What lenders should know about social networks


The purpose of any business is to be successful and profitable for a very long time. The evolution of the communication technology in the past few years helps make this possible by improving a business's capability to network using its existing and potential prospects. What once required face-to-face conversations and also the physical exchange of contact details is now able to done in a completely virtual environment with only a click of the mouse.

Advances in communication technology, for example texting, blogging, emailing, media sharing and gaming, have formulated new social norms and revolutionized the way in which people communicate. It's no surprise, then, that the financial services market is beginning to utilise many forms of Computer Mediated Communication (CMC) to improve customer support and improve current services and products. Typically the most popular type of CMC are social media websites for example Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, and LinkedIn, that are used primarily to keep or build connections among users.

Social networks represent a sizable market with an explosion potential that can be simply targeted by banking institutions when they understand how to begin using these sites for their advantage. Like many organizations that have previously experienced the advantages of using social networks to improve their business, banking institutions are starting to understand and embrace the power of social media because it pertains to their day-to-day business activities as well.

Whether educating customers on new services, boosting customer confidence, increasing sales outreach or personally connecting using their customers to satisfy their banking needs - social networks are an important communication tool that banking institutions can utilize in a lot of their customer business interactions.

Social networks are a kind of collaboration as well as networking where individuals develop groups and associations, often forming an online community. While social networks are possible in a face-to-face setting, for example on the college campus, it's usually seen online in a CMC environment. The dimensions and popularity of the "communities" developed by MySpace and Facebook along with other social media websites have observed substantial growth as more and more people invite their acquaintances, co-workers, friends and family members in to these virtual communities.

The standard roles of the sender and receiver involve delivering messages in a definite and concise way and providing feedback to attain agreement of the particular subject. Social media uses the basic foundations but accomplishes marketing campaign results in a rather different way.

The cues that help facilitate understanding in a face-to-face environment (e.g., intonation of voice, body gestures, facial expressions, physical distance, etc.) in many cases are removed in a social media environment. Though some websites present an av element, social networks are largely text-based, counting on "digital gestures" to show emotions and add emphasis to some message, for example: forwarding, recommending, sharing and tagging.

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Note: This article was sent to us by: Gary J. Smith at 11072011

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