Social Media Strategy and Management Report: Commbank Case Study

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of the Commonwealth Bank of Australia's (Commbank) social media strategy and its impact on the banking industry. It examines Commbank's adoption of social media tools like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn to enhance customer communication, recruitment processes, and customer service. The report details how Commbank leverages social media for marketing, attracting new clients, and building customer relationships. It also addresses ethical considerations, privacy, and security measures implemented by the bank to ensure safe online transactions. The analysis covers the evolution of Commbank's digital presence, from traditional banking to mobile applications, and the strategies employed to maintain a competitive edge in the Australian market. The report concludes by highlighting the significance of social media marketing in the banking sector and its role in Commbank's overall success.

Running Head: Social Media Strategy and Management
Social Media Strategy and Management

Social Media Strategy and Management 1
Executive Summary
Social media refers to the tool through which a person or firm can communicate the information
to mass at the same time. Digital media industry is highly influential and efficient to attract the
people. Thus creating popularity of brand in the market, with the aid to this tool people have
come in contact with innovative technology and it has also provided competence to business.
The tools helped the small scale business units starting emerging in the global context as well.
Tools like twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn helped the companies to grow, communicate and be a part
of social groups. This process also intimated better communication among people and created
good customer relationship as well. Further the report provides a view of marketing tools and
techniques used by the Commonwealth Bank Australia. Being one of the oldest banks in
Australia the company initially didn’t have any contact with innovative techniques to represent
themselves in the market. The company used physical form of banking in their business
activities. But with the introduction of social media marketing, the company used these tools to
diversify their business activities in the global world. Also the company developed certain apps
to provide ease to customers in activation of their financial transactions.

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Contents
Executive Summary.....................................................................................................................................1
Introduction.................................................................................................................................................3
Company Background..................................................................................................................................3
Presence of social media on Commbank activities......................................................................................4
Communication with clients....................................................................................................................4
In recruitment process............................................................................................................................5
Customer services...................................................................................................................................5
Attraction of new clients.........................................................................................................................5
Social media audience.................................................................................................................................5
Social media marketing of Commbank........................................................................................................6
Ethics, Privacy, and security........................................................................................................................7
Social Media Technologies..........................................................................................................................9
Commonwealth Bank application software...........................................................................................10
Facebook...............................................................................................................................................10
Twitter...................................................................................................................................................10
LinkedIn.................................................................................................................................................10
Albert.....................................................................................................................................................10
Conclusion.................................................................................................................................................11
References.................................................................................................................................................12

Social Media Strategy and Management 3
Introduction
Common wealth bank is a banking which is regarded as the first choice of customers in Australia
due to their highly efficient services and schemes. The company has placed as placed itself on
the top position in the banking industry of Australia. With respect to the market conditions, it
shall be noted that no company can gain competence without innovation technology within the
organization. In addition to which the bank also under the social media tools to flourish itself in
the changing environment. The organization is using many social media tools for the purpose to
promoting its products and services (Commbank, 2017).
Commbank efficiently used social media tools and strategies to gain market capitalization of the
business. The company also launched numerous social media application to support the
customers and gain market capitalization. The company grew in the Australian market because it
initiated to provide services to the customers at their doorstep this feature helped the company to
gain greater satisfaction of customers as well. So it can be said that social media helped the
company gain the competitive advantage in the banking sector. Further, the, report provides an
overview of features which Commbank gained through social media tools and techniques. The
report also suggests marketing techniques of the company with respect to social media attributes.
Company Background
Common wealth Bank Australia is an Australian multinational banking company commonly
known as Commbank. The company is Australia’s one of the largest banking institution listed on
the Australian stock exchange. The company earned a profit of A$ 227 billion last year. The
company is growing efficiency in Australian banking sector. The company was originated in the

Social Media Strategy and Management 4
year 1911 under the Commonwealth Bank Act 1911(Commbank, 2017). Further, it initiated its
working in Australia and spreading in other nations of the world.
Till date, the Commbank has diversified its business with 800000 shareholders and 52000
employees working in the management (Commbank, 2017). With the growing age
diversification of business, the company also grew and expanded its customer base beyond the
reach of geographical boundaries. Now the customers of the company hold financial transaction
and update themselves with their account details with one click on their phone. The company
initiates the Commbank banking app to initiate efficiency in the working of the company. In the
growing competition, the company kept their members intact by providing those services on their
doorsteps and satisfying all segments of the market.
Presence of social media on Commbank activities
The banking industry has taken new phase after the introduction of innovative information
communication technology system in an organization. The social media tool has helped many
organizations including Commonwealth bank to expand their market share. Presence of social
media on the company has become the backbone of the marketing strategy of the company.
Young generation clients of the company are actively engaged in the social media activities.
Thus, the introduction of such techniques in the bank and gave an ease to such customers to
operate their day to day transactions (Golesworthy, 2016). Further, the following points explain
the presence of social media on the activities of common wealth bank:
Communication with clients: before entrance of social media in the market the the client
of the company used to go to the branch office of the company in order to communicate their
problem. Also presence of soil media tool made it easy for the company to communicate the

