Originally posted on the Bloggertone network on August 10th 2010

On the always excellent podcast For Immediate Release – there was a recent discussion about Metro Bank, the first UK bank to open its doors in over 100 years. The discussion centred on the bank’s decision to focus on established media, i.e. newspaper, direct mail, billboards, radio etc, and not to incorporate any use of Social Media. Are Metro Bank missing a trick here?

The way I see it, there are two places where they are going to get new customers – people setting up an account for the first time, and people switching accounts. In both circumstances surely Social Media could play a huge role. In the group who are setting up accounts for the first time, by far the largest demographic is going to be the teenage/student market. Given the volume usage of Social Media by this age group, having a presence on sites such as Facebook would seem to be a must. However when I do a search for Metro Bank UK and Facebook, I get nothing.

When I think about people changing banks, then one of the most powerful ways of this happening is by way of peer recommendations. We’ve all seen how Social Media makes it easy to make and receive recommendations with your network, so again

I’m surprised Metro Bank is not exploiting this. What are your thoughts on this? Are you or any of your colleagues in Metro Bank’s current catchment area (Greater London), and if so have you heard about them? Do you think they could get value from using Social Media, and if so, how? Why do you think they’ve ignored Social Media to date? Looking forward to your comments