Social Media Report for UK Banks

Transcription

1 Social Media Report for UK Banks

2 UK Banking Sector Social Media Report Dr. Jean-Pierre Aubertin Author Aubertin Publishing Ltd Sara AIThowini Research Director DigitalMR 9 Coldbath Square, London EC1R 5HL United Kingdom Tel: info@digital-mr.com No part of this document can be copied, circulated or reproduced in any manner without the prior written approval of DigitalMR All rights reserved.

3 DigitalMR is an independent research and consulting firm focusing on all aspects of the social use of the Web. Headquartered in London with offices in the US and Cyprus, DigitalMR s depth and breadth of analysis provides a global perspective on web listening across the financial sector. Combining original thinking with exceptional knowledge and experience, DigitalMR assists clients in making sound commercial decisions about market strategies and competitive positions. DigitalMRs strategic advice covers all aspects of the financial sector value-chain centred on the use of social media sites. This report is based on research and analysis conducted by DigitalMR. Use of this report by any third party for whatever purpose should not, and does not, absolve such third party from using due diligence in verifying the report s contents. Any use which a third party makes of this document, or any reliance on it, or decisions to be made based on it, are the responsibility of such third party. DigitalMR, its affiliates and representatives accept no duty of care or liability of any kind whatsoever to any such third party, and no responsibility for damages, if any, suffered by any third party as a result of decisions made, or not made, or actions taken, or not taken, based on this document. DigitalMR does not make investment recommendations, in this report or otherwise, and nothing in this report should be interpreted as an opinion by DigitalMR on the prospects of specific companies.

4 Contents List of Figures and Tables... Executive Summary... Chapter 1 - Introduction... Report Overview... Market Drivers... Financial Institutions see benefits in social media... Technology firms fill the gaps... Market Restraints... What is the point of social media?... Lack of leadership... Challenges... Engaging the consumers... Lack of in-house resources... Chapter 2 - Total Market... Banking sector overview... Independence lost... Confidence... Bank in the red... Rumour mill... Computer malfunctions... Bank lending... Mortgage availability... Bad debts... Social Media and Banking... Top 10 Sources by number of Mentions... Monthly trend of mentions (Total market)... Monthly trend of mentions for topics... Chapter 3 - Share of Voice...

5 Share of Voice (all banks Oct-Dec)... Share of Voice (all banks July-Dec)... Share of Voice (all banks Jan-Dec)... Monthly Trend of mentions for top 10 banks... Chapter 4 - Top 10 Topics... Top 10 Topics (Oct-Dec)... Top 10 Topics (Jul-Dec)... Top 10 Topics (Jan-Dec)... Top 10 Positive Topics... Top 10 Negative Topics... Monthly Trend for Topics by Mention (1) (Total market)... Monthly Trend for Topics by Mention (2) (Total market)... Top 5 Banks in Loan Mentions... Top 5 Banks in Credit Card Mentions... Top 5 Banks in Customer Care Mentions... Top 5 Banks in Online Banking Mentions... Top 5 Banks in Overdraft Mentions... Chapter 5 - Share of Voice (Negative)... Negative Share of Voice (Oct - Dec) Top 10 Banks... Negative Share of Voice (Jul- Dec) Top 10 Banks... Negative Share of Voice (Jan- Dec) Top 10 Banks... Monthly Trend of Negative Comments Top 10 Banks (1)... Monthly Trend of Negative Comments Top 10 Banks (2)... Chapter 6 - Share of Voice (Positive)... Positive Share of Voice (Oct - Dec) Top 10 Banks... Positive Share of Voice (Jul - Dec) Top 10 Banks... Positive Share of Voice (Jan - Dec) Top 10 Banks... Monthly Trend of Positive Comments Top 10 Banks (1)... Monthly Trend of Positive Comments Top 10 Banks (2)...

