Banking on Social Q1 2021

This week at NMD+ with our friends at Whitesight, we launch the analysis of 55 banks' social media efforts from around the world. Using the NMD+ benchmark tool, we looked at how each one was performing on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram.

The research team reviewed February's activity in March, and we spent April picking through the results.

Whitesight is based out of India, and the ferocity of the COVID second wave, slowed us down a bit, but as they say, better late than never. I am incredibly grateful to the superb team from Whitesight for persevering despite what was happening all around them. Through my conversations with them over the last few weeks, I have been awed by their resilience and positivity in a time of crisis.

A high-level report Banking on Social Q1 2021 is available for download. You can also DM me or email me at dave.wallace@nmd.plus, and I will send a download link.

We also have detailed regional reports available for purchase.

What did we find?

So what did we find from our collective efforts pouring over all this social media?

The most significant conclusion - Across the board, the only way is up! There is so much untapped potential that can benefit any organisation that invests in a social strategy.

If we imagine that banks on social media are in a football league, what you would see is that the premier league is actually pretty small. Also, like football, it is a Brazilian team, Nubank United, that absolutely dominates. And when I say dominates, I mean smashes it out of the park (he says seamlessly, switching to another sporting analogy). In some of our measures, Nubank's scores were literally off the charts.

Nubank is using Social Media in an industrialised way that is so much more advanced than its peers - and it is reaping the rewards. If you want to understand how to run an effective Social Media strategy, you could do worse than follow them - like the millions of their customers who already do, watch them, understand them and learn from the masters.

👏👏👏👏👏👏👏 Nubank.

Other companies of note include Chime and Monzo. Again 2 companies that are using social media very much to their advantage.

In the report mentioned above, we provide a more in-depth analysis on Nubank, Chime and Monzo.

The social teams for each of these companies should be furiously patting themselves on the back. As practitioners, you point the way 👉 to a future in which all banks and financial services institutions understand the WHY, WHAT and HOW of social media (and therefore modern, content-led marketing).

Key Insights and Conclusions

• According to our benchmark NMD+ Social Score, Africa and LatAm are the regions with the best average; 4 of the top ten banks are from Africa, two from LatAm, and one each for Europe and North America. Why? This is pure conjecture on my part, but I think social as a channel is more developed in these regions and that the banks tend to be younger and leaner (see below) and have been able to mould their efforts around their audiences.

Key principle alert: Understand your audience's behaviour across the platforms and mould your efforts around this insight.

• According to the benchmark, neobanks tend to perform better than traditional incumbent organisations; of the Top 10 banks by social score, 7 are neos. Why? Because they are young, mean and lean and without the legacy of the more traditional organisations. So social fits across the business between customer services, marketing, and operations, with dedicated teams with well-defined objectives. Older organisations that tend to be more silo-based find this bridging more challenging.

Key principle alert: Social is a bridging activity - to be successful, it must sit across the organisation. It should be KPI driven and those KPI's should determine the team, the objectives and the output.

• In SE Asia, follower numbers and activity for the banks reviewed was below those in other regions studied. Why? We suspect that there are many alternative platforms available for social media, such as WeChat, Weibo, Vibe and Line, that have significant audiences in the region, taking people away from the platforms we reviewed. This is a lesson on understanding platforms and ensuring that you are not locked into a strategy that cannot deviate from the ones chosen.

Key principle alert: Keep an eye on emerging platforms and embrace them as your audience activity starts to show significant growth.

• Facebook, with its 2.7 billion followers, dominates in terms of sheer numbers of followers. But, all the platforms are seeing rapid growth.
• But follower numbers do not necessarily equate to engagement and activity. Banks such as BBVA have millions of followers, but this has not translated into active social engagement. BBVA posts every day, a cadence that is better than most, but each post is getting likes that you could count on one hand? Why? The topics which are very ESG focused do not resonate with is followers. The South African bank ABSA has a similar regularity in posting but gets much more engagement. Its focus is product related.

Key principle alert: What users do is more important than follower numbers. A key KPI for you social strategy should be engagement.

• Facebook is where the followers tend to be, but it is not the platform working the hardest from an engagement perspective. Why? It almost feels like gaining followers is easier on Facebook than the other platforms, which means that companies don't have to try too hard, so they don't.
• Companies of note winning on Facebook include Timo, a neobank based out of Vietnam, with posts in February focused on New Year messaging and encouraging its followers to get friends and family to apply for accounts. Westpac achieved significant engagement with a video for LifeSaver Victoria, an air ambulance service that it sponsors.
• BBVA has the highest number of followers on Twitter, followed by American Express, Deutsche Bank and the Russian Bank Sber. It is the only bank with over 1 million followers on Twitter; only the top 27 banks have over 100K.
• As with Facebook, followers do not equate to engagement. Nubank also has a very active Twitter feed. Its feed is full of content that is engaging and fresh. One thing noticeable about NuBank is the colour. Every picture or video is either branded in the Nubank colour, or items within the media are its trademark purple. There is much content for #Nubank, demonstrating that they are conversation-worthy.
• Only 12 banks have over 1 million followers on LinkedIn. Aside from Nubank, which takes the number one position with 3.1m followers, all other banks are incumbent organisations. As follower numbers on LinkedIn will include employees, and many larger banks have significant staff numbers, this is not too surprising. To illustrate Nubank's Premiership status, a search on LinkedIn shows 5,500 people who list Nubank as an employer. Compare this with Citibank with 3m followers and 586K people listed as employees (present and past), HSBC with 2.5m followers and 674K and Itau with 2.3m and 260K.
• Only Nubank has over broken the 1 million mark on Instagram, with 1.9m. The next bank, Itau, is a long way behind with 527K. But, we noticed that there is a much higher correlation between follower numbers and engagement metrics on Instagram. This seems to suggest that banks have to work harder to get followers on Instagram. By concentrating their efforts, they deliver value to followers, which, in turn, translates into positive engagement.

Key principle alert: If you are serious about social then Instagram is not a bad place to test and learn.

Another company of note on Instagram is UOB, based out of Singapore. It has an extremely high engagement rate on its Instagram account. Rather than focusing purely on banking, they have decided to focus on telling the ASEAN story, one square at a time. They post pictures from the region and provide commentary. Subject matter includes landscapes, people shots and food. It has the feel of a travelogue rather than a bank website. Some of its posts are garnering more than 100K likes. They also use Reels and IGTV, with a focus on ESG and community content. There is very little product-based content—overall, a charming use of Instagram.

Where can you find out more

We have a free report available that provides a high-level summary, so do download it if you are interested. We also have regional analysis available or purchase. Reports available at the cost of £75 each are:

The US, Australia, Europe and Emerging Markets.

We also have a combined report available for £300.

So if you would like to see how you compare to your competitors, you can either buy direct from our Shop or email me at dave.wallace@nmd.plus, and I will sort out an invoice.