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Content shared between banks and users on the social ecosystem: an inductive exploratory inquiry

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Abstract

Social Media are a current and relevant phenomenon for the banking sector: their use is changing the way financial products and services are offered and the relationship banks have with clients and with stake-holders. Therefore, also for credit institutions it is important to know the features and implications of the digital traffic that develops on networking platforms. This is especially true in a time when, due to the recent events that banks have been involved in, most financial institutions feel the need to gain back credibility and trust through a stronger social intimacy with the public. The purpose of this work is on one hand to classify and interpret the content that banks and users share on two of the most popular social media platforms, and on the other to understand the role of the digital channels in the business models of credit institutions. To reach these aims, the activity on Facebook and Twitter of 4 leading banking institutions was monitored, analysing a total of over 20,000 elements. The data, processed through content analysis, highlights similarities and differences in the use of social media and shows how digital channels support the development of client relationships and contribute to value generating processes.

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Adapted from Mayring [50,51,52]

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Notes

  1. The ECCE/Customer software, and innovative CRM solution based on the platform developed by the start-up Decision analysed the SM activity of 18 Italian banks from the 1st to the 30th of April 2013, analysing over 5900 generated activities including posts, comments, tweets and replies.

  2. KPMG’s research [39] was based on answers provided by a sample of 21 managers of national and international banks active in Italy. The Social Minds study [74] considered a sample of 45 banks and was grounded in data collected through 15 in-depth interviews with managers who were in charge of social activities, and 80 CAWI interviews (volunteers) primarily from Marketing and Advertising, Communication and Institutional Affairs. The research by Bain and C. [3] was conducted by carrying out in-depth interviews with managers of 78 global banks and 77,000 clients.

  3. Expression introduced by Mark Prensky [70] that identifies individuals born after the second half of the 90s and born with access to digital technologies (Internet, mobile phones, etc.). Digital Natives regard technologies as a natural element and generally have no trouble using them. In a similar way, native digital banks refers to those institutions that started their operations entirely online, without physical branches.

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  1. Department of Economics and Management, University of Pisa, Via Ridolfi 10, 56124, Pisa, Italy

    Alessandro Gandolfo

  2. Department of Information Sciences, University of Zadar, Ul. dr. F. Tuđmana 24i, 23000, Zadar, Croatia

    Alessandro Gandolfo

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Gandolfo, A. Content shared between banks and users on the social ecosystem: an inductive exploratory inquiry. Electron Commer Res 20, 679–712 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10660-019-09340-z

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