When will the Facebook bubble burst?

When will the Facebook bubble burst?

It will not burst in the nearer future…

…That is being said by me the “Trader” with more than 20 years of experience, who has seen a number of crashes and who analyzed the bubbles from the past as well, such as for instance the tulip bulb crash

For the time being we are far away from the sentiment as we had it back then during the high-tech bubble. At that time almost everyone was excited and very bullish and banking apprentices spread hot tips on what to buy. In hour days only “a few” marketing specialist are excited about social media.

Although we human are not very adaptive, in relation to investing we remember at least what happened the last 10 years. That means we still remember what happened in the dot-com bubble and will not repeat the same mistakes for now

Should stock prices, which are mainly driven by the central banks printing money, drop sharply then of course the Facebook stock would follow the trend as well. Of course there will be a social media bubble. Of course it will burst, as bubbles, such as the tulip bubble in 1637, always do. It just will not happen in the nearer future

It will not burst in the nearer future...

…and this time it is being said by me the “Social Media Specialist”

We the older generation, have mostly no clue what is really going on Facebook among 15 to 25 year olds. In most cases here the principal is “I Facebook therefore I am”. Half of the younger generation's life happens on Facebook. For instance Party invitations are sent more and more only on Facebook. Not on Facebook = no party invitation. These guys can hardly imagine not being on Facebook for one day.

Asking them, if they would pay a membership fee, they mostly will answer with no and that they would leave Facebook in that case. At this point in time that is most probably what would happen. I guess it is predictable though, that in the future when these guys earn a more ore less decent salary, they will be able and willing to afford a membership fee for being on Facebook, above all, when Facebook becomes even more important for people’s daily life. Let’s assume a yearly membership fee similar to XING (àCHF 80.-/ USD 90.-). With this membership fee, revenues of 100 billion (current estimated value of Facebook) could be generated within 2 years.

Of course commercially Facebook seems not to be used fully the optimal way yet. With advertisements on Facebook, members cannot really be reached well. I am convinced that another approach is needed and will be found, and that therefore the potential is significant.

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Banking and Social Media, The New Paradigm - the 4 Main Components of Social Media Strategy III/IV (Client Acquisition)

Components of Social Media Strategy

• Corporate Branding (find blog post here)
• Personal Branding (find blog post here)
• Client Acquisition (this blog post)
• Client Retention (future blog post)

3) Client Acquisition

6 Tips How to Use Social Media for Personal Branding

1.  Use those social medias, which are right for YOU and which fit YOUR needs. (Myspace might be great for a musician who wants to become more famous, but rather not for a bank employee who is looking for a new job).
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2. Set realistic goals and remain focused
   
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3. Plan your Social Media activities properly
   
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4. Be interactive. Social Media is not just about loading up your personal data. Interact and communicate with your contacts online
   
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5. Generate and provide value for your Social Media friends, contacts and followers
   
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6. Measure the degree of achievement for the goals you set. 

Learn more about this topic at the SKO-TrendShops  2012  "Personal Branding mit Social Media"

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1.  

Banking and Social Media, The New Paradigm - the 4 Main Components of Social Media Strategy II/IV (Personal Branding)

 

Components of Social Media Strategy

• Corporate Branding (find blog post here)
• Personal Branding (this blog post)
• Client Acquisition (find blog post here)
• Client Retention (future blog post)

2) Personal Branding ...for Client Advisors

 

In general to support their corporate branding its helpful that companies encourage employees in their activities to build up an own valuable web presence with social media. A positive and professional personal branding of employees will reflect on the company in a positive way.

When the individual web presence of employees is important for companies in general e.g. a food company, how important must it then be for a bank, to whom clients entrusts with all their savings.

In our days, when evaluating new employees HR responsibles very often research in the internet as well. Some companies (→ report Wall Street Journal Online February 2012) are not interested anymore in receiving CV's but ask potential candidates to send them links with evidence on their web presence.

Hiring the wrong person can generate a loss of a full years salary. Bad client advisory and wrong investments can cost far more. Therefore as a potential client, I would be very interested to learn more about the person to whom I entrust with all my assets and all my confidential information, before even transferring my funds. Funny enough many of my colleagues working as client advisors do not have a web presence at all, no XING, no LinkedIn and no Facebook.