6 Chapter 7 - Net Sentiment Score... Net Sentiment Score (NSS) for Top 10 Banks (Jan-Dec 2011)... Net Sentiment Score (NSS) for Topics (Jan-Dec 2011)... Matrix: NSS over frequency of mentions for brands (Jan-Dec 2011)... Matrix: NSS over frequency of mentions for Topics of all brands (Jan-Dec 2011)... Chapter 8 - HSBC... Monthly Trend of Monthly Trend of NSS against Stock Price (HSBC)... Top 10 Topics for HSBC... HSBC Source Breakdown (Jan Dec 2011)... Sentiment breakdown on Twitter.com for HSBC (Jan Dec 2011)... Chapter 9 - Lloyds... Monthly Trend of NSS against Stock Price (Lloyds)... Top 10 Topics for Lloyds... Lloyds Source Breakdown (Jan Dec 2011)... Sentiment breakdown on Twitter.com for Lloyds (Jan Dec 2011)... Chapter 10 - Halifax... Monthly Trend of NSS against Stock Price (Halifax)... Top 10 Topics for Halifax... Halifax Source Breakdown (Jan Dec 2011)... Sentiment breakdown on Forummoneysavingexpert.com for Halifax (Jan Dec 2011)... Chapter 11 - Royal Bank of Scotland... Monthly Trend of NSS against Stock Price (Royal Bank of Scotland)... Top 10 Topics for Royal Bank of Scotland... RBS Benchmarked Top 5 Features... Priority Matrix for Royal Bank of Scotland... Royal Bank of Scotland Source Breakdown (Jan Dec 2011)... Sentiment breakdown on Twitter.com for RBS (Jan Dec 2011)...

7 Chapter 12 - NatWest... Monthly Trend of NSS against Stock Price (NatWest)... Top 10 Topics for NatWest... Natwest Benchmarked Top 5 Features... Priority Matrix for Natwest... Natwest Source Breakdown (Jan Dec 2011)... Sentiment breakdown on Forum.moneysavingsexpert.com for NatWest (Jan Dec 2011).. Chapter 13 - Santander... Monthly Trend of NSS against Stock Price (Santander)... Top 10 Topics for Santander... Santander Benchmarked Top 5 Features... Priority Matrix for Santander... Chapter 14 - ING Direct... Monthly Trend of NSS against Stock Price (INGDirect)... Top 10 Topics for ING Direct... ING Direct Benchmarked Top 5 Features... Priority Matrix for ING Direct... Chapter 15 - Bank of Ireland... Monthly Trend of NSS against Stock Price (Bank of Ireland)... Top 10 Topics for Bank of Ireland... Bank of Ireland Benchmarked Top 5 Features... Priority Matrix for Bank of Ireland... Chapter 16 - Barclays... Monthly Trend of NSS against Stock Price (Barclays)... Top 10 Topics for Barclays... Barclays Benchmarked Top 5 Features...

8 Priority Matrix for Barclays Priority Matrix for Barclays... Chapter 17 - Clydesdale... Monthly Trend of NSS against Stock Price (Clydesdale)... Top 10 Topics for Clydesdale Bank... Clydesdale Benchmarked Top 5 Features... Priority Matrix for Clydesdale... Chapter 18 - Source Breakdown... Top 10 Sources by Number of Mentions for the Total Market... Twitter.com Sentiment Breakdown for the Total Market... Forums.Moneysavingexpert.com Sentiment Breakdown for the Total Market... Thestudentroom.co.uk Sentiment Breakdown for the Total Market... Sheffieldforum.co.uk Sentiment Breakdown for the Total Market... consumeractiongroup.co.uk Sentiment Breakdown for the Total Market... Summary of All Sources Sentiment Breakdown for the total market... Summary of top 5 Source breakdown for top 5 banks... Top 10 Banks in Twitter.com (Jan Dec 2011)... Top 10 Banks in Forums.Moneysavingexpert.com (Jan Dec 2011)... Top 10 Banks in Consumeractiongroup.co.uk (Jan Dec 2011)... Top 10 Banks in Thestudentroom.co.uk (Jan Dec 2011)... Top 10 Banks in Sheffieldforum.co.uk (Jan Dec 2011)... Chapter 19 - Social Media Presence... Competitor Analysis Facebook... Competitor Analysis Twitter... Competitor Analysis - Youtube... Chapter 20 - Strategy and Recommendations for Success... Strategies based on Technological Advances... Recommendation...

