Management Communication: FNB Social Media Strategy Analysis Report

This report analyzes First National Bank's (FNB) social media strategy, focusing on its customer engagement tactics and brand image enhancement. The report examines how FNB leverages various social media platforms, including Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, to interact with customers, promote services, and build brand awareness. It explores the benefits of FNB's social media investments, such as increased customer reach and improved communication, while also acknowledging potential drawbacks like negative publicity and the need for effective management. The analysis considers key factors for successful social media communication, such as ease of use and a positive brand presence. The report also highlights lessons learned from the implementation of FNB's social media strategy, emphasizing the importance of consistent updates, responsive customer service, and the development of close customer relationships. Ultimately, the report concludes that a well-executed social media strategy is vital for FNB's continued success in the competitive banking industry, enabling better brand exposure and improved communication with customers. The report also includes references to academic sources and industry publications to support the analysis.

To: Lana Strydon, Head Digital Marketing and Media, FNB
From: Prerna
Date:10/01/2018
RE: Business Case Analysis
Based on the case study, I will analyse the ways FNB have utilised social media to
engage customers and enhance the Bank’s brand and image. As a responsible digital marketing
and media engineer, I consulted with Lana Strydom, head of digital marketing and media to
understand how social and digital media could be used for making the business successful.
According to Mazinteret al. (2015), First National Bank is one of the most popular financial
institutions in South Africa that has influenced the consumers’ attitudes and behaviors through
huge investments in social media strategy including the transactional banking app (Berthon et al.
2012).
Use of social media for Customer Engagement
From the case study, it could be understood that various issues were faced while using
social media as a communication tool, because one of its competitors named Standard Bank
criticized the inappropriate advertisements and promotions for enabling innovation done by
FNB. It was Standard bank’s own way of managing communication by using Twitter while FNB
used the micro blogging service for facilitating the communication process (Mazinteret al. 2015).
As a responsible employee and operations manager, I personally believe that the use of social

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media by FNB could be a revolutionary approach, because it had been very responsive, customer
focused rather than brand focused and it had aligned the social media involvement with the
positioning of the brand (Bruhn, Schoenmueller and Schäfer 2012). Many of the CEOs of well
known brands have agreed to the fact that it facilitates the management of communication with
the customers and results in positioning a good brand image to improve the level of awareness
among the customers. By involving social media, it has become easy for internet banking and
even banking through use of facebook. There were many banks that introduced banking apps
available while FNB promoted its services by showing positive messages video and benefits of
using the financial services on LinkedIn, facebook pages to attract more people towards the
company.
Though the use of social media has made it possible for FNB to achieve this aim to a
certain extent, still it could spread negative messages at a faster rate and even deteriorate the
brand image. The Facebook page managed by FNB already have many complaints provided
through comments and posts and most of those have been left unanswered by the bank
authorities too (Dwivedi et al. 2016). A proper social media strategy could allow FNB to
establish itself as a good marketer within South African banking industry because of its organic
nature that had been driven by preferences and behaviors of people within the community rather
than the brand itself (fnb.co.za 2018).
Benefits for FNB from investing in social media strategy
Based on Lana Strydom's statement, the investments done for implementing the social
media strategy have brought fruitful results and allowed FNB to operate in three differentdigital
media platforms including blogs and forums in Facebook, Micromedia in Twitter and

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mainstream media on various news websites. The blogs and forums were managed through
Facebook involved, where the customers provided their views and opinions regarding the
services provided. There were also many complaints regarding the brand, which have grabbed
the attention of many and created mindset about how FNB had been misleading people
(Macnamara and Zerfass 2012). FNB also invested in developing an innovative app named
eWallet Money magnet app for grabbing the attention of service users andprovide them with
information about the necessaryfeatures of the brand. Previously, the customers were considered
as external stakeholders but now they had been considered as creators of value and profit for the
business. The management of communication was essential for making them an integral part of
the company, which had been possible by investing on social media strategyimplementation.
With the investments in social media marketing strategy, with the radio advertising and social
media involvement, more than 11,000 accounts were opened and swiping of cards were done by
account holders of FNB (Mitic and Kapoulas 2012).
Though the rate of attrition rate was high and many people switched banks, I thought that
the approach undertaken by you had been successful because with the investments made , an
innovative centralized group was created that managed the social media projects properly. It
further helped in developing policies and procedures to integrate the social media technologies
with the working practices of employees. Thus, the emerging trends and success stories of other
competitors were understood and social media platforms have been involved for enhancing the
awareness of products and services among the customers and make them learn mobile banking
too (Mazinteret al. 2015). People surf Facebook often and with this involvement of social media
platform, FNB has easily penetrated different market segments and understood the needs
andpreferences of theirs.

