Social networks

Wells Fargo launches second blog, and let the readers decide

I had to respond this comment on Opensourcecu and in fact take the unusual step of defending Wells on this.  First the comment …

Who in the world is the target market of “Guided by History?” Granted, you (Trey) subscribe to the blog, because you are particularly interested in financial institutions who blog. But I can’t imagine the kind of average consumer who would want a “new the world is ending tip” or article showing up in their feeds every day.

You’d have to be a creeped-out paranoid consumer to have an ongoing interest in that.

Source: Wells Fargo launches second blog

This was my response:

I don’t work for Wells, but I would see an evolution here:

  1. Banks’ internal politics are anti reputational risk, so what can we do to get started? The 100th anniversary of the SF earthquake provided the impetus for Guided by History blog.
  2. Internally Wells can see no-one is dying as a result of the blog, and in fact the Banks Internet reputation is being enhanced.
  3. enhance GBH to become more national in focus and tap into the disaster preparedness meme in the US.
  4. Next step – what can be do to make our blogging become more financial – something that will also allow us to learn about the social network meme, and how we can use that to our competitive advantage. Enter Student LoanDown. The ideal synergy between a young demographic, financial/ budgeting needs and blogging. Its low risk and provides high potential upside in terms of learning and branding.

Now we can debate the quality of the implementation of the blogs, and that’s a good debate to have. But to me its a pretty logical approach, and I see clear targeting going on here.

I wanted to add to that.  First of all I don’t think anyone can pre-suppose to determine which feeds anyone would want to subscribe to.  The main motivation of blogging, and this is one of its core strengths, is that is self centred.  Blogs are written my people who care, and its up to the readers to choose to subscribe.  There are no bad blogs .. just blogs that have more or less subscribers.  Its the readers choice, and the readers choice alone.

Rant over!

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3 thoughts on “Wells Fargo launches second blog, and let the readers decide”

  1. We are playing blog-tennis. I originally posted this to our blog, but I’ll repost here:

    You’re right Colin, my question is really more about the implementation than the overall concepts.

    They’re both great ideas in theory – the idea of a bank (who’s brand is built around their longevity) blogging about preparedness by looking through history is great positioning. I just wonder about the kind of community that can really grow.

    When I look through the blog, 90% of the posts have zero comments. This says readers are less than engaged. When I click “Get Involved” it takes me to an error page.

    As a move of pure positioning GBH works. And as an internal demonstrative tool, “See VPs? Blogging isn’t scary,” it’s effective. But as consumer community engagement, it’s lacking.

    The strategy seems more Wells Fargo-focused, and less consumer-focused.

    Meanwhile, I have nothing but optimism for the Student LoanDown. I hope they dig into their audience and put some meaningful stuff out there that the kids want to read. I’ll be excitedly keeping my eye on it.

    And either way, I applaud Wells Fargo for experimenting with blogging. There’s only one way to learn, and they’re doing it.

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