9 Market Monitoring... Segmentation Analysis... End-User Demand Analysis... End-User Demographic Analysis... Competitive End-User Analysis... Marketing Audit... Strategies based on Promotion... Chapter 21 - Conclusion... Key Findings...

10 List of Figures and Tables Figure 2.1 Monthly trends of mentions (Total market)... Figure 2.2 Monthly trend of mentions for top five topics (Total market)... Figure 3.1 Share of Voice (all banks Oct-Dec)... Figure 3.2 Share of Voice (all banks July-Dec)... Figure 3.3 Share of Voice (all banks Jan-Dec)... Figure 3.4 Monthly trends for top 10 banks (1)... Figure 3.5 Monthly trends for top 10 banks (2)... Figure 4.1 Top 10 Topics (Oct-Dec)... Figure 4.2 Top 10 topics (July December 2011)... Figure 4.3 Top 10 Topics (Jan-Dec)... Figure 4.4 Top 10 Positive Topics... Figure 4.5 Top 10 Negative Topics... Figure 4.6 Monthly Trend for Topics by Mention (1) (Total market)... Figure 4.7 Monthly Trend for Topics by Mention (2) (Total market)... Figure 4.8 Top 5 Banks in Loan Mentions... Figure 4.9 Top 5 Banks in Credit Card Mentions... Figure 4.10 Top 5 Banks in Customer Care Mentions... Figure 4.11 Top 5 Banks in Online Banking Mentions... Figure 4.12 Top 5 Banks in Overdraft... Figure 5.1 Negative Share of Voice (Oct - Dec) Top 10 Banks... Figure 5.2 Negative Share of Voice (Jul- Dec) Top 10 Banks... Figure 5.3 Negative Share of Voice (Jan- Dec) Top 10 Banks... Figure 5.4 Monthly Trends of Negative Comments Top 10 Banks (1)... Figure 5.5 Monthly Trends of Negative Comments Top 10 Banks (2)... Figure 6.1 Positive Share of Voice (Oct - Dec) Top 10 Banks... Figure 6.2 Positive Share of Voice (Jul - Dec) Top 10 Banks... Figure 6.3 Positive Share of Voice (Jan - Dec) Top 10 Banks... Figure 6.4 Monthly Trends of Positive Comments Top 10 Banks (1)... Figure 6.5 Monthly Trend of Positive Comments Top 10 Banks (2)... Figure 7.1 Net Sentiment Score (NSS) for Top 10 Banks (Jan-Dec 2011)... Figure 7.2 Net Sentiment Score (NSS) for Topics (Jan-Dec 2011)... Figure 7.3 Matrix: NSS over frequency of mentions for brands (Jan-Dec 2011)... Figure 7.4 Matrix: NSS over frequency of mentions for Topics of all brands (Jan-Dec 2011)... Figure 8.1 Monthly Trend of Monthly Trend of NSS against Stock Price (HSBC)... Figure 8.2 Top 10 Topics for HSBC... Figure 8.3 HSBC Source Breakdown (Jan Dec 2011)... Figure 8.4 Sentiment breakdown on Twitter.com for HSBC (Jan Dec 2011)... Figure 9.1Monthly Trend of NSS against Stock Price (Lloyds)...

