Making the

Connection
Social Media in B2B financial
services marketing
 You are here

Social media is on the map

Businesses and governments are using it. Successfully.
But how are B2B marketers responding to it?
And how does it work in B2B financial services?

In September 2010, Omobono partnered
with Legal & General to explore how, and if,
the financial services industry was using
social media in a B2B context. Were they
using it to source information, form
opinions of products and providers and for
their business. Did it yet form part of their
own marketing strategies?
The research was conducted in two parts. The
initial qualitative stage encompassed a series of
depth interviews with financial intermediaries,
including mortgage brokers and wealth IFAs. In
the second phase a quantitative online survey was
conducted with financial advisors, managers and
brokers.
The findings are based on responses from 508
financial marketers and help paint a picture of the
current state of social media marketing not only in
the heavily regulated world of financial services,
but in B2B marketing in general.
Social Media in B2B financial services marketing
Three major themes emerged from the research: In short...
1  espondent businesses are struggling to
R
move beyond the ‘broadcasting’ mentality
and tend to see social media as a customer-
Understanding the current social marketing
landscape helps identify successful strategies and
identify opportunities to adapt marketing plans to
centric tool, rather than one that can connect the digital tools customers are already using. All
different audiences, from building internal three themes that arose from the research
networks to sharing information with peers. exemplify challenges marketers must overcome
in order to use relevant tools in appropriate,
2  he responding marketers are generally
T
under educated about social media, with little
to no experience using the tools to create
effective ways.
business value. Most understanding is based
on limited personal use which, in many cases,
creates a bias towards these platforms and
preventing opportunities to use alternative
spaces (ie: moving beyond Twitter and
Facebook to find spaces relevant to the
audience).
3  espondents see social media as a young
R
person’s game. Most marketers think it is
most appropriate for an under-30 audience
and none find it fitting for a 50+ audience.
3
Our audience:

(Thanks Legal & General)

 Social Media in B2B financial services marketing

Number of
Age Regulatory advisors in your
status company

< 25 (0.39%) AR (44.09%) 0-10 (75.79%)

25-30 (4.92%) IFA/DA (53.15%) 11-25 (8.27%)

31-40 (20.47%) 31-40 (2.76%) 26-50 (5.51%)

41-50 (34.84%) 51-100 (4.72%)

> 50 (30.37%) > 100 (5.71%)

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Making the Connection

75% of respondents
think they know what How familiar
are you with

‘social media’ is.

the term ‘social
media’?

Which means that 1 in 4 people don’t!

Not at all (7.5%)

I’ve heard it, but don’t know what it is (16.77%)

I’ve heard it and think I know what is (27.81%)

I know what it is (47.93%)

6
How familiar with these
sites or aspects of social
media are you?
Facebook Salesforce CityWire forums
Twitter Yammer MoneyMarketing
user comments
LinkedIn Flickr
Money Supermarket
YouTube MySpace
forum
Ecademy Bebo
Foursquare
Slideshare Digg
Facebook Places
Xing Blogs
Making the Connection

Never heard of it, Money

don’t use it.

Marketing
MySpace user
7.14% comments
38.16%
Xing
86.55%

Flickr
45.04%

Bebo
Facebook Places
Twitter 18.95%
57.27%
1.01%

YouTube
0.61% CityWire forums
Yammer 55.21%
91.31%
Ecademy
82.25%
Money
Facebook Super-
1.15% market
forums
Blogs 26.62%
23.83%
LinkedIn
26%

Slideshare Salesforce
89.51% Digg 88.76% Foursquare
78.44% 80.31%

8
 Social Media in B2B financial services marketing

Heard of it,
don’t use it.
Facebook
45.96%

LinkedIn
40.67%

Twitter
Money 83.77%
Marketing
user forums
48.46%

YouTube
Slideshare Salesforce 42.71%
10.04% 10.56%

Flickr
50.22%
Ecademy Xing Yammer Facebook
16.4% 12.78% 8.69% Places
88.24%
MySpace
88.24%

Bebo
79.79%
Blogs
Digg CityWire 66.6%
forums
34.47%
21.11%

Money
Supermarket
Four forums
Square 60.39%

19.03%
9
Making the Connection

Heard of it,
use it personally.
Top sites used personally: Ecademy
0.22%
YouTube Digg
1.26%
Facebook
Salesforce
LinkedIn 0.45%
Bebo
1.26%

YouTube
CityWire 55.47%
forums MySpace
MoneyMarketing 4.88% 4.62%
user forums Blogs LinkedIn
Slideshare 5.7% 6.17% 10.9%
0.45%

