Financial organisations have traditionally shied away from using social media to connect with customers. In such a regulated market, who could blames them?  And who’d want to ‘engage’ with their bank anyway?

As ever, things aren’t quite that simple. The under 24s prefer to sort their customer service issues out over social media, and research has shown that people want to interact with brands – including their banks, it would seem – on social networks. As a result, a number of banks and financial organisations have started to develop their social media presences to service this increasing demand for social interaction – and they can do this well within regulations. As we’ve seen with that resignation letter from Goldman Sachs, having no or little  social media presence yourself doesn’t stop your customers, employees and potential recruits using Facebook and Twitter to talk about you. Read more »

A lot has been written about how to set up a Google Plus page, and reports are starting to come in about some of the best brand implementations. But we’re interested in how to administrate and manage a G+ brand page – and how easy it is (if at all) to moderate and manage user content. This is important if you’re a brand about to create a presence on a new network.

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Facebook has created and launched a best practice guide for public figures and celebrities, with step-by-step advice on how to create, build and maintain a public presence on Facebook.

It shows how important Facebook has become for celebrities and public figures in managing their reputation with fans. There’s advice on how to develop a compelling identity online (unsurprisingly, Lady Gaga features heavily here), how to develop a posting plan, being authentic and building awareness. There’s even advice on using developers to create apps. (There’s a great summary of the guide on AllFacebook, here.) Read more »