11 Figure 9.2 Top 10 Topics for Lloyds... Figure 9.3 Lloyds Source Breakdown (Jan Dec 2011)... Figure 9.4 Sentiment breakdown on Twitter.com for Lloyds (Jan Dec 2011)... Figure 10.1 Monthly Trend of NSS against Stock Price (Halifax)... Figure 10.2 Top 10 Topics for Halifax... Figure 10.3 Halifax Source Breakdowns (Jan Dec 2011)... Figure 10.4 Sentiment breakdown on Forummoneysavingexpert.com for Halifax (Jan Dec 2011) Figure 11.1 Monthly Trends of NSS against Stock Price (Royal Bank of Scotland)... Figure 11.2 Top 10 Topics for Royal Bank of Scotland... Figure 11.3 RBS Benchmarked Top 5 Features... Figure 11.4 Priority Matrix for Royal Bank of Scotland... Figure 11.5 Royal Bank of Scotland Source Breakdown (Jan Dec 2011)... Figure 11.6 Sentiment breakdown on Twitter.com for RBS (Jan Dec 2011)... Figure 12.1 Monthly Trends of NSS against Stock Price (NatWest)... Figure 12.2 Top 10 Topics for NatWest... Figure 12.3 benchmarked top 5 features for NatWest... Figure 12.4 Priority Matrix for NatWest... Figure 12.5 NatWest Source Breakdowns (Jan Dec 2011)... Figure 12.6 Sentiment breakdown on Forum.moneysavingsexpert.com for NatWest (Jan Dec 2011)... Figure 13.1 Monthly Trend of NSS against Stock Price (Santander)... Figure 13.2 Top 10 Topics for Santander... Figure 13.3 Santander Benchmarked Top 5 Features... Figure 13.4 Priority Matrix for Santander... Figure 14.1 Monthly Trends of NSS against Stock Price (ING Direct)... Figure 14.2 Top 10 Topics for ING Direct... Figure 14.3 ING Direct Benchmarked Top 5 Features... Figure 14.4 Priority Matrix for ING Direct... Figure 15.1 Monthly Trend of NSS against Stock Price (Bank of Ireland)... Figure 15.2 Top 10 Topics for Bank of Ireland... Figure15.3 Bank of Ireland Benchmarked Top 5 Features... Figure 15.4 Priority Matrix for Bank of Ireland... Figure 16.1 Monthly Trend of NSS against Stock Price (Barclays)... Figure 16.2 Top 10 Topics for Barclays... Figure 16.3 Barclays Benchmarked Top 5 Features... Figure 16.4 Priority Matrix for Barclays Priority Matrix for Barclays... Figure 17.1 Monthly Trends of NSS against Stock Price (Clydesdale)... Figure 17.2 Top 10 Topics for Clydesdale... Figure 17.3 Clydesdale Benchmarked Top 5 Features... Figure 17.4 Priority Matrix for Clydesdale... Figure 18.1 Top 10 Sources by Number of Mentions for the Total Market...

12 Figure 18.2 Twitter.com Sentiment Breakdowns for the Total Market... Figure 18.3 Forums.Moneysavingexpert.com Sentiment Breakdown for the Total Market... Figure 18.4 Thestudentroom.co.uk Sentiment Breakdowns for the Total Market... Figure 18.5 Sheffieldforum.co.uk Sentiment Breakdown for the Total Market... Figure 18.6 consumeractiongroup.co.uk Sentiment Breakdown for the Total Market... Figure 18.7 Top 10 Banks in Twitter.com (Jan Dec 2011)... Figure 18.8 Top 10 Banks in Forums.Moneysavingexpert.com (Jan Dec 2011)... Figure 18.9 Top 10 Banks in Consumeractiongroup.co.uk (Jan Dec 2011)... Figure Top 10 Banks in Thestudentroom.co.uk (Jan Dec 2011)... Figure Top 10 Banks in Sheffieldforum.co.uk (Jan Dec 2011)... Table Sources by number of Mention... Table 18.1 Summary of All Sources Sentiment Breakdown for the total market... Table 18.2 Summary of top 5 Source breakdown for top 5 banks... Table 19.1 Competitor Analysis Facebook... Table 19.2 Competitor Analysis Twitter... Table 19.3 Competitor Analysis - Youtube...

