As part of Delineo’s ‘Are you being found online?’ online marketing report, we’re focusing on the social media case studies from five companies in five different industries. The purpose of this research is to establish:
- How active these companies are in the social arena
- The success of various companies in engaging with their online audience
- How responsive various companies are in dealing with negative feedback
Introduction
Lloyds Banking Group was established in 1999 after the acquisition of HBOS plc in 2009 by Lloyds TSB. The company has over 16 million personal customers and small business accounts and, according to the company, one in three UK residents bank with Lloyds. The below research was undertaken across February 2012 unless otherwise stated.
Lloyds Bank online
Lloyds TSB operates on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube. The company’s Twitter account, AskLloydsTSB, has 5,2740 followers, while its Facebook page has 65,698 likes. The company has uploaded 65 clips onto its YouTube channel and the total videos on the site have collected 340,052 views.
Social media activity
The chart below displays the activity from Lloyds TSB on this particular social network. On average, the account posted 33.9 tweets per day during the research period, devoting 95.13% of updates to interacting with other users on the social network.
The majority of activity on the Lloyds TSB Twitter account is devoted to answering user queries, responding to questions and any technical issues customers have with the service. A word cloud of the most popular phrases used by the company account is below. The words 'help', 'sorry' and 'thanks' are three of the most-used phrases during February, offering us an indicator of the focus of the account.
While Lloyds TSB has a presence on Facebook, the brand page offers little in the way of interaction and customer service. Indeed, the company does not allow users to post updates onto the page. The Facebook presence serves as an online extension of the current Lloyds TSB advertising campaign, giving users the ability to create their own 'Lloyds TSB' character. A screenshot of the Facebook application is below:
YouTube
The Lloyds TSB YouTube channel is weighted towards promotion. 46 of the uploaded 65 videos are clips taken from television advertising campaigns. The remaining videos are financial advice clips from experts working at the Lloyds TSB. The company has also developed a custom tab on the platform, presenting videos in a user-friendly manner.
Interaction with other users
The majority of interaction with other users comes viaTwitter. Over a 7-day period, Lloyds Bank is referenced 517 times via the platform from UK users.
In regards to gender distribution, 76 per cent of those referencing Lloyds TSB on Twitter were male, while only 24 per cent female. Meanwhile, the sentiment towards the brand is fairly positive. 41.9 per cent of posts were declared to be positive, while only 30.1 per cent were negative in nature.
Conclusions
As one of the UK's biggest banks, it's understandable that Lloyds has a large following on the social spaces it occupies. What is interesting about this case study though is how Lloyds TSB has decided to utilise its different social media channels for different purposes.
The prolific customer service of the brand on Twitter suggests a willingness to engage with users and an understanding of how social media can be used as a CRM channel. However, while the brand's refusal to interact with Facebook users (as demonstrated by their closed wall) may be seen as against best practice, I would argue that the decision to 'lock down' its official page is in the bank's best interest.
Indeed, this action demonstrates that Lloyds has an understanding of what each social platform is capable of achieving. Facebook and YouTube are utilised by the bank in order to increase the company's brand awareness, allowing the company to streamline all of its customer queries onto Twitter; the channel most appropriate for direct customer service.
If you would like to understand your brand’s social media performance please contact us on 0161 839 6289 or send us an email.
Stay tuned for our following social media case studies in our report: leisure, IT and communications.