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Lessons learned from developing and implementing a social media strategy
It could be learnt by me that by implementing the social media strategies, FNB would
spread positive word of mouth messages and even raise awareness among the customers
regarding the products and services delivered by the company. Due to the digital media
involvement, the statuses would remain updated consistently and people should be kept informed
about the company, which further could increase through more responses from the people due to
tagging and following options available on Facebook. The feedbacks and responses of customers
should be reviewed and responsive services could be forwarded accordingly, though many had
been ignored as well till then (Stokes 2013). The social media strategies can develop close
relationships between the brand and its customers and a deep understanding of the lifestyle,
social behaviors and choices of customers will be possible.
The social media involvement has made the company tech savvy because of which, an
innovative culture has been created where people can communicate with each other as well as
with the customers. There are few negative aspects too which may be faced such as huge costs
for managing the digital marketing and online social networks. With the new competitors such as
African bank, Capitec bank using similar kind of digital marketing strategies, FNB might lose
market share. So, it would be essential for implementing the social media strategy as soon as
possible for developing recognition among the customers and enhance the brand name and image
through innovation and creativity (Yu 2012).
Important factors considered while using social media to communicate with customers
According to Mazinteret al. (2015) from the article, ease of use and creating a positive
brand presence are the most important factors to be considered while using social media for

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management of communication. FNB must consider how effective it will be to use Facebook,
Twitter to draw in personal information of clients, which should not be done, rather they must be
informed about the kinds of services and its features to influence their buying behaviors as stated
by Mazinteret al. (2015). There might be issues due to lack of skills and expertise to handle the
websites and involvement of social media while managing business activities could hinder the
security and expose personal information and details of clients (Berthon et al. 2012). Another
major factor could be the increase in customer base, which could be possible by improving the
customers' services. The social media platforms have created it ease for the company to answer
the queries and questions of customers and then allow them to access the banking website to
purchase necessary services. This can strengthen the relationship between the company and its
customers and also allow them more visibility and enhanced brand image too.
According to Dwivedi et al. (2016), flow of information is another factor to be considered
while using the social media strategy, because it would help in promoting the products and
services of the brand and enhance consumer brand too. It is alsoseen that to overcome the
negative publicity, the social media platforms were used to engage with the customers and gain
more exposure through maintenance of a positive brand name and identity. Based on the
responses of Stokes (2013), the live festivals and other sponsored events were arranged and
made public on Facebook. The customers were informed about the promotions, and features of
various financial services for promotingcommunication and high level of customer engagement
(Dwivedi et al. 2016). The commitment to social media could further enable availability of
substantial amount of resources and facilitate innovation all throughout, as stated by Stokes
(2013). I will be highly obliged if you will consider my assumptions that can be derived once an
effective social media strategy can be implemented.

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The positive aspects outweighed the negative aspects and so the social media strategy
could be vital for achieving success in business through better exposure of brand name and
image and improved communication. Thank you for all your support and wish to continue
providing you with new ideas for improving the business efficiency.

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References
Berthon, P.R., Pitt, L.F., Plangger, K. and Shapiro, D., 2012. Marketing meets Web 2.0, social
media, and creative consumers: Implications for international marketing strategy. Business
horizons, 55(3), pp.261-271.
Bruhn, M., Schoenmueller, V. and Schäfer, D.B., 2012. Are social media replacing traditional
media in terms of brand equity creation?. Management Research Review, 35(9), pp.770-790.
Dwivedi, Y.K., Mäntymäki, M., Ravishankar, M.N., Janssen, M., Clement, M., Slade, E.L.,
Rana, N.P., Al-Sharhan, S. and Simintiras, A.C. eds., 2016. Social Media: The Good, the Bad,
and the Ugly: 15th IFIP WG 6.11 Conference on e-Business, e-Services, and e-Society, I3E
2016, Swansea, UK, September 13–15, 2016, Proceedings (Vol. 9844). Springer.
fnb.co.za. (2018). Fnb.co.za. Retrieved 8 January 2018, from https://www.fnb.co.za/
Macnamara, J. and Zerfass, A., 2012. Social media communication in organizations: The
challenges of balancing openness, strategy, and management. International Journal of Strategic
Communication, 6(4), pp.287-308.
Mazinter, L., Kleyn, N., Goldman, M. and Lindsey, J. (2015). Banking on social media (A).
9B14A070. Pretoria: Gordon Institute of Business Science.
Mitic, M. and Kapoulas, A., 2012. Understanding the role of social media in bank
marketing. Marketing Intelligence & Planning, 30(7), pp.668-686.
Stokes, R., 2013. eMarketing: The essential guide to marketing in a digital world. Independent.
Yu, C.S., 2012. Factors affecting individuals to adopt mobile banking: Empirical evidence from
the UTAUT model. Journal of Electronic Commerce Research, 13(2), p.104.

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