13 Executive Summary The Internet has been around for over 3 decades and is no longer recognizable from its modest origin during the early 1980 s. The advent of social networks has dramatically changed the way people communicate, keep in touch, and share information. Recent advances in mobile technologies have made it possible for people to keep using their favourite applications even when away from their desktop computers. The functionality of social network sites varies between sites but they all have in common some basic elements. These include the ability to post and respond to comments as well as to share them only with friends or the general public. The use of social media by companies is barely noticeable as few businesses possess the necessary understanding to make the most out of the functionality of sites such as Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and other national, regional or highly specialised sites. Let alone, have the ability to collect available information about their company/competitors or know what to do with it. In addition, the rapid proliferation of social media network sites only serve to confuse businesses as to which one to target to best promote their products and services, and gain insight about mentions of their own company. This report examines the emergence of social network sites from the perspective of the advantages that banks and other financial institutions can derive through the monitoring of such sites. It discusses its findings in terms of topics discussed and features mentioned across a wide range of social network sites at a global level during the course of 2011 for UK banks. A range of measurements including benchmarked data are provided to help banks to understand their mention across those sites and help them improve the delivery and profitability of their products and service offerings. Strategies and recommendations are put forward showing how banks can benefit from monitoring social network sites. It is argued that, as the use of social network sites continue to increase, they will impact on the profitability of banks, and that the information gathered through those sites will shape banks future strategies. The study concludes that measurements derived from analysing the content of social media sites can be of value to a wide range of departments within a bank such as investor relations, marketing, sales, human resources, and so forth. This, however, will require the development of new business units dedicated to the understanding and managing of social network sites within a bank. We believe that 2012 will be the year when financial institutions begin to commit resources to exploiting the advantages that social media sites have to offer. It further argues that comments made outside the geographical and demographic markets of an institution are relevant since those are available for people to read within the target markets of given institutions and are thus subject to influencing the views of the people reading them about a given bank.

14 Chapter 1 - Introduction Report Overview This is the first web listening report of its kind for the UK retail banking sector. DigitalMR has extracted and analysed consumer posts on the internet utilising the Social Nuggets platform. The mentions analysed were posted on the web during 2011 in the English language. The posts were sourced from data aggregators and through smart API connectors to multiple web-sites such as forums, blogs, social media and other networking sites and commercial websites. If a bank brand is present in the UK and other countries it is possible that some of the posts refer to the presence of those banks elsewhere. These posts were consciously included in this report because they are accessible to UK consumers and they can be influenced by them in relation to the UK presence of a bank, even if the comments were made for the bank in another country. This report is not just offering a sample of comments from each source but it includes census data from the selected websites and brands. We put this report in the category of market research reports but it is quite unique in the sense that no questions were asked to respondents. All the comments included in this report were unsolicited. The consumers felt that they wanted to express their opinion about their experience or perceptions. We often get asked: How representative is this kind of data since only a unique type of a person will post? Our response to this question is both simple and fundamental - it is not as important who and how many people post these comments; it is much more important how many banking users read them. Internet penetration and usage in the UK is high enough to make analysis of online sentiment very relevant to the banking brands included. The data harvesting was made on a best effort basis but, by nature of the methodology, not all banks and all sources are included. We have focused on approximately 20% of the sources that generate around 80% of the post volume. A lot of attention has been paid to sentiment accuracy. Curation (human intervention) has been carried out and the results have been calibrated to reflect an accuracy level over 70%. In many cases it is in fact closer to 80%. In web listening the highest achievable sentiment accuracy is not 100% since even humans will not always agree on what is positive, negative or neutral. Our expectation is that the maximum achievable sentiment accuracy is around 90%. In order to explain some of the trends and the spikes in the post volumes we have used the data itself, common sense, our knowledge of the market and stock price fluctuations to provide additional context. You can use this report to gauge how your brand and your competitors are doing in terms of online reputation. You can use it as a measurement of your PR activity and a source for leverageable marketing messages.

15 This report can also help you connect the dots with other sources of information that you currently use, such as consumer tracking studies, usage and attitude studies, transactional data (such as credit card purchases) and many others. It is based on graphs and tables that make up a presentation deck with slides that can also be made available to you for internal presentations

