SA banks failing customers on social media
A new report on social media and the banking industry in South Africa – conducted by social media agency, ZASocial Media – reveals how the country’s banks are failing to engage with their ‘fans’ on Facebook.
The Social Media Audit Industry Report focused on five South African Banks:
- Absa
- Capitec
- FNB
- Nedbank
- Standard Bank
The agency also focused only on social media site Facebook, using a time-frame from September 9, 2013 to October 9, 2013.
The metrics used for the report included ‘fan likes’ and ‘engagement’. “The objective of this report is to discover how banks are engaging with their fans on social media,” ZASocial Media said.
1. Absa
ZASocial Media noted that Absa has over 145,000 fans on Facebook, with more than 4,000 fans engaging on its page.
The social media agency says that the bank only manages to engage with 2.8% of its Facebook fans, adding that Absa only uses Facebook “as a promotional tool for their campaigns and events”.
From the 9.2 million South African Facebook users – 1.3% like the Absa Facebook Page, the report said.
2. Capitec
New kid on the block, Capitec boasts over 92,000 fans on Facebook with in excess of 1,000 fans engaging on its page.
“The Capitec Facebook Page is dedicated to drive the innovation Capitec aims to achieve with their Marketing Campaign,” the report said.
“The Bank only manages to engage with 1.1% of their fans, they have also used Facebook as a promotional tool and have not used it to maintain their relationships with customers,” it said.
From the 9.2 million South African Facebook users – 0.8% like the Capitec Facebook Page.
3. FNB
FNB has over 420,000 fans on Facebook and 5,000 fans engaging on its page, ZASocial Media said.
The report said that FNB only manages to engage with 1.2% of its fans.
However, it noted that FNB has different approaches when it comes to using its page. “They use it as a promotional tool and to collaborate with users for brand awareness.”
From the 9.2 million South African users – 3.8% like the FNB Facebook Page.
4. Nedbank
Nedbank has over 44,000 fans on Facebook and 1,000 of those fans engage with bank.
ZASocial Media said that Nedbank also uses Facebook as a promotional tool to promote its latest campaigns, engaging only with 1.6% of its Facebook Fans.
From the 9.2 million South African users – 0.4% like the Nedbank Page.
5. Standard Bank
Standard Bank has over 67,000 fans on Facebook and 800 of those fans engage with the group.
“With so many fans on their page they only manage to engage with 1.9% of their Fans. From the 9.2 million South African users – 0.6% like the Standard Bank Page,” ZASocial Media said.
“Banks are interacting with customers but they are only focusing on selling and informing and not entertaining the customers…Banks in South Africa are great at generating fans, but not great at engaging with their fans the average percentage of the five banks selected is 1.72%,” the agency said.
The 2013 SA Social Media Landscape report, conducted by business technology research firm World Wide Worx and social network analytics company, Fuseware, found that 93% of major brands in SA use Facebook, 79% use Twitter, 58% YouTube, 46% LinkedIn and 28% Pinterest.
The report revealed that on Facebook, 87% of respondents measured the number of fans and 79% the number of posts and comments.
However, only 19% said they were getting as much value from social media as they could – indicating that most were still learning how to embrace the tool.
The analysis of South Africa’s top 50 brands by value reveals a strong showing: they have an average of 58,000 Facebook fans each, growing at 4.8% a month.
More on South Africa’s banks
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How SA business uses social media
SA social media stats revealed
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