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schemes and notifications of the customers. Also they can now alert the customers regarding the
fraud schemes implemented under the name of the company. Initiation of customer relationship
producer is also maintained (ABA Bank Marketing, 2017).
In recruitment process: social media tools such as LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter are
now days used by the company to spread the general information of the company worldwide.
Thus, more and more people get to know about the working of the company, due to which a
definite brand image is created in the market. Also the company initiates the process of
recruitment through social media by communicating the information on the web. Thus, due to
this process more efficient manpower is employed in the organization.
Customer services: the process of social media act as an opportunity for the company to
provide greater satisfaction to customers. The mobile baking and net banking app of the
company provides support to customer to initiate their activities without coming to the branch of
the company resulting in generation of greater satisfaction among clients (Swan, 2012).
Attraction of new clients: the social media provide a platform to the company to grow and
expand its customer base. Prospective customers who are active on social media easily get to
know about the attractive scheme introduced by the Commbank which initiates them to become a
part of the company. Also easy application software f the company attracts the customers
(Macnamara, & Zerfass, 2012).
Social media audience
In the earlier time, people who only knew about the company or are aware of services of the
company will become a part of the company. But with the entrance of social media technique,

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every person irrespective of their interest gets to know about the product and its specifications.
With the effect of technological change the company attracted young clients to invest in their
business. This process develops a new target customer for the bank; also it has been known that
young customer uses aggressive techniques to invest which increase the capital of common
wealth bank. The primary audience of bank prefers investment in the core activities of the
business. Whereas the new target audience uses social media to look for new schemes
implemented by the company and they invest accordingly (Aula, 2010).
Social media marketing of Commbank
The organization uses the social media tools techniques to create a definite customer
relationship, and establish innovative technology in the organizational management to attain
growth and objectives. Furthermore, it was noticed that the company not only created the social
media marketing techniques to enhance the workflow in the organization, but it was the need of
many customers to use such technology. In Australia, it shall be noted that the company is
leading Business Company in term of social media marketing techniques (Heller Baird, &
Parasnis, 2011).
In order to use the social media marketing techniques in the business context, the company
initiated many campaigns highlighting the service providing the feature for mobile applications.
This process gave a view to the market that the company is not behind in the market in terms of
competitive efficiency (Groeschke, et. al., 2016). Another process through which the company
marketed its product in the target market is through communicating with customers and creating
a personal relationship which them. The goal of the company through this purpose was to initiate

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trust of customers in the organization. Also, CBA initiated transparency through this medium
leading the company to generate greater satisfaction (Kaplan, & Haenlein, 2010).
Apart from strengthening communication and promotion of the production social media the
company also initiated banking activities with this mode. With having the wide network of 1100
branches and 52000 employees the company distributed its activities nationwide with the aid of
social media marketing. Also, they attracted social networks like Chatter to collaborate with the
organization leading them to drive greater feasibility of information of the company (Kietzmann,
et. al., 2011). The company initiated to provide offers and schemes to the customers through the
social media tools such as Facebook, twitter etc. This helped the company in marketing their
business and activities in the marketing by initiating transparency as well.
The CBA initiative to use the social media platform for showcasing their business objectives
helped the company to gain success. Resulting to which the technique became a part of the
company’s marketing strategy. With the social media tools present in the market such as
Facebook etc. the company used them to gather the customer experience and satisfaction
quickly. The bank used app cloud to surface the conversation and provide growth opportunity to
the company (Tuten, & Solomon, 2014).
Being from a non-social, offline business the company expanded its marketing strategy and
became online banking company serving facilities to half of the nation helped the company gain
the market strength.