16 Chapter 3 - Share of Voice Share of Voice (all banks Oct-Dec) Figure 3.1 shows the share of voice for the top 10 banks in the UK. The data shows that the most commented banks were all established names. HSBC was first with 17% of all voice, Lloyds TSB was second with 14%, and the Royal Bank of Scotland was third with 11%. The second main block of banks was made up of the following institutions: Halifax, NatWest, ING Direct, Bank of Ireland, Saxo Bank, Santander, and Barclays. Their share of voice ranged from 8% to 4%. A third group of less well known smaller banks had a share of voice ranging from 2% to 0.5% and were made up by the following institutions: Clydesdale Bank, American Express, Bank of Scotland, First Direct Bank, Northern Bank, Abbey, Northern Rock, Leeds BS, Coventry BS, Citibank, Yorkshire Bank, Woolwich, HFC and so forth. HSBC plc- UK Lloyds TSB - UK Royal Bank of Scotland - UK Halifax - UK NatWest - UK Santander UK plc - UK ING Direct - UK Bank of Ireland - UK Saxo Bank - UK Barclays Bank - UK Clydesdale Bank - UK American Express - UK Bank of Scotland - UK First Direct Bank - UK Northern Bank - UK Abbey - UK Northern Rock plc - UK Leeds BS, Alliance And 7.7% 7.2% 6.6% 6.4% 5.7% 5.7% 3.9% 2.5% 2.3% 1.6% 1.5% 1.4% 1.2% 1.0% < 1% 11.2% 14.4% 17.3% 0% 5% 10% 15% 20% SoV % Figure 3.1 Share of Voice (all banks Oct-Dec) Monthly Trend of mentions for top 10 banks... Figure 3.5 gives the monthly trends for the remaining banks that form the top 10 most commented financial institutions during That group is made up by:

17 Number of mentions Social Media Report for UK Banks Barclays, 2. Santander, 3. ING Direct, 4. Bank of Ireland, and 5. Clydesdale Bank. The year began quietly for the Bank of Ireland, ING Direct and Clydesdale bank with hardly any comments at all. This is somewhat not surprising giving the size of Clydesdale Bank, the limited presence in the UK of the Bank of Ireland and the limited market in which ING Direct is active. However, that was not the case for Barclays as its CEO Bob Diamond was testifying to MP about the level of bonuses paid to bank employees. Likewise, Santander Bank was in the news as a result of its exposure to the Eurozone debt problems. During Q2, 2011 both Barclays and Santander managed to reduce their media exposure and thus saw a fall in the amount of comments they attracted. The Bank of Ireland was however not so lucky and saw its name being dragged into the Eurozone debacle. In April it was informed that it had to bolster its reserves by 5.2 billion as a result of the Prudential Capital Assessment Reviews carried out. It again made headlines in July when it sought to raise 1.91 billion from shareholders through an 18-for-five rights issue. During the rest of the year none of the banks created significant steers and comments were fairly well distributed between institutions when taking count of their respective size and market segments Barclays Bank - UK Santander UK plc - UK ING Direct - UK Bank of Ireland - UK Clydesdale Bank - UK Figure 3.5 Monthly trends for top 10 banks (2)

18 Chapter 11 - Royal Bank of Scotland Overview Royal Bank of Scotland took over NatWest in The group also owns Charter One and Citizens Financial in the US and sells insurance through its Direct Line and Churchill arms. It provides branch banking facilities throughout the British Isles and has around 700 branches, mainly in Scotland though there are branches in many larger towns and cities throughout England and Wales. RBS Benchmarked Top 5 Features Figure 11.3 presents the benchmarked top 5 features for the Royal Bank of Scotland. The data shows that the Royal Bank of Scotland is better than HSBC, Lloyds, and Halifax when it comes to customers care. It also outperforms HSBC and Lloyds for online banking. It, however, lags behind Halifax for both online banking and credit cards and has a neutral position against all of its competitors for overdraft and loan, and for credit cards against HSBC and Lloyds. RBS Sentiment Scores Competitive Benchmarking Positive Score Loan Credit card Customer Care Online Banking Overdraft 18.6% 14.9% 21.2% 26.2% 11.5% 13.9% 11.3% 13.4% 1.4% 3.1% 15.6% 9.7% 1.3% 2.2% 5.1% 65.3% 72.3% 60.1% 59.1% 73.9% 0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% Positive Negative Mixed Neutral HSBC Lloyds Halifax 21% 19% 19% 17% 15% 25% 17% 13% 15% 18% 18% 32% 11% 11% 13% Competitor is better RBS is better No significant difference Figure 11.3 RBS Benchmarked Top 5 Features