Financial Services Social Media - Keep Tabs on the Competition

It has been said that everything on the Internet leaves a trail - particularly useful for law enforcement types to track illicit activities (e.g., money laundering, terrorist threats, etc.). However, ever stop to think that valuable information may be hiding in plain sight on the ‘Net in such places as LinkedIn, Facebook and their counterparts? Well it is and such information could be pretty useful as you seek to gain insights into what your competition is up to. And, nowhere is more important to have competitive information than the companies in the financial services industry. It is expected that information gleaned from perusing social networking sites will become even more useful as companies engage in financial services social media activities. Let's take a look at what can be useful in your review of your competitors' financial services social media programs. Twitter. As part of your financial services social media audit you should be looking at Twitter. You can see what your foes are tweeting and gain insights into their strategies and new product launches, etc. You can also see how many followers they have as well as their identities. This may give you a sense of successful their financial services social media approach actually is… Also, you might be able to “poach” a client or two. Also, pay attention to how much by way of communications goes on… E.g., responses, retweets, “likes,” etc. , again this information could provide valuable insights into how successful various programs are. LinkedIn. Just about everybody has a LinkedIn page or site. You can see who is following them and, if you become linked through some means or another, you can see their followers (customers?). Also, such sites are used for disseminating information on various products and initiatives which might be of interest to your company. This is another stop in your financial services social media auditing / monitoring activities. Facebook. As with LinkedIn, just about anybody who is anybody is doing the Facebook thing… Put it on your list of sites to monitor in your financial services social media activities. Become a fan and things will be disseminated to you. Again, numbers and interaction are important indicators of success. Do keep in mind that your competitors most likely have their own financial services social media auditing efforts going on as well and they could be watching your every move. That's the nature of the game; however, much valuable information can be garnered fairly easily and cheaply too. rnFor more information visit to http://www.makovsky.com