Banks With Blogs
I was surprised to see Wells Fargo enter the blogosphere this past week, with their new blog called, Guided By History. They say this is one of the first of its kind in the Financial Services industry. I was disappointed to see it less as a consumer-contributing discussion blog, but more of just a history lesson. I don’t think they should call it a blog. Maybe a history column, or a company profile.
Businesses would have to be completely naive to think that they will escape being talked about in various blogs throughout the internet. A smart company would create their own forum, and let consumers post content like they would on a normal blog. This could be advantageous for several reasons:
First of all, they would be able to receive and analyze criticism directly, cheaply, and effectively.
Second, it would give consumers a voice, and a medium to vent their frustrations or praise for the company. (I bet customers of Financial Services companies have a lot to get off their chest, and corporate officers need to hear it) The company could leave it to their own discretion which posts they would want to address and which to leave alone.
Third, they would be able to control (to some extent) the content of the blog. An egregiously erroneous presentation of the facts could easily be resolved. Of course, in order to retain any amount of credibility, the company would have to stomach some criticism, which is hard for business executives to do, I’m sure.
My point is all major businesses should create their own blogs and encourage an atmosphere of open dialogue, but they should definitely not use Wells Fargo’s blog as an example of how to go about it. But perhaps we shouldn’t blame Wells Fargo directly for having a blog of just ‘fluff’ with all of the regulations they have to compete with:
One more thing…We love blogging and the blogosphere, which is why we’re disappointed by some of the changes we had to make on ours. The banking/finance industry in the US is among the most heavily regulated in the world, and among the most attacked by hackers. As a bank, there are regulations that prevent us from obtaining your personal information—hence the restrictions in our blog comments that prevent you from submitting your full name. We’re allowed to capture your email address for followup, but only after we confirm you’re 13 or older. We can’t capture your blog’s URL in our comments due to concerns about phishing. And last, we can’t receive an email from you unless we first confirm you’re 13 or older. We know these regulations are there for good reason, to protect consumers from fraud, and to protect your privacy. So please bear with us.
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