Highlights from WGL Radio Podcast with Beyond the Arc CEO, Steven Ramirez
With increasing competition in the financial services industry, social media can do more than help businesses hear what customers are saying about their products and services in order to respond to issues and promote new offers. Social media is a crucial tool in risk management and brand building. With a solid virtual presence and strategic awareness about online compliance, banks can dominate their competition.
Beyond the Arc CEO, Steven Ramirez shared insights on social media strategy with Globalspeak President Frank Baia, host of FinTech Insights on the Where Georgia Leads (WGL) Radio network. Steven highlighted social media innovation in the financial landscape, and what companies are doing to manage and expand their social business.
Like Baia, you might ask, “What goes on inside the boardrooms of these financial institutions when discussing social media strategy with senior leadership?” Steven’s answer:
“One of the questions that comes up around customer intelligence and social is ‘what is the ROI?’ or ‘how do I get an ROI?’ My firm, Beyond the Arc, helps companies to work through customer experience [programs] and social media to identify ways to capture the ROI… We use these tools to reach their existing business strategies.”
One valuable tactic to help increase ROI is leveraging predictive analytics to improve marketing effectiveness. However, more attention should be focused on risk management—especially in today’s fast-paced virtual world where negative sentiment can spread like wildfire. Even if a financial institution has not established a strong social media presence, the responsibility for managing social sentiment is still vital to the health of the business and the brand.
As Steven emphasized: “While customer service is a key benefit of social media… there are definitely some risks involved. I think like all aspects of managing financial services, it’s ‘how do you put in place the compliance to manage the risk?’ There can be risks to a bank’s reputation, privacy and security risks… but by having a robust compliance program around your social media, you’re able to really address those risks. In fact, not doing something is not an option anymore.”
In financial services today, customer experience and risk management are top priorities—so what else do banks need to consider for their social media strategy?