Flickr Xing
Foursquare 4.74% 0.22%
0.66% Facebook
Twitter Places
9.33% 1.98%
Facebook
44.42%

Money
Supermarket

0%
forums
8.87%

Yammer
10
 Social Media in B2B financial services marketing

Heard of it, CityWire

forums

use it professionally.
5.54%

LinkedIn
Ecademy 22.43%
Top sites used professionally: 1.12%

LinkedIn
MoneyMarketing
Facebook
user comments
7.68%
Industry Forums:
• Money Marketing
• CityWire Xing
• MoneySupermarket 0.45%
• IFALife
Facebook
8.46%

YouTube Twitter
1.21% 5.88%

0% Bebo
Blogs
3.4%

Digg Salesforce
Flickr 0.22%
Foursquare
MySpace
Slideshare Money Supermarket
Facebook forum
Yammer
Places 4.11%
0.66% 11
Making the Connection

How often do you

use social media for...
Just reading Updating
Commenting content
& observing Includes forums, blog posts, profiles etc. Includes social profiles, blog posts etc.

Never (25.1%) Never (45.53%) Never (46.35%)

When I remember (16.46%) When I remember (12.47%) When I remember (20.46%)

Once a month (7.82%) Once a month (9.15%) Once a month (8.14%)

Once a week (18.52%) Once a week (18.09%) Once a week (14.41%)

Once a day (18.52%) Once a day (8.73%) Once a day (6.26%)

More than once a day (13.58%) More than once a day (6.03%) More than once a day (4.38%)

12
 Social Media in B2B financial services marketing

Chart scale relates to the amount

of activity - a larger chart
denoting more activity.

Uploading &
downloading

24.59%
Includes whitepapers, videos, photos, podcasts etc.

%
2.8

.93
7%

38
...& for how long ? 27
.66
%

4%
5.9
Never (48.95%)

When I remember (17.36%)

Once a month (15.27%)

Once a week (12.13%)

Once a day (3.35%)

More than once a day (2.93%) In hours per week.

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Making the Connection

What are your primary intents

for using social media?
Personal

Keeping in touch with friends Personal General

Presence knowledge General news
(226) (173)
(81) (115)

14
 Social Media in B2B financial services marketing

Respondents specified 3 intents each.

Professional
)
(11

ip
1)

(33 nsh
nd

s (5
nes s
are nes
bra

ent tio
)
Aw usi

em Rela
a

nd g B
ith
w

nag er
Bra ildin

Ma stom
ng
cti

Bu

Cu
era

Build a
Int

Industry Lead
knowledge Industry news network of Generation
(114) (170) contacts (97) (67)

15
Making the Connection

Social media is seen as a young person’s game:

18-25 26-30 31-40 41-50 50+

30.48% 46.14% 22.34% 1.04% 0%

What client age bracket

do you think is most
suited to interacting
with a business on
social media?
16
Access & usage.
Do you have access to social media sites
on your business computer?

NO
16.08%
YES !
83.92%

if so...
Making the Connection

...how often do you...

Watch videos Read the

online news online Read a blog

Daily Weekly Monthly Sometimes Never

18
 Social Media in B2B financial services marketing

Comment on Comment in Comment

a blog a forum on Twitter

Update your Share

Facebook Update your interesting
page LinkedIn profile content

19
Making the Connection

How do you typically share news

and information with friends?
Respondents could specify
multiple preferences

phone
20
I don’t
social
300 media
sites
101

e-mail 377 in person

288

20
 Social Media in B2B financial services marketing

...and with colleagues?

phone Social

e-mail
media
sites
262
22
418
20
I don’t

in person
251

21
Making the Connection

How reliable do you

find news and
information from
social media sites?
Not at all (25.05%)

Somewhat (67.43%)

Very (7.52%)

22
 Social Media in B2B financial services marketing

Please rank your

preferred method
3.
3.
of business
communication.
4.
4.
2.
2.
5.
Soc5.

el.
nn
ial

ha
me s c
dia ion
is no at
t per ic
ceive mun
d as a professional com
1.
1.
Making the Connection

Social mobility.

Do you
use social What kind
media on of device do
your mobile you use?
device?

