More on Blogs

This post is a sort of reply to Greg’s comment on post on RaboPlus Blog. First of all Thanks for the comment! Really appreciate the effort he is putting in to engage in conversation with consumers. Right is it that having a ghost writer would defeat the purpose. Being authentic and candid is most important. Being a virtual bank it becomes more important to have blog as a communication channel. 

Other Rabo Blogs

He mentioned that Other GM’s from Rabo direct banks are also blogging. Did a quick check about it and here are other two blogs I could find  - 

Raboplus New Zealand – Blog is called Raboplus Blog and is differs from Australia blog in the sense that it has multiple authors – Other than GM there is a team leader from bank’s customer contact center and a freelancer. They write about their opinions aon various Money related topics. 

Robodirect Ireland – Called RaboDirect Blog is again seems to be multiple author blog. They also have podcast library there with latest blog post asking readers for the suggestions on the podcasts. 

oops! I tried adding podcast to my itunes library, somehow could not do it directly through website [Add to itunes link isnt functional on the subscription page] 

Wondering?

It is good to see that Rabo has embraced Blogs as  a part of their strategy and are using this as a tool to connect to consumers. However what i am wondering is - 

1. How are they tracking the benefits of blog? or is it that they just blogging because they are passionate about it.

2. Is it part of the overall digital marketing strategy to increase the visibility in search engine – I can think NO becuase Rabo bank didnt appear for either of the following search queries  - online bank, direct bank or virtual bank. (while other banks did appear, max ads i could see of is ING direct and now UBank keeps appearing in facebook etc)

3.  Are they also using other social media tools for marketing and communication among online community?

Embracing Web2.0?

Third question is interesting as Greg pointed in his comment to watch out Rabo Plus website in coming days for more Web2.0 features which they will be incorporating. I would be looking forward to the same in coming days. However did some ground check on what other direct banks are doing in terms of using Social media to connect and market. And I was really excited to read some of the latest reports from online publications and also real example of  leading banks playing around with various options. 

More on this in next posts ….

Raboplus Blogs

Conversations

First Theses of Cluetrain manifesto says – “Markets are conversations” and organizations around the world are embracing online conversations be it behind the firewall or directly with the consumer. In my view that is the *MOST* important aspect of web2.o getting into dialogue with end consumer directly (B2C communication).  I further strongly believe that Blog is an impotant tool for such conversations.

Banker’s Blog

I did a quick search on how many bankers from top banks are blogging in australia. Till now I could only spot one such Executive blog from Greg McAweeney General Manger Raboplus  (online direct bank of Rabo bank). In hope, then i also checked on some of the direct banking websites like UBank (NAB), ING direct and One Bank (ANZ) and none of them are into direct conversation with consumers.

Wisdom of crowds in action

On this Blog Greg recently started an interesting discussion around lack of transparency in advertising of high yield online savings accounts. It is worth taking a look on the post and the comments from customers and the fact that Greg is taking the pain of replying to these comments. I see it as a perfect example of wisdom of crowds in action, I personally learnt a lot about interest rates and how the banks fool around in fine prints.

Another good thing about this blog is that it is Executive blog – not owned by some person but the the general manager so when Greg joined in October 2008 he started the conversation from where last GM left. Generally Blogs are looked upon as a personal logs and companies experimenting with web2.0 face the challenge when the project sponsor leaves. However Here it seems like that to be GM of raboplus you got to be keen on blogging … ( I am assuming that blog is not ghost written by marketing team). Good work Greg!!

Will be on lookout for more such examples of open conversations and web2.o examples in Financial industry