 social currency ™

turning conversation into capital

Brief Exchange: The “Big-Five” Banks in Social Media

Introduction
The rapid growth of social media poses multiple challenges to companies today. Just some of the issues facing
companies are their relative unfamiliarity with the space, privacy concerns, lack of internal alignment and ownership.
Yet, regardless of whether companies are active in social media or not, consumer conversations involving their
brands are happening online all day every day.

At social currency, we monitor, measure and mine consumer-generated content, helping brands uncover insights
and information that can improve marketing and product strategy. With over 133 million blogs, 300 million people
on Facebook, and Twitter growing at an annual rate of 1382%, we passionately believe that social media provides a
perspective on consumers that brands can no longer afford to ignore, both for the insights it can offer, and the risks
inherent in failing to pay attention.

For this small sample study, we took a snapshot of the conversations relating to the “big-five” Canadian banks, to
understand the anatomy of the discussion for the industry as a whole, and how the discussions differs between
each brand. Not surprisingly, there is a significant amount of social media chatter about banks, some of it good,
some of it bad, but all of it relevant, because each mention forms an impression that when combined with others,
works to define the brand.

This mini-report represents a small sample of the reporting and analysis that social currency provides. We’d be
happy to sit down and demonstrate our full capabilities, should you find this report to be interesting and valuable.
Enjoy!

Approach
This study looks at English social media activity over a 30-day period (July 26th – August 25th,) taking a random
sample of 200 posts for each bank, pulling from blogs, Twitter, discussion forums and comments stemming
from mainstream media. Peer to peer conversations, incidental mentions and information relating to the stock
market and analyst community are all included for context. Those topics that made up less than 2% of the
conversations were not. For this exercise, no country filter was applied. We analyzed each post and coded for
sentiment and areas of discussion.
Overall Activity
In the marketing world, “share of voice” is a measure attributed to advertising expenditures. In the social media context,
the term can be applied more appropriately to the voice of the consumer, not the advertiser. Compared to the field, RBC
has the largest share of voice in social media during the month we studied, with almost twice as may mentions than the
next closest bank. They had the most chatter associated with their brand for several reasons: RBC is already active on
their Twitter account (with over 700 followers,) the RBC Center in Raleigh is mentioned frequently, and RBC analysts are
quoted in conjunction with other investor news more often than those of other banks. More detail on the conversation
topics for each of the banks can be found later in this report.

Social Media Share of Voice

10000

9000 Total Mentions 22057

9047
8000 Average Mentions 4411

7000

6000

5000

4000 4647

3000
3214
2792
2000 2357

1000

0
BMO TD CIBC BNS RBC

Media Source
Conversations in social media happen in various types of online environments, including blogs, discussion forums, image-
sharing sites and micro-blogs like Twitter.

There are two important characteristics to be aware of when studying the data: 1) Conversations in social media are not
always linear. Sometimes blog entries are posted in multiple places, leading to different conversation strings. People
commonly “tweet” a blog post to their group of followers, which might
© generate its own conversation. Other times,
conversations may leap from one media source to another, based on a link. 2) When preparing for analysis, the media
source often plays a key factor in determining content, context and relevance of the conversation. For instance, Twitter
posts tend to be representative of “real-time” consumer discussion, whereas blog posts are usually more carefully
considered opinions. social currency takes both of these traits into account when analyzing data.

In the case of the financial industry, the majority of conversations take place in blogs and forums. Of course, the sheer
volume of posts should not be confused with influence, as not all social media conversations are equal in this way. Many
mainstream media sites with social media features wield much greater influence than the majority of blog sites, based on

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 Social Media Source Type
60%

50%
50%
48%

40% 43%
41%
38% 38% 38%

30% 32%
31%

27%

20% 22%
21%
20%

16%

10% 13%

6%
3% 4% 4% 5%
0%
BM O TD CIBC BNS RBC

Blogs Micro-Blogs Forums Mainstream

site traffic alone. A single tweet could be read by 3 people or 3,000 people, depending on the number of followers.
Determining key sources of influence is part of what we do at social currency. Although but not demonstrated in this report,
we’d be happy to discuss identifying influencers with you in context of an actual engagement.

Overall, blogs are where we picked up most conversations about the big five banks, accounting for forty-two percent of
activity. The second most used form of social media is discussion forums, at thirty-five percent of overall activity. Micro-
blogs account for about onein five mentions overall. Looking at the banks, some interesting differences present themselves;
half of the BMO activity is attributable to blogs, compared to only about a third of the TD activity. TD had the highest
percentage of mentions attributable to the forums amongst the five majors. Also, TD’s percentage of mentions in the micro-
blogs was the highest, but not significantly higher than CIBC or Scotiabank.

Sentiment
Measuring sentiment is arguably the most important form of analysis when looking at social media. To propagate positive
word of mouth, it makes sense that a brand would want more advocates than detractors (influential advocates preferred!)

I
Most of social currency’s competitors in social media measurement rely
solely on a computer’s ability to determine sentiment, which even they will
admit is accurate only 60-70% of the time. After all, no technology can take
into account things like slang and sarcasm. As a market research firm,
social currency strives for a higher degree of accuracy in our work.
We employ quality control processes like inter-coded reliability tests,
leveraging multiple analysts to help assign sentiment, in each case abiding
by pre-set criteria when making an assessment.