Yes (27.94%) Blackberry (9.17%)

No (72.06%) iPhone (13.75%)

Android (32.92%)

Other Smartphone (32.08%)

Other mobile phone (12.08%)

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 Social Media in B2B financial services marketing

How important
100%

does social media

rank in your
overall marketing
75%

strategy?
50%

Very Moderately Slightly Not at all

3.36% 14.92% 19.96% 61.76%
25%
Making the Connection

Only 3.5% of
respondents have a Do you have
a formal social
formal social media media strategy
for your
strategy for their business?

business in place.
No (82.05%)

An informal one (14.42%)

Yes (3.53%)

26
 Social Media in B2B financial services marketing

How How many

confident are people are
you in your responsible for the
interaction and
understanding update of your
of social business’ social
media? media?

Not at all (45.71%) None (54.55%)

Somewhat (47.14%) 1-3 (41.96%)

Very (7.14%) 4-10 (3.5%)

10+ (0%)

27
Making the Connection

80% of respondents How much

potential value
see value in using social do you see in
using social
media for business. media?

None (20.7%)

A little, I’m still testing (24.59%)

Some value, I see potential (43.24%)

A lot (11.48%)

28
 Social Media in B2B financial services marketing

22%
In the next 3 years
60% will be active 25%
on social media for
their business. 40%
How do you see your business brand using 13%
social media in the next 3 years?

29
Making the Connection

Barriers to using social media

within financial services.

What are Would

the barriers removing a
for social barrier increase
media within your business
financial use of social
services? media?

Not an appropriate marketing tool (133) No (9.17%)

Customer privacy concerns (266) Unlikely (13.75%)

Regulatory restrictions (351) Unsure (32.92%)

Unclear understanding of how to use it (196) Likely (32.08%)

Resource (staff & time) (143) Definitely (12.08%)

None (18)

30
 Social Media in B2B financial services marketing

35% of respondents know their competitors use social media:

Unsure (56.13%)

Do your
No (9.56%)

A few (29.11%)

competitors
Yes, a lot (5.2%)

Competitors
use social
media for
business?
And do your
customers Customers
use social
media?
Unsure (26.15%)

No (2.51%)

A few (42.26%)

Yes, a lot (29.08%)

31
Making the Connection

What specific business benefits

have you seen from your use of
social media?

Improve Increased
Monetary Search Media Customer
Gain Presence Relationship Lead Generation
Results (21) (37)
(18) (18) Management
(28)

32
 Social Media in B2B financial services marketing

Chart scale relates to popularity of

responses - a larger circle
denoting greater popularity.

Growth of Network None Brand Awareness

of Contacts (40) (42)
(39)

33
Making the Connection

Would you use a social media

site if it enabled you to...

Collaborate
Filter content with colleagues Receive custom
received and partners instant alerts

Definitely Likely Unsure Unlikely No

34
 Social Media in B2B financial services marketing

Integrate
Integrate it across Track
into your your current marketing
website digital results easily
presence

Create Research Create a

private, competitors tailored
custom comprehen- network of
networks sively contacts

35
Making the Connection

What could a social media site

do to make your job easier?
“Enable real-time contact for customer relations”

“Are you kidding, there is no

use for social media in
financial services”
“Reduce the amount of time
spent on marketing initiatives”

“Allow people to “Improve PR

share experiences of and marketing”
good service”
36
 Social Media in B2B financial services marketing

“Improve communications “Don’t know”

with clients”
“Nothing much, I think it is a
very unprofessional method
“Lead generation”
of communicating”

“Positively vet the ID of clients”

“Bring in contacts, update our brand
awareness, increase business in a time
efficient manner”
37
Making the Connection

Do you know of any other business

brands who are using social media
in a way that you admire?
“BBC”
“Mary Portas”
“Moneysupermarket”
“Not in financial services”

“The media generally - BBC, “No - but I realise it will need to be

Guardian, Telegraph, Evening part of future strategy”
Standard...”

“Yes - a lot of companies advertise on

sites like Facebook. I think the use of
“Record labels and musicians” these sites for marketing will grow
significantly over the next few years”

38
 Social Media in B2B financial services marketing

“Ocean Finance “Virgin Atlantic”

Martins Money Tips “Ifa Life”
Money Supermarket”

“Manchester United”
“NJM Solutions” “Action Coach”

“Not really looked”

“All the high street shops, banks and Google”

“ipatter is a developing site which offers scope

for IFA’s - the character space per post is
“Apple & Microsoft” sufficient to include risk warnings and
regulatory information as applicable”

“Tesco”
“Coke, Prezzo, Sandals” “Starbucks”
39
 To find out more about using social media for business,
please call Ben Dansie on 01223 307000 or email ben@omobono.co.uk
www.omobono.com
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