Some Random Social Media items

Here are a few random items that I came across over the last week. Happy St. Patrick's Day to everyone!

• From The Financial Brand, an article outlining the results of a the Edelman survey on Trust in US Financial Services. Not surprisingly, consumers still showed little faith in their financial institutions. For those of you in social media, the good news is that consumers value "honest communication" and "open and transparent" as the most important factors affecting reputation. Isn't that what social media is really all about?


• On a related note, one of my co-workers shared an article on Financial Planning.com about the limited adoption of social media in financial services. There is one particular quote that was spot on, "The downside for many is compliance. 'It takes five minutes to sign up for Facebook, but three to four months to make a social media plan that makes your legal and compliance departments satisfied,' said Hadley Stern of Fidelity Investments." Sound all too familiar? I think this is one of the biggest hurdles many organizations face as they consider engaging in these channels.


• From the "How not to use Social Media in B2B Sales", I recently received a tweet from some random guy asking me if I wanted to see a demo of his company's "Actionable Alert" product. I had no idea who he is, where he's from, or even how he found me. This kind of approach is like asking a girl out on a first date when you haven't even been introduced. The least he could have done was provide some context for why I would even be interested. Not cool. He should talk to @Clagett from Geezeo about how to use social media to engage prospects.

FI's and Personal Financial Management

After a very enjoyable Memorial Day weekend, I wanted to complete my post about the Panel discussion at Net.Finance. After our social media discussion, the second topic we covered was around Personal Financial Management (PFM) tools. Mark Schwanhausser of Javelin Strategy has been a huge proponent of PFM's. In fact, Javelin research has found that of consumers who are looking for money management help, 63% want to see all their accounts and transactions in one place.

Both Stu Fisher and I are introducing PFM solutions at our organizations later this year. Addison Avenue is working with Jwaala while we are working with Geezeo. Our solution, called Mariner360, is going through Beta testing right now. Unlike Addison Avenue, our solution will not be integrated into our Online Banking platform. This is for two reasons. One, the time frame to integrate the two platforms would have been prohibitive. Two, we actually think each solution addresses different and distinct needs. Online Banking is a tool for performing tasks, like checking a balance, transferring funds, or paying a bill. Mariner360 will provide our customers a more holistic view of their assets and liabilities to manage their whole financial life. Providing a place to set budgets, goals, and manage their financial life is what we should be doing for our customers. Our Mariner360 platform will help us meet that role.

A Friendly Wager With Geezeo

So Sunday I'm getting ready for the Ravens-Patriots playoff game, picking up some steamed shrimp, when I get a tweet from @pglyman from Geezeo. He and @shawnward are Pats fans and they want to place a friendly wager on the game. Sounds good. To hear (and see) the rest of the story, check out this video we made about the outcome. Hope you enjoy it!

Snow?! In Baltimore?! This weekend?!

On December 4th, we posted the following on Twitter: "1stMarinerBank: Snow?! In Baltimore?! This weekend?!"

In less than 5 minutes, we received the following message back: "@1stMarinerBank Snow in Baltimore? Not ready for that yet. Heading there next week and would love to meet you."

It was from a company called Geezeo, a provider of an online Personal Financial Management (PFM) product that they sell to financial institutions. Unbeknown to them (I think), we were ready to commit to this service with another, well established vendor in a matter of days. In fact, the contract was in our Legal area for review. The offering is considered to be the "Best in Class" in the industry, but it wasn't exactly what we wanted. So, while it didn't seem necessary, as a courtesy we agreed to meet since they had reached out to us through Twitter.

We met in our offices on December 10th. We were blown away. It was like they had designed exactly what we wanted- at a pricing model that made sense for us. By December 14th we received a proposal, negotiated a few terms, and had the final agreement from them on December 17th. Wow! Now that is the speed and power of social media.