facebook recommending I “Check kirgo.at.” It’s the same scam, complete (or incomplete depending on how you look at it) with lack of Facebook logo on the fake Facebook login page.

Rule of thumb: if you don’t recognize the URL in messages you’re receiving in your Facebook Inbox, don’t trust them. There’s likely scores of web addresses (probably all .at addresses) setup for the same phishing function.

If you feel that your account may have been compromised, visit Facebook’s Security page (it is viewable even if you cannot access your Facebook account).

Beyond Facebook’s advice, I’d have to also suggest that compromised account holders monitor their banking, credit card and cellphone accounts. Scam artists often attempt identity theft with as little information as a full name and date-of-birth.

Warning: areps.at in your Facebook Inbox = Phishing [UPDATE]

Scott McAndrew — Thu, 21 May 2009 15:56:42 +0000

If you receive a message in your Facebook Inbox encouraging you to checkout a site called areps.at, don’t do it. It’s the latest Facebook phishing scam.

I received one of the messages this morning, and was instantly suspicious as it came from a contact that I haven’t spoken to in quite some times, and it was a very brief/terse message.

If you’re a computer novice, you might click through. What happens next, is you’re presented with what looks like a login to Facebook. While it’s easy to shrug this off and say “you’d have to be stupid to fall for this,” barring the missing Facebook logo (which might be my experience and not everyone’s), I could see people clicking through or even cutting-and pasting this into their browser’s address bar and subsequently giving away their Facebook login and password.

The best way to stop the scam? If you get an email on Facebook like the one I got, inform the person who sent it to you that their account has been compromised. The emails are being sent from actual Facebook accounts, so someone out there has their login. Second, pass the word about the phishing scam so other’s don’t fall for it.

Facebook users are now reporting the same scam directing users to the following Facebook phishing pages:

areps.at
kirgo.at
bests.at
brunga.at
nutpic.at

If you feel that your account may have been compromised, visit Facebook’s Security page (it is viewable even if you cannot access your Facebook account).

What’s a clever Facebook Status go for nowadays?

Scott McAndrew — Sun, 05 Apr 2009 23:06:05 +0000

Both Venture Beat and Mashable had coverage last week of a Facebook feature currently being tested called “credits.” I thought “credits” was a April Fool’s Day joke that just wasn’t all that amusing. Apparently, it wasn’t.

Here’s an excerpt from the Venture Beat coverage that explains how it works:

When you leave a comment on an item, you’ll see a field where you can enter the number of credits you want to give the person who created the item. You’ll also see the number of credits you have available to give — you can choose to give up to the number of credits you possess. You can only get credits by buying them in Facebook’s virtual gifts store — $1 for 100 credits — or by receiving them (or by getting some free when you start using credits, although Facebook is testing how many to make available that way).

Once you’ve left a comment with credits, you’ll see the credits appear next to the comment, following the feature’s green plus symbol icon. There’s no other way to create credits at this time. This means people need to think twice before giving their credits away.

“No brainer” or “no brain”?
For Facebook, it’s a no-brainer. Getting users to exchange real cash for virtual compliments doesn’t have a downside. And, they’re the coolest social networking site on the block. They’ve proven that they are adept at rolling out ideas then, if they tank (or worse, aggravate people), they can backpedal without too much damage.

For Facebook users? My guess is that the average Facebook user’s response is “thanks, but no thanks.” The idea is, well, clunky. While there’s likely far more behind this than what’s being exposed at this point, in response to one’s status giving someone a quick text retort or clicking a ‘like’ link feels natural. Giving them ‘money’ they can spend on tchotchke or re-credit to someone else’s clever status does not.

What do you think? How will Facebook users respond?

Photo by chrispulo

2008 social network site data

Scott McAndrew — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 21:36:53 +0000

I recently participated in writing a research brief on marketing opportunities on social network sites (social network sites such as Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, etc.). Part of our research was to see what information we could find regarding popularity of social network sites worldwide as well as member population makeup, specifically social network population by age and gender. The research data I needed went far beyond my high-level post on social networks in February.

Happily, we were able to find data that helped in our analysis without spending a dime.

Global popularity of social network sites

In research social networking site popularity, we came across a great blog post: “Modeling The Real Value of Social Networks“. The post by Michael Arrington (that appeared on his site TechCrunch) was focused on assigning a valuation social network sites. While I wasn’t interested in the valuation, the post leveraged data that was just what we were looking for to get a gauge on overall popularity: April 2008 comScore social network site data for their supported countries and regions.

Interested? TechCrunch made the data available as a Google Docs spreadsheet:

TechCrunch – The True Value of Social Networks

Member population: age and gender

Another key piece of data we were trying to find was a breakdown of social network site members by age and gender. I was fairly confident that this data would be hard to come by, but some persistent Google searches turned up this gem: Two Rapleaf studies focused on that exact topic. The studies are biased towards the U.S. market, but the information is compelling and valuable nonetheless. Rapleaf’s commentary on how males and females differ in their usage of the social network sites is also interesting. Following links from these press releases will get you to data (some of it is provided right in the press releases also):

I hope this data helps in your social network research!

Small businesses: $100 in Facebook Ads for free

Scott McAndrew — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 05:51:49 +0000

If you’ve ever wanted to test Facebook Ads and are a small business owner, Visa has a deal for you.

Visa is giving $100 in Facebook Ads to the first 20,000 small business owners that install their Visa Business Network app on Facebook. After installing the application and answering a few questions a $100 Facebook advertising credit notification arrives in your inbox.

What’s the Visa Business Network? Here’s what the App description provides:

A place that can help you and your business succeed.

Connect with other small business owners, learn ways to manage your business more efficiently, and grow by reaching the millions of potential customers on Facebook.

It’s free to join and easy to use. Sign up now to redeem your $100 in targeted Facebook advertising, and start connecting.

Use The Visa Business Network to:

GROW: With over 80 million users, Facebook is a great place to build your business. When you join the network, you get $100 to create targeted advertising and reach potential customers on Facebook.

CONNECT: The Visa Business Network connects you with other small businesses. Share ideas, information, opinions, and knowledge with people going through the same things you are.

MANAGE: The Resource Center features exclusive content that gives you great ways to help you manage your business. Take advantage of articles, videos, and tips from top small business sources.