Banking on Social Media

Eric Silvani
Berkeley College School of Graduate Studies
October 4, 2016

Facts
First National Bank, headquartered in Johannesburg, South Africa, through the efforts of
their social marketing team has created a strong presence for the bank on Social Media. This
presence has offered them a competitive advantage to what was considered the oldest bank in
South Africa. Under the direction of Lana Strydom they focused their attention on Twitter,
Facebook, and eventually LinkedIn as their analysis showed these were the most popular social
media platforms. FNB focused its strategy on customer attrition, which was growing at an
alarming rate. In one year customer attrition increased by 62.5% with high fees, poor branch
experience and lack of personalized contact cited as the main causes.
Lana Strydom created an effective strategy to engage with customers through social
media and keep them engaged and satisfied. This strategy included an online game on Facebook
that simulated one of their banking tools, resulted in 30,000 new transactions, and contributed in
more than 6.1 million to First National Bank. She also understood the importance of a 24/7
presence on social media and staffed accordingly. This was extremely important for customers
that required assistance during holidays and off hours. Another successful strategy was the
creation of the persona R.B. Jacobs to represent the bank and provide a unified voice across
social media and Steve who represented their competitors and the pain points customers
experienced with them.

Issues/Answers
Is First National Banks advertising misleading? No, what is presented in the case does not show
any misrepresentations by the bank.
Should First National Bank respond to the tweet from Standard Bank? No, First National Bank
getting into a Twitter war with Standard Bank will be harmful to the brand.

Analysis
First National Bank has built a strong brand presence on social media. The creation of the
online persona R.B. Jacobs was a smart strategy to create an identity that customers would
associate with the bank. It is a similar strategy to brands utilizing the same spokesperson in
television commercials. Allowing its customers to put a face to the brand makes it more
personal. Lack of personalize contact was a leading cause of customer attrition and R.B. Jacobs
is a response to that issue.
First National Bank should just ignore Standard Bank Groups tweet that they were
lodging a complaint against FNB for misleading advertising, but the responses monitored. Any
response from FNB will start a Twitter war that they will not be able to win. It will bring more
attention to the allegations by Standard Bank and anything FNB says in 140 characters will spark
responses from detractors. The strong feelings that FNB has generated through its social media
presence should be enough for its customers to defend their brand, and that is the only way to put
this allegation to rest. FNB defending itself will have little or no effect, but happy and satisfied
customers defending FNB will shut the situation down.