CEOs don’t like social media … because it’s social!

I heard this quote the other day and loved it, so I'm using it (nothing like plagiarism is there?).

Equally, I'm stealing lots of other things these days, such as this animation sent to me courtesy of Simon Deane-Johns:

If you are using a system that has a Firewall and can't work this out, then here's what it says:

The next meeting of the London Financial Services Club will be a panel discussion about whether banks get social media, networking and finance.

Social media is a phenomena.

The social media revolution covers podcasts and blogs (there are more than 50 million blogs on the Internet, with the blogging community expanding by around 65,000 a day); networks such as Facebook and Twitter (Facebook has almost as many users as the population of America); as well as new ways of interacting, such as iTunes on an iPhone and being entertained on your travels by YouTube.


What is the point of this new media?

It’s basically the ability to use podcasting, blogs, mobile text messaging, and new social networking tools like Facebook, to reach out and engage with customers.
What are banks doing in this space? In the UK, hardly anything.

This is because CEOs don’t like social media … because it’s social!

Nevertheless, some banks do understand this stuff and are going head-to-head with the Nike’s, Dell’s and others in transforming their businesses to capitalise on new media as a communications channel.

These range from banks deploying technologies to support business communities, such as HSBC’s business network service; to articulating a view, such as Wells Fargo’s various blogs; to engaging with customers through social media, as exemplified by Bank of America’s BofA_Help Twitter service.

Equally, new business models are defining this space too, including Zopa and SmartyPig and more.

To understand the heart of these technologies, the Financial Services Club has gathered Europe’s leading social media experts to talk about their views of how banks can leverage these technologies and what’s coming next. 
These experts include:

• Christophe Langlois, Visible-Banking
• Matteo Rizzi, Creator of SWIFTcommunity.net
• David Birch, Digital Money 

• James Gardner, Banker Vision 

• Simon Deane-Johns, Pragmatist
• Bruce Davis, Oikonomics

and the meeting starts half an hour earlier than usual for this reason.

So please join us at 5:30 for a 6:00 sharp start on Tuesday 16th June 2009 at Lloyd's of London, One Lime Street, London EC3M 7HA.

If you wish to come please register at: Member or Non-Member.