Financial Institutions are Exploring Online Social Networking as a Way to Attract and Retain New Customers

With hundreds of millions of world citizens spending time online using social network sites and internet communities to communicate, network, gather information and shop, banks are taking notice and developing ways to attract younger customers.

By developing strategies to reach the Gen Y crowd though channels they are already familiar with savvy financial institutions are starting to build new business with Web 2.0.

Younger generations spend a substantial amount of their time networking in online communities and social networking sites such as facebook and Myspace. Fiserv, for example recently launched MyMoney, an application on Facebook.com that allows users to perform basic banking transactions like paying bills, checking balances and making transfers. The move to develop the MyMoney application stems from the fact that Fiserv's average customer is 47 years old and rising.

This shows the need for banks to go where the customers are. Studies show that younger customers feel more comfortable with online banking and rarely visit a traditional brick and mortar branch location. If customers can do everything online that they can inside a bank its obvious the shift must be made to provide more options to the traditional offline business practice.

As the financial landscape changes and the shift from traditional to online channels becomes more apparent, Vanguard Financial Consulting is here to help guide the way. If you are considering implementing new media technology into your marketing mix, or are simply interested in learning more about how your institution can benefit from such efforts, contact use here.