After months of planning, Citibank is clearly on the move with anewly-invigorated social media strategy.Two major initiatives werelaunched on Tuesday, November 16: the bank’s new Facebook page andits card-linked “Holiday Sweepstakes” contest.
The bank’s Facebook page has opened quietly, with relativelylittle content, indicating they intend for it to grow organically,rather than be “pre-packaged.” The site is the home ofa nation-wide campaign in support of the well known charity ToysFor Tots.Visitors to Citi’s Facebook page are invited to post astory about memories of a favorite toy from their own childhood,and Citi has committed to donate $10 to Toys for Tots for eachstory contributed, up to a total of $100,000.
For the benefit of customers, Citi is offering a sweepstakeswith prepaid cards as prizes, reportedlyranging in value from $10to $10,000.Customers are asked to register their Citibank credit ordebit card at a specified website, and they will earn a newsweepstakes entry each time they use the card between now and theend of the year.
Meanwhile, both the news and customer service Twitter voices ofthe bank (@Citi and @AskCiti) continue to grow.We expect, overtime, to see increased executive activity in the former, andincreased personalization of the latter.One indicator of howseriously Citi takes its commitment to social media: The bank isadvertising now to recruit an internal “Social Media Attorney” todevelop expertise in the multiple domains where the bank is, orwill be, active.Keep watching for future developments…..