ABA Banking Journal - May 2009 - (Page 14)
Community Banking Pass the Aspirin: What are you doing to cut costs? p. 17 How do you make lemonade from news lemons? p.17 Banks wade into new media stream Whether your bank goes for podcasts, social media sites, or blogs, it doesn’t cost much to dip your toes, and the exposure can be rewarding on Twitter at ABABankingJourn since mid-March. In the world of Twitter, that can make one a veteran.) In the future, the social media and new media channels may be how your bank may be meeting some of its own customers and prospects. I f you want to meet a community banker with an unusual title—“New Media Editor”—you needn’t fly to a marketing conference or sign up for a e-banking seminar. You can open a free Twitter account, and, if you search for “bank,” you just may come across Sterling Bank’s Christine Pechayco. Twitter is where ABA Banking Journal first “met” Pechayco, whose $5.1 billion-assets company is headquartered in Houston, and also met Jason Kincy of Arvest Bank Group. (We’ve been Time for pioneers The bankers we talked to for this article work on the leading edge, according to our own online survey of more than 100 banks of all sizes. Our research, conducted using SurveyMonkey and pushed out to our readers through our own weekly “ABA Banking Journal Report” e-letter, found that 62% of banks responding don’t use social media or new media for marketing, and have no immediate plans to, while 22% say that they are planning to move into social and new media marketing in 2009. But 16% of the sample has been at least experimenting with something, with Facebook (52%), Twitter and Linkedin (both 43%) the leading methodologies. (See p.16. For complete results of our research, please go to www.ababj.com.) “Everyone hears the same message today, ‘Get in there and try it’,” says Diana Walery, 29, vice-president and corporate communications director at $562 millionassets American River Bancshares. “Marketers in every industry are being tasked with doing more with less.” You will notice in the course of this article that we mention bankers’ ages, not our usual. Why? First, social media and new media have been seen as something “the kids” want to try. Second, they’ve often been spoken of as something you need to have to reach the “younger” generation. Interestingly, our survey asked those who use these new media which age groups they hoped to reach; you may be surprised at the targets: 30s (90%); 40s (80%); 20s (70%); 50s (60%); teens and 60s (20%); and 70s (15%). By Steve Cocheo, executive editor, is 52, and does not yet consider himself to be over the hill. (He’s still trying to make it up the hill.) Sterling Bancshares, Inc.: Linking business women online and off There are other ways to define “community” than a geographic market, and Sterling Bank has targeted women in business. About a year ago, the bank expanded a live community it had developed into an online community based on Linkedin, a business-oriented social site. The Sterling Bank Women’s Business Initiative, started in 2001, is a series of quarterly luncheons hosted by the bank in Subscribe at www.ababj.com 14 MAY 2009/ABA BANKING JOURNAL
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