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 Sentiment by Financial Institution

92
70% 91
85

60% 86
60% 88
58%
55%
50%

47%
45%
40%
39%

30%
32%
28%
20% 24%
20%
12%
10%
9% 10% 10% 9%
6% 7% 4% 4% 5% 4% 3%
3% 3% 3%
0%
BMO TD CIBC BNS RBC

Very Positiv e Somew hat Positiv e Neutral Somew hat Negativ e Very Negativ e

Sentiment (continued)
In this case study we used some very simple rules to determine sentiment:
- Very negative mentions have an explicit negativity (“CIBC is the worst bank ever; I’m switching the first chance I get,”)
- Somewhat negative mentions are implicitly negative (“BNS profit dips in the second quarter of 2009,”)
- Neutral mentions are those which have no implicit positivity of negativity (i.e. “went for coffee near the RBC Center,”
- Somewhat positive mentions include mentions of implied positivity (i.e. “CIBC Analyst says…”)
- Very positive mentions include those which are explicitly positive (i.e. “BMO Q3 profit increases.”)

Overall, the consumer sentiment for all of the banks is quite positive, taking into account all positive and neutral mentions.
And why not? Canadians are sure to be feeling very good about their banks given what they’ve witnessed in the United
States and around the world during the past year. Most Canadians have heard our financial institutions being touted as the
most trusted institutions in the world. For the month we measured, Bank of Nova Scotia ranked the highest at 92%, and
CIBC was also high at 86%.

Discussion Topics
So people are mentioning their banks online. Why should anybody care? One reason is because social media offers
anyone a global soapbox to stand on and express their opinion. And when it’s negative and read by enough people it can
negatively impact brand reputation.

Understanding the issues relies on listening to the conversations and organizing them into conversational themes for analysis
and action. As is demonstrated in this case, many individual conversations aren’t necessarily actionable; however, in the
age of conversational marketing there are times when people saying things that brands should know about and act upon.

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 Overall BMO

Sponsorship Mentions 28% Sponsorship Mentions 38%

Inv estor New s/Relations 23% Inv estor New s/Relations 19%

Analy st Quoted 14% Analy st Quoted 19%

Customer Serv ice / Rev iew 12% Customer Serv ice / Rev iew 8%

Products 10% Products 5%

Location 8% Location 7%

Ads 3% Ads 2%

Website 2% Website 2%

TD CIBC

Sponsorship Mentions 24% Sponsorship Mentions 12%

Inv estor New s/Relations 12% Inv estor New s/Relations 35%

Analy st Quoted 7% Analy st Quoted 15%

Customer Serv ice / Rev iew 18% Customer Serv ice / Rev iew 16%

Products 17% Products 9%

Location 12% Location 9%

Ads 7% Ads 1%

Website 2% Website 3%

BNS RBC

Sponsorship Mentions 47% Sponsorship Mentions 19%

Inv estor New s/Relations 22% Inv estor New s/Relations 29%

Analy st Quoted 4% Analy st Quoted 25%

Customer Serv ice / Rev iew 10% Customer Serv ice / Rev iew 9%

Products 11% Products 8%

Location 4% Location 8%

Ads 2% Ads 1%

Website 0% Website 2%

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Discussion Topics (continued)
Sponsorship mentions (e.g. Scotiabank Buskerfest or BMO Field) were the most frequent, accounting for roughly a third of all mentions.
Scotiabank in particular had an extremely high percentage of sponsorship mentions, with one in two mentions falling into this category.
This is reflective of their overall marketing strategy. This compares to the relatively low incidence of analyst quotes for BNS, accounting
for only four percent of their conversations. Comparatively, CIBC’s sponsorship mentions were quite low, at twelve percent, and their
analysts were quoted in fifteen percent of the chatter.

Investor news was the second most prominent category, as about one in four posts was in this category. Again, we assigned a neutral
sentiment rating to these mentions, as they often don’t contain explicit positive or negative statements regarding any of the banks.

Some people say that the best customers are those who complain, because they are the ones telling you how to get better. For the
banks overall, twelve percent of the conversations had to do with customer service. Depending on the degree of influence, these posts
have a tremendous potential to impact brand reputation. TD has the largest percentage (20%) of posts attributable to customer service
and consumer reviews, with the majority of them negative. The irony here is that during the time this report was in field, two
industry syndicated reports were released, both lauding the bank for customer service. This is not to question the results of these
studies, but perhaps points to the opportunity for TD to improve its overall customer service perceptions by incorporating strategies to
deal with issues that arise in social media in real time.

social currency’s brand monitoring service enables brands to track and respond to
the valuable consumer feedback in social media. We provide alerts, to
conversations that merit your attention, and on an ongoing basis track what are the
most common issues and sentiment expressed by consumers.

Summary of Insights and Implications

This mini-survey represents a “snapshot” in time for the five Canadian banks. It is by no means comprehensive, yet reveals some interesting
insights. As one of the smaller of the big-five banks, Scotiabank’s stated marketing strategy stresses sponsorships as a means
maintaining a higher degree of market visibility and awareness. This strategy definitely carries over into the social media realm as consumers
regularly cite the brand name in association with various events. Surely, there’s an opportunity for Scotiabank to sponsor things like online
communities where groups like small business owners, Canadians living abroad or new parents can meet and exchange financial tips
and ideas. TD Canada Trust has consistently been recognized for their strong customer service, yet that reputation is being tarnished
online by consumers complaining about the service they’re receiving. If they are not doing so already, TD should be listening to these
conversations, looking for issues that may be systemically driven, and potentially reaching out to customers who feel they’ve been
treated unfairly. RBC is the largest bank in the group, and this strength is bolstered online with the frequency in which their analysts
are being cited by the media and bloggers. Why not consolidate all of these opinions on a single blog, where people looking for
investment news and advice can go for information from one of the most authoritative sources in the business? These insights and
ideas are but a sample of what can be gleaned from social media. It all starts with listening!

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Summary
Social media is a vast and dynamic space that can be very challenging for brands to manage and navigate. For