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Ethics, Privacy, and security
It has been noticed that as the company is providing good online services to the customers, still
there are some concerns in the mind of customers related to privacy and security of the
transaction. The ethical issues of the company can displace their position in the market, thus
resulting to which the company made sue that they do not break any law or exploit the interest of
customers (Salesforce, 2017). Also, the threat is always maintained with customers regarding
online bank transfers and payment, to solve the problem of digital world security the company
took the responsibility to protect the interest of the client. By applying strict encrypted code
which only is seen by the authorized bodies gave a sense of satisfaction to the clients that they
can easily rely on the online banking services of the company. Privacy control of the company
also made sure that the private information of the client is not leaked in the market without their
prior permission (McGillivray, 2013).
It is the foremost duty of any company to generate satisfaction of customers by creating
authentic, identified transactions. Thus any issue regarding the ethical code implication shall
directly impose penalty on the organization. Due to such legal boundation and strict rule the
company took proper care of the online transaction taken by the client. Further to enhance their
technological skills the company initiated to create the CBA app easy to use by all classes of the
society (Saravanakumar, & SuganthaLakshmi, 2012). The backward and old aged people who
are not interactive with technology can also use the application easily because of their well-
designed and efficient structure. Apart from the developed growth of the company in the banking
sector, still the company was facing the problem of trust in online transactions with the bank.
The fact shall be noted that no bank can lead to success or growth in the market if the customers
of the company do not have trust on the workings of the organization. As the transactions of the

Social Media Strategy and Management 9
company are based on personal data of the client and involve huge monetary costs as well, thus
the customers feel distrust to their financial transactions through digital media. Another factor
which can lead to drawback of the company is the security of the price sensitive information on
the part of organization. All information of the clients and their transactions are recorded in the
online mode resulting to which little change in design of the app can lead to stress to the
organization. Also cybercrime activities are also prevailing in the market now a day
(Schlagwein, Thorogood, & Willcocks, 2014).
To resolve the issue the company initiated various practices bounded by the legal obligation so
that the customers can gain trust on the activities of the organization.
• Formerly the company hired efficient software technicians to modify and develop the app for
better usage by the customers.
• Further, the company initiated security code under the app so that to another person rather
than the client can access the data from the application.
• Thirdly the company also encrypted the internal software of the organization, to reduce the
cybercrime effect.
• Monitoring access of data from different sources.
• Lastly, the company announced all these information on the official website, s that
authenticity of the activities is created (Mitic, & Kapoulas, 2012).

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Social Media Technologies
As discussed earlier the company is using various different marketing tools and techniques to
strategize the business activities. The CBA introduced various application softwares available
online to assist the client with digital payments etc. The company is already having its account
on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, Snapchat and Instagram (Bradford, 2016). Social
media helped the company to diversify their course of action by performing various activities in
business such as tax paying, loan processing to debit cards, online credit card offers etc.
Further using the social media tools became a part of company’s marketing strategy, tools used
by the company are discussed below:
Commonwealth Bank application software: the application is the primary platform
from which the company can initiate the cash or other transaction without going to the bank. The
CommBiz mobile app is helping the clients to flourish their business easily. With the aid of this
app the clients can easily authorize payments and store the electronic receipts of the transaction,
analyze the foreign exchange, receive push notifications, reminders, and check account balances
as well (Willcocks, Lacity, & Sauer, 2017).
Facebook: the company is already having its numerous fans on Facebook. The Facebook page
of the company provides information about many new and innovative scheme introduced by the
company resulting t marketing strategy of the company.
Twitter: on the twitter page of the company displays the internal programs, new guidelines
etc. and communicate worldwide resulting to which the brand image of company is created.

Social Media Strategy and Management 11
LinkedIn: the company uses this technology to post articles related to banking services and
their banks and informing customers regarding frauds present in the market. Also this application
is used by the company in recruitment procedures as well (Commbank, 2017).
Albert: it is a product designed by the company to initiate the transactions of the client. The
tablet helps the client in taking online payments from their clients, splitting the payment of bills,
receiving EFTPOS square off etc. Thus it can be said that the products assist the clients in
working on their business (Commbank, 2017).
Conclusion
Thus, in the limelight of above events, it shall be considered that the company efficiently used
social media marketing tools and techniques to create an impact on the customers of the
organization. This was the need of the clients of the company resulting to which the company
developed its app to assist the client in their transaction while sitting at their respective places.
The company also implemented strategies to minimize the risk of the digital world and maximize
the trust and satisfaction of the customers.

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Aula, P. (2010). Social media, reputation risk and ambient publicity management. Strategy &
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Bradford, A. W. (2016). Bank of the Commonwealth, the American Exchange Bank and others,
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https://www.commbank.com.au/business/merchant-services/eftpos-options/in-store/
albert.html
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https://www.commbank.com.au/personal/online-banking/commbank-app.html
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2017 from http://customerthink.com/a-review-of-social-media-in-the-banking-sector/

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