Absa Today, Tomorrow, on Twitter
Absa has stepped up its social media strategy by taking to Twitter, to further engage with its customers.
The idea behind the strategy is to use the platform to provide a real-time barometer of customer sentiment and give insight into customers’ worlds that may not otherwise be possible, says Arrie Rautenbach, Absa’s head of retail markets.
“The decision to launch an official Twitter profile fits within Absa’s broader social intent to listen actively to customers and develop financial products finely tuned to their needs,” he said.
However, competing South African banks have been privy to this particular channel of engagement for years.
First National Bank led the way with a Twitter presence, launching its prolific @RbJacobs account on 29 September 2008. The faceless FNB representitive has since amassed more than 11,000 followers and a reputation as the “go-to” guy for all things FNB.
Standard Bank (@StandardBankGrp) was next to join the social platform on 15 July 2009 – with Capitec (@CapitecBankSA) following up on 15 April 2010 and, finally, Nedbank (@Nedbank) starting its Twitter life on 6 August 2011.
Arrie Rautenbach, Absa head of retail markets
Banks getting social
Although Absa is the last big bank to adopt a Twitter strategy, Rautenbach holds that the bank has led the way in other forms of social media.
“In the realm of social media, Absa has always been one of the most forward-focused South African corporates,” he said.
“As the first major SA bank to launch a Facebook presence in 2008, we have now amassed over 60,000 ‘fans’ via that channel. Our LinkedIn presence has become a key ingredient in our talent search capabilities for Absa’s HR organisation.”
“Our YouTube channel is growing in popularity and features a host of informative multimedia content. Therefore, the @Absa Twitter profile can be viewed as the latest step in the evolution of our social media engagement strategy.”
Absa joined Facebook on 16 April 2008, while FNB, Capitec and Standard Bank followed suit a year later (2009), with Nedbank joinging the social network in 2011.
Despite only launching the official @Absa Twitter account on Wednesday, Rautenbach said that Absa has been surveying discussions surrounding the bank on the platform for some time – the bank was just preparing itself to deal with clients in a publicly-engaging manner.
“As a large organisation with over 12 million customers, and as a prominent brand with a high propensity to be in the public spotlight, it was important to make sure that we are adequately geared internally, to deal with this new externally-facing channel,” Rautenbach said.
“Substantial background work has taken place to ensure we are able to provide an excellent customer experience via Twitter.”
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