What brings ING Direct here? They wanted to be different. They want to challenge traditional banking models on all fronts. They want to be *anything* but a traditional bank.
What you say in the public needs to start internally. There needs to be congruency throughout internal communications and external. This enforces transparency and makes companies using social media accessible. Twitter makes this possible for them as a tool.
Carrying the offline brand isn’t necessarily appropriate for Twitter. So they had a contest to engage people and talk about how they should present their stuff on Twitter.
They use a number of channels beyond Twitter now. Facebook, YouTube and a few other Twitter accounts – like @CEO_INGDirect.
For a service-based industry, things are less tangible. Couple that with an online business, like ING, and it’s elusive. Social Media has helped them be more tangible as a brand.
Twitter and Facebook are an extension of the cafés and other presences of ING so it fit in well. Meena then began to take the Twitter presence offline by attending Twitter meetups: Tweetups. Twitter was the starting point of a conversation for her, but the relationship really grew by taking that offline.
The first ING Tweetup had 70 people. She realized that RSVPs don’t mean anything in Vancouver. 
(everyone who has hosted an event knows this! – Dave)
If we were solely online, we would not be here today. We’re here, in-person, talking about social media.
ING created a Vancouver-based presence to be more local. They started tweeting about savings of all kinds that are relevant to Vancouverites. Events, sustainability products and other things that aren’t just ING-specific. Most aren’t ING-specific.
Meena was able to create a network with one tweet. When thinking about ING’s ROI for social media, ING measures conversations. (This is in line with Scott Stratten’s strategy – get relevant metrics! -DM)
@MeenaSandhu is a name on Twitter that’s associated with ING. It’s her personal account, but it’s a brand. Her tweets will be associated with ING and their brand rather she wants that or not.
ING is driving Twitter from the inside. They have an internal sharing tool like Twitter called “Orange Spark” to give every employee a voice in their own networks. They also encourage people to join Twitter and be part of the conversations going on.
ING’s social media strategy is about:
- Listening. Keeping track of what people are saying and paying attention.
- Talking. Contribute valuable conversation so other people listen.
- Energize. They want people to be excited about savings and banking. This is also about lifestyle.
- Evangelize. They want people to change the way they think about money and gain control.
- Embrace. Embracing people’s ideas and contributions to the future of ING by getting feedback that is meaningful through social media.
- Support. Need to be there for their clients. People will ask more questions online than anywhere else.
Chance left the @OrangeYVR account quiet for two weeks and people wondered what happened. The silence was noticed – consistency is key for a brand.
The last thing you want to do in social media is have a gatekeeper handle your content. There needs to be genuine authenticity – you are accountable for your own credibility because your name is attached.
Whenever ING tweets about something green, it propagates and creates responses. Vancouver’s local market embraces this type of content. It’s important to know the content people will embrace and also when to engage them. In Vancouver, ~9.30AM is active. In Toronto it’s between 7 and 8AM.
Question: How does the company do succession planning when individuals build their own brands and protect against it vanishing when a high-profile person has?
Answer: Meena didn’t use Twitter solely as a business tool. The local Twitter handle allowed more flexibility and engagement inside the organization. It distributes the risk of key departures.
