Facebook Commerce Operations Analysis: KBC Bank Ireland

James Dellinger Dublin City University M. Sc. Electronic Commerce (Business) November 2011

KBC Bank Ireland plc is a bank in Ireland with offices in Dublin, Cork, Galway and Belfast. It is a wholly owned by its corporate parent KBC Bank of Belgium. Its primary address is in the Dublin IFSC district. KBC Bank Ireland plc Sandwith Street, Dublin 2 Their primary products are banking. This includes services and products like, mortgages, savings accounts business credit, Capital Market, and loan syndication. KBC Bank Ireland primary address is http://www.kbc.ie/ No link to its Facebook page is available from it, however a link to fairly active Linkedin presence is on the footer of each page.

KBC Bank Facebook URLs

https://www.facebook.com/pages/KBC-Bank-Ireland/103102646396034 Ireland https://www.facebook.com/pages/KBC-Bank-NV/111918285493923 Belgium https://www.facebook.com/pages/KBC-Bank/105496269487867 https://www.facebook.com/KBCBankEnVerzekering?sk=info

Facebook Presence Evaluation

All the above KBC Bank Facebook pages seem to be placeholder signpost pages with zero content updates no dialog and minimal engagement with its very few likes except for one KBC Bank & Verzekering. There are only 31 likes for the KBC Bank Ireland page and the author of this is one of them.

Market Analysis
No bank in Ireland is currently leveraging Facebook well for business purposes. No official corporate Bank of Ireland page even exists on Facebook, but a few noncorporate branch level pages do exist. Allied Irish Bank has about the same presence as KBC as does National Irish Bank. This is not entirely an Irish phenomenon as research unveiled HSBC, Goldman Sachs, and Sun Trust Banks all have similar signpost Facebook presences like KBC. Later we will look at a few bank pages that utilize Facebook well. This means whoever is the first mover will get some good digital earned media for doing so if done creatively. This is a bigger challenge for a primarily Commercial Bank more so than a retail consumer bank. However, if KBC Ireland chose to become more aggressive as an online retail bank and in person commercial bank Facebook would become an important place to target consumers online. 25% of all online ad impressions for the top fifty American firms spending online was via Facebook. (WSJ, 2011) Green Crest Capital also has some longer-term projects and the spending direction is way up in percentage and absolute terms. (Green Crest Capital, 2011) Sept. 2011 Add impressions online and Facebook ads as a percentage. (WSJ.com 2011)

Projected Facebook ad spending growth

(eMarketer data via WSJ.com, 2011) Why mention these facts? Advertising is a key component in the early days of a newly active dialoging (not a flat un-interactive web 1.0 signpost page) page in order to bring the audience of likes up high enough for a critical mass to begin some form of conversation. Banks can do Facebook well and there are very negative consequences for not doing it all, because customers if angered will be. Observe, I hate TD Bank. Since Facebook is a strong domain this is in search engine returns for a good time to come. When they should have offered some customer support via Facebook to resolve issues of irate customers. Otherwise consumers are free to use social media against your company. (Torres, 2011)

Current Facebook Marketing Footing

KBC Bank does not use its Facebook pages for sales development, customer service, and contests in any capacity. No evidence could be found in regards to use of Facebook ads to market either its pages or its services. The banks Facebook page strength is that it has an open canvas to explore ways to create new interaction with potential customers, brand promotion, and job recruits. The primary weakness of KBC Banks Facebook page is the lack of interactivity. Secondly the information on it is from Wikipedia and not official bank information. For example it says it is a non-retail bank, which is primarily true as it does not have many branches in Ireland like say Allied Irish Bank or Bank of Ireland, but it does offer some consumer products like savings and mortgages, which are not even mentioned on the Facebook page. KBC Banks Facebook page is visibility on web via Google search and other search engines but only on the second page of search engine results or via Facebook search.

Proposed Future KBC Bank Facebook Strategy

New Facebook page design find a leaders page doing well and adapt it your companies culture

Study Wells Fargo. They have an active Facebook community. They have a well establish corporate online tone of voice. Its not the biggest bank page in terms of likes, but its arguably among the most genuine. Its not just about push marketing, asking

consumers and potential employees or business that might have a future relationship with your important questions is key. Create conversation around your products. Have different sections that you are proud of about your company and of course have a section for jobs. Potential employees can apply for a job via Wells Fargos Facebook page. I would also suggest JPMorgan and Citibank as representing excellent leveraged Facebook marketing operations for retail banks. These two have also been in the top twenty-five companies spending advertising dollars on Facebook so some of their strength comes from this large spend. A link and button to your Facebook from the Bank homepage next to the Linkedin button is a must. It will confer much legitimacy to your Facebook page and allow access to the virtuous circle of backlinks. Further and lastly links to all product pages must be made from your Facebook page. Study the KBC Bank & Verzekering page that is doing some interesting integrated marketing campaigns with Facebook 4 (traders, 2011). Equipped with fourteen thousand liking fans and heavy interaction. Contact them and talk with them adapting their app for business accounts with KBC Bank Ireland and the Facebook. No need to reinvent the source code.