Again if I wanted advisory service on investing a fortune o a few millions, I would asks my Relationship Manager to give me access to at least his Facebook, XING and Facebook profile. A relationship manager not having a web presence doesn't need to be bad. Only I would not have the transparency I want. Would a HR responsible hire a candidate where he can not make a clear judgment due to lack of information. No he wouldn't!...Neither would I and should a client accept a client advisor where he can not judge properly.

Therefore it should be of big interest for banks, to coach their client advisors on the crucial elements and the key content of personal social media profiles. Client advisors should understand how having a convincing CV and description of the own personality can have a positive impact on future or even existing clients. Reading recommendations by other XING, LinkedIn members, finding out that there are some common contacts or even seeing on Facebook that their future client advisor has a social life and is a great person will certainly influence wealthy individuals in a positive way.

Of course the above mentioned may not be needed to consider for 60 year old clients. For 25 year olds, who spend an important part of their life on Facebook or social medias in general I certainly would recommend to give it a few thoughts....at least.

Keep in mind “Facebook might be tomorrows golf court. Instead of fighting to have a good golf handicap, Relationship Managers maybe should rather fight to have a good web presence”

... to be continued  --> Social Media Strategy "Client Acquisition and Retention"

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Banking and Social Media, The New Paradigm - the 4 Main Components of Social Media Strategy I/IV (Corporate Branding)

  

Predictions on banking industry

• Assuming moderate and stable economic growth, we expect total household wealth to rise by more than 50% in the next 5 years from USD 231 trillion in 2011 to USD 345 trillion by 2016 (CS Global Wealth Report 2011)
• Administration costs will increase, profit margins will decrease
• Competition among banks has been increasing and will increase further

Banking will remain an interesting business to stay in, but a tough one. In order to prosper, Social Media is crucial

Components of Social Media Strategy

• Corporate Branding
• Personal Branding
• Client Acquisition and Retention
  

1) Corporate Branding

 

Twenty years ago, marketing and corporate branding for banks was a no go (at least in Switzerland). From the outside you could not even recognize that it was a bank. As we all know, this has changed and marketing and advertising has become very important for banks as well.

The next step is/is going to be corporate branding with Social Media. The current branding with Social Media reminds me a bid of the first car after the horse-drawn carriage. This car still looked pretty much like horse-drawn carriage. Same with Social Media. Banks keep on relying on what they know and so,  they apply the usual marketing approach and methods. 

Keep in mind, 20 years olds spend plenty of time online, on Facebook for example. They are there for having fun. Becoming a fan of a bank's Facebook page is not so much about fun. So banks give them fun on Social Media. Why not offering something similar to FarmVille  --> a social network game on Facebook. On the top FarmVille had 80 million users. 

Instead of letting them build there own farm:

• Let them build their own bank. Let them compare with their friends. Show a ranking. Let them form teams to build the bank together. 
• Give them a possibility participate in a social network stock trading game. Generate scenarios and provide them informations, on which they can try to predict future development of their stocks. Teach them like that, the basics about stock markets. 
• Or instead of calculating based on their Facebook data, what animal they are or how many children the will have, give them the possibility to find out, what “investment personality" they are”.

 The list can be extended arbitrarily but in brief you just have to provide fun and value.

Corporate Branding (this blog post)

Personal Branding (find blog post here)

Client Acquisition (find blog post here)

Client Retention (future blog post)

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6 Tips What To Use Twitter For

 

1. Modeling your profile
With profile I do not mean the profile you setup in XING or LinkedIn, where you add professional experience and your skills. I mean the information somebody gets, when searching for your name on Google. The goal is to ensure that in that case on the first few pages the topics on which you have expertise and authority show up. When searching in twitter or in google for these topics your name should be listed. In order to achieve this goal twitter is very useful since tweets have a high priority on google. Decide which topics you want to promote. Write tweets about these topics. Post links to blogs, reports etc. about it. Define #tags or use already existing ones (eg. #leadership). Make sure to use always the same #tags and always to add it to your tweets.

2. Promote your blog
Twitter is an excellent tool to promote your blogs. Its one of the best way to promote your skills and topics on which you have expertise. With blogs about interesting topics you generate real value for other users. Therefore tweets linking to your blog will be retweeted more. More people will follow you and more and more people will read your blogs and your other tweets. Linking to your blogs is also a great way to learn more about your followers. In Wordpress and Blogspot you have a statistic functionality. You can see when and where from people read your blog. You can find out, which topics they like better than others. When having written a new post, tweet the link several times. In the first week a few times per week and then for some time once a week.

