Perception of Banks in Social Media Became Positive in Q4 2010, Analysis Finds

Serendio's latest social media analytics study has found that American Express and Citibank have grown most in the estimation of social media network members.

Large banks have improved their social media reputations, according to an analysis of social media network activity during the fourth quarter conducted by Serendio. American Express showed the most improvement in both share of voice and positive sentiments, taking the top spot in the Q4 study. Citibank was the only other bank that made it to Quadrant I (most desirable quadrant with high share of voice and positive sentiments) and showed a lot of improvement from last quarter.

Bank of America's share of voice dropped but it garnered more positive comments, even though the overall net sentiments still remained negative. Barclays, Capital One, HSBC and Well Fargo all had net positive sentiments for the quarter. JP Morgan Chase, for its size, had the lowest share of voice and had the most negative sentiments this quarter.

The BankInsight report is created quarterly to help banking decision-makers improve their ability to serve customers. It is gleaned from thousands of online consumer statements on review, blog and social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter. Serendio gathers and analyzes consumer reviews, ratings and statements from a broad range of Web sources to build a picture of the consumer banking experience. Some of the areas covered in the BankInsight analysis include products and services like credit card, mortgage, online banking, mobile banking, fees and customer service.

"Consumer banking is an extremely competitive market," said Robert Pincus, vice-chairman of Eagle Bank in Washington, DC. "Banks that listen to and respond to customers more effectively will win."

A few findings of the Q4-2010 Serendio analysis include:

--Twitter continues to be dominating media for bank conversations and banks with their own Twitter channels seem to do better in the overall study than banks who don't have their own Twitter channels.

--Mortgage continues to dominate the conversation, but although sentiments were highly negative around the end of October 2010, they are now becoming more neutral.

--Credit card, the second most talked about product, has generally positive sentiments around it.

--Online banking continues to have net positive sentiments around it while experiences vary from bank to bank.