Not using social media? Don't think you have no brand presence

It is a truth universally acknowledged that a happy customer tells one friend and an unhappy customer tells 10. Social networking sites make that disparity even more acute as every posting is instantly visible throughout the poster's whole network - which averages 120 people.

So what are financial services marketers currently doing to manage their brand reputations on social networking sites? A quick check of Facebook found the following:

 HSBC

• 4 pages, the most popular of which has over 6,000 fans
  
• 2,000 groups.

Lloyds TSB

• No pages 
• 277 groups

Barclays

• 37 pages, the most popular of which has 261 fans
  
• 1900 groups

NatWest

• 1 page with 123 fans
  
• 351 groups
  

Royal Bank of Scotland

• 0 pages
• 157 groups
  

These are big numbers, and show a real desire to interact with financial services brands. However none of these pages and groups are obviously the official face of the brand and there are plenty of pages, such as I hate NatWest and Lloyds TSB Sucks, that very clearly aren't. Even the actively hostile pages and groups are usually illustrated with an official-looking image such as a logo or photograph of head office.

Social networks are a highly targeted way for engaged people to share trusted information, as this article from the FT shows. More and more people are spending more and more time on Facebook - and that's time they aren't spending watching your TV ads, looking at your posters and print ads and reading your marcomms.

So - just exactly what messages are your customers and prospects sharing about you?