3. Make new contacts
Look at your followers profile. If you like the description and you find their tweets interesting write them a tweet. Get in contact. Add them to one of your lists and follow their tweets on a regular base. If you get to know each other that way and you feel both could benefit, the next step is to connect on XING and LinkedIn.

4. Research on specific topics
Looking for topics on Twitter is usually more efficient than searching on Google. The best way to find decent information is to use #tags. After a time you will find #tags which are used by many twitter users, when writing about a certain topic eg. #pmot (abbreviation for project management on twitter). In comparison to google you have the possibility to make a comment on the tweet or ask questions. Usually the originator will come back to you

5. Poles
Twitter is a great place to make polls. Of course the more followers you have, the more sense these polls make. There are several sites which allow you to setup a poll. You then just have to link to this poll on twitter.

6. Ask questions
If you are looking for an information and do not find it, write a tweet asking for it. If you wanna know how people feel about something ask your twitter followers. If you have a question you can not answer, give it a try an put it on twitter.

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What You Can Do with Social Media And What You Can't

...or what you should do with Social Media and what you shouldn't

Getting in touch with Social Media beginning 2006 (XING) I thought its only another way to store contact information. I assure you, it's far more.

Let me share a story, which shows an example where using Social Media is not adding value. 
I used to work at an IT consulting company with 200-300 employees. We had a coffee area which I thought was a great place for networking and get to know new colleagues. There was a guy who I met regularly there. Even saying hi, seemed to be a terrible hassle for him. It seemed he wouldn't have greeted me If he could have avoided it. You can imagine my surprise, when I received a contact request on XING from this guy “Dear Marc, I would like to stay in contact with you like this??? For crying out loud, you should have talked to me in the cafeteria in the first place!!!!

What happened after this? I added him because I did not want to be rude. After leaving this company I have never heard from him . No personal contact, no message in XING. So I don't know what he does now, and I don't care too much either. Based on our Xing interaction I'd rather would not offer him a job or recommend him, nor would I ask him for a job etc.

The conclusion: Social media is (only) an instrument to leverage your networking activity

If your networking activity (meeting people, talking to people in the real world etc.) is ZERO, then all the effort you are putting into your Social Media activities will only generate little benefit. You hardly ever will establish a sustainable relation only by filling in a profile and adding contacts. 

Some Do's

• Ask yourself, what skills and knowledge you have to bring others a benefit. (What)
• Define which people would appreciate these skills and knowledge (Who)
• Be clear how to ensure your assets are transparent and credible eg. writing, holding speeches, diploma, certification (How)
• Where will you present these assets, eg. speeches, writing in newspapers, blogging/social media (Where)
• Define which Social Medias you want to use in which way in order to serve you best. (Which)

...and some Don't s

• If you add some contacts you do not know yet (..and yes you should do that) add a good reason to your message why you want to add him. Why should somebody, who doesn't know you, want to be connected, when he just gets a generic system message?
• Do not make it your first priority adding all your colleagues, who work for the same company. You have much better ways to interact with them while your working there, above all when it is not a company with thousands of employees. Of course it is important to add them if you should leave.

If you find this post valuable please +K my influence in Social Web on @klout

Why Facebook Is Great – A Short Personal Story

 

Flying back from Sao Paulo to Zurich I was sitting next to a Brazilian guy. We had a great conversation about Brazil and about Europe. I have learnt that he lives in a city at the beach close to Sao Paulo, where I usually spend my time in Brazil. He told me that he was visiting his mother , who lives in the Netherlands close to Amsterdam. A country and an area which I know and like well. Without Facebook the story would end here...   

...but we shared our Facebook ID's. When we reached our destination we added each other. Since then we had a few chats on Facebook and we commented on each others status messages and picture posts. It so happened that his mother also added me as Facebook friend. I found out that my new friend from the airplane has a sister too, who lives cloth to Amsterdam as well. We are now Facebook friends too. Like that I got to know almost the whole family and we chat on Facebook every now and then. Even though it might not be this year, I am convinced we all will meet personally (again) in Brazil in the Netherlands or in an other place. Story to be continued...