Banking Association Highlights Impact of Social Media

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Redondo Beach, CA – Banker and social media author, Jesse Torres (@jstorres), was the subject of a highly informative one-on-one interview with the American Bankers Association Banking Journal. The interview, “Banks & Social Media: Shred Your Marketing Beliefs“ featured on the ABA Banking Journal’s Web site (http://tinyurl.com/aba-social-media), provides readers with one banker’s assessment of the importance of integrating social media within an institution’s overall marketing strategy.

According to the interview, “the most important lesson community bankers should learn about social networks is how to be part of the conversation. Given that community bank success is based on understanding the needs of the local market better than larger regional banks, community banks are well positioned to adapt. And community banks that learn this lesson will find that consumers are more than happy to be part of a community bank’s social network and as such, part of the marketing campaign. For the last century, marketing messages have been pushed out to consumers. But now community banks have the ability to create and maintain ongoing conversations with consumers.”

The interview addressed many of the issues raised in Mr. Torres’ recently released ebook, “The Community Banker’s Guide to Social Network Marketing.” According to Torres, the response to the ebook has demonstrated that there is tremendous interest within the banking industry for social media and social network solutions. Mr. Torres points to the large number of downloads (http://www.tinyurl.com/cbgsnm) and the response to his Social Media and Banking Blog (http://socialmediabanking.blogspot.com).

“The Community Banker’s Guide to Social Network Marketing is one of the most popular social media documents on the Internet, said Torres. “On docstoc.com alone, The Community Banker’s Guide to Social Network Marketing has been viewed more that 5,000 times.”

The 70 page Community Banker’s Guide to Social Network Marketing was released in December 2008 as a social media primer for bankers and others in the financial services industry. Its popularity since its December 2008 release has resulted in significant banking industry media attention and has been the focus of numerous banking industry trade journal articles.

The Community Banker’s Guide to Social Network Marketing, available as a free download at http://www.tinyurl.com/cbgsnm, provides the banking community with a primer on social media and social network marketing. The Guide presents challenges in deploying a social media strategy and solutions to those challenges. The Guide addresses viral marketing, user demographics, measuring success and marketing approaches.

“Social media is not strictly a Gen Y phenomenon. Every day more and more professionals, stay at home moms and retirees are participating in conversations sparked by social media,” stated Mr. Torres. “Social media is not about age, it is about taking part in a global conversation that gives and takes place through honest and transparent participation. It is about taking part in a communal experience that relies on user generated content to fuel ongoing conversations.”

Jesse Torres is a banker and the author of the The Community Banker’s Guide to Social Network Marketing (http://www.tinyurl.com/cbgsnm) and of the upcoming Social Network Marketing: Unlocking the Value of the Community. Jesse can be reached by e-mail at MrJesseTorres@gmail.com. He can also be found on Twitter at http://www.Twitter.com/jstorres and on LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/in/jessetorres.

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