- Unleash the power of social ads. Create a Facebook advertising campaign use Geotargeting and other Facebook social Targeting parameters target a very specific audience. Dont forget to have a marketing budget for your new conversation tool. The fact that these social adverts allow you the ability to target specific groups of real people and not just topics or websites like with Google AdWords or Display ads is a key reason advertising dollars are moving into Facebook quickly. Facebook advertisements do not have the mass of Adwords or Display campaigns but they have a higher targeting quality. (Edelman 2010) The advertisements show up in the right sidebar in every inside page (there is no homepage advertising.)

Running three different simultaneous campaigns would really boost the numbers of likes and interaction measurable on your page, but make sure it is directed at residents of Ireland and Northern Ireland or if you want to get fancy geo-target a specific number of miles from the 4 cities your offices are located. Example of Facebook advertising targeting:

The first campaign would be targeted at other financial professionals, business owners based on the users self described interests and work as well and others who may be in leadership or near leadership in SMEs in need of your commercial services and products. This is primarily a branding campaign that may lead to sales leads. The second campaign would be targeting more retail buyers of mortgages and savings accounts. This campaign would have a bit wider net going after those looking for mortgages and savers. Leverage this spot to capture customers. (Dorf, 2011) This is a conversion campaign and may require enticements. The third campaign would be targeting prospective employees and directing them to the new opportunities for employment sub-page on Facebook. This is primarily a recruiting portal, but will really also aid in getting the page likes up to a level that can sustain dialog and conversation and give HR more resumes to filter through. Finally, be wary of doing competitions or contests earl going, as there are allot of new terms of services rules in running contests. They should, however be a part of a phase two use of your new page to draw in new savers and mortgages. I am sure financial rules apply here is a well that must be address upfront. This would also be when you explore third party apps integration that can aid your campaigns and grow your community. But remember your new Facebook campaigning needs to be integrated into your overall marketing strategy and structure. - Define and measure your success and test for success Use industry driven metrics systems to provide data and corporate desired to define goals before you begin. Your campaign will fail if you are to ambitious of what Using Facebook Insights for campaigning staffers to get a feel what works best and test often and early and use weekly updates for explaining the campaign developments to those who need to know how it is proceeding, but not daily details.

Example of Facebook weekly emailed metrics for a personality page (same setup as business or brand pages) I am still and admin for.

Some metrics you could use to measure successful campaigns and Return On Investment beyond what interactions and demographics Facebook Insights can measure on your Facebook page (Hoffman 2010).
Coded inlinks via url shorteners and trackers from Facebook to landing pages Total traffic driven to your website from your Facebook page Views of videos or downloads of apps or materials Total Like count growth

Then we have the trickier ones to measure but are still import.
Brand awareness within desired targeted segments

There are challenges to using Facebook for a commercial bank given the business tobusiness core business model, however the benefits will outweigh the risks if sustained effort and interest is applied.

Works Cited
Dorf, D. 2011. Using Facebook to Capture Customers. HSR Blog Network 28 Feburary. Available from: http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2011/02/using_facebook_to_capture_cust.html [Online] [Accessed 11 December 2011] Edelman, D. 2010. Branding in the Digital Age Youre Spending Your Money in All the Wrong Places Harvard Business Review. Green Crest Capital, 2011. Facebooks Future: F-Commerce [Online] Available from: http://www.scribd.com/doc/55851774/Green-Crest-Capital-Facebook-Executive[Accessed 11 December 2011] Hoffman, D. Marek Fodor, M. 2010. Can You Measure the ROI of Your Social Media Marketing?" MIT Sloan Management Review Vol. 52 No.1 Steel, E., Fowler, G. 2011. Big Brands Like Facebook, But They Don't Like to Pay. The Wallstreet Journal. [Online] http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204294504576613232804554362.html [Accessed 11 December 2011] Steel, E., Fowler, G. 2011. Big Brands Like Facebook, But They Don't Like to Pay. The Wallstreet Journal. [Online] http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204294504576613232804554362.html#project %3DLIKE20111024 [Accessed 11 December 2011] 4traders, 2011. KBC : launches a new generation Mobile Banking app [Online] Available from: http://www.4-traders.com/KBC-5967/news/KBC-launches-a-new-generation-Mobile-Bankingapp-13802460/ [Accessed 11 December 2011] Torres, J. 2011. Social media crisis training mandatory. Social Media Banking 31 October. [Online] Available from: http://socialmediabanking.blogspot.com/2011/10/social-media-crisistraining-mandatory.html [Accessed 11 December 2011] Facebook, 2011. I Hate TD Bank [Online] Available from: https://www.facebook.com/pages/I-Hate-TD-Bank/241426749656 [Accessed 11 December 2011]