A study into the social media practices of the top five banks in Lebanon -

Abstract

This research paper examines if and how banking institutions incorporate the use of social media programs and strategies to enhance business value. Seven banks were used for the study, whereby two were foreign, non-Lebanese banks and served as exemplary case studies. The remaining five banks were Lebanese banks and were used as the study sample of how, if at all, Lebanese banks were implementing social media networking in order to connect with their customers, induce customer engagement and add value to their businesses. A study into the online content and analytics of each bank was conducted in order to assess the current practices of these banks. The content and analytics collected were from the main social media platforms available at the present, and include Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and blogs. Other platforms such as LinkedIn and Instagram were used for further analysis but did constitute the focal group of this study. The analysis of the selected banks showed that the foreign banks were effectively incorporating and implementing online social media strategies and tactics in order to drive awareness and boost their brand image and equity. However, the local banks demonstrated less effective efforts. Two of the five banks studied appeared to be present on social media, with some strategy and relevant content. However, three of the country’s top banks were not present on social media networks. Overall, the banking institutions in Lebanon are lacking the implementation of effective social media programs. The findings suggest that banks should invest the time to study the online behavior and activities, formulate a content and tactical strategy and maintain it regularly.