Hi there – Alistair Newton and Stessa Cohen here. We were interested in the announcement this week by Salesforce.com that they were to offer a module of their CRM based software tools focused on allowing institutions to better track “conversations ” taking place within the Twitter community. This launch will form part of their Service Cloud proposition, launched early 2009 by Salesforce, which started the migration towards embracing social networking by allowing companies to start tracking and engaging with Facebook participants who were discussing a particular company’s products or services..
The application itself was not our specific area of interest; – what really got us thinking was the recognition that these conversations within the social networking communities are staring to have a real impact on businesses. That social networking capabilities are finding their way into enterprise solutions for business. Just as Web 2.0 technology such as mashups has found their way into enterprise technology solutions. Instead of attempting to guess or forecast what customers might like or dislike about existing products and services, by first listening to and then engaging in real life conversations taking place within social media, institutions can obtain real, actionable feedback. And, they must listen to customers where customers are gathering – whether they are on Facebook, bebo, Twitter.
So where to now for banks and financial services companies? We’ve set out our thoughts in this area in a number of research notes – most recently we have defined need for banks to develop their own coherent social media strategies in A Social Media Strategy for the Banking Industry . However we’re interested in your own thoughts on this matter. What role do you see for Twitter, Facebook and the like in helping to shape the financial services market? Can these social media sites really help customers to communicate more effectively about financial services products, or will such customer discussions be restricted to the personal financial planning sites like Geezeo, Mint and Wesabe? Will banks listen?
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