Social media dialogue mildy positive for banks

While banks endure a barrage of dissent over interest rate hikes in the mainstream media, a new study suggests that in the social media world at least, they are attracting positive sentiment.  

According to research from the Brisbane social media and PR agency, memery, Suncorp and Westpac have emerged as leaders when it comes to positive consumer sentiment, as measured by the social media barometer.

Matt Granfield, general manager of memery, said the banks that garnered consumer support during the RBA rate hikes were those that actively encouraged conversations online and had strong existing social media strategies.

 "What we can infer from these results is that banks should be looking at what keeps their customers happy outside of interest rates and what will ultimately drive their customers to become strong brand-ambassadors, because people are certainly talking.

"If banks don't become more pro-active in encouraging positive conversations, people will naturally only talk about the negatives," he said.

The agency used Dialogix, a social media monitoring tool, over a two-week period from the rate hikes. It analysed over 8000 public conversations across Twitter, Facebook, blogs and forums - conversations about Westpac, St. George, CBA, Suncorp, NAB, ANZ, Bank of Queensland, Bendigo Bank and BankWest.

On average, the dialogue about all banks was more positive than negative, with Suncorp reporting an average of 30 per cent of its dialogue being ranked as positive. 

Granfield notes that significantly all other bank conversation was centred around rate hikes, comparisons and exit fees, Suncorp's dialogue was largely concerned with its community initiatives, including a charity initiative on Facebook.

Granfield said Suncorp's socially responsible community initiatives were driving an extremely high level of positive discussions in comparison with the largely negative content about their competitors.

"Perhaps it's time for the other banks to step up and inject some of their massive profits into worthy community activities."

Westpac came in second with a positive sentiment ranking at 18 per cent. This was largely generated by product news, interest rates' comparisons with the other banks and share market reports.

Bendigo Bank, BankWest and St. George, the bottom three, all recorded less than 40 conversations, reflecting their low level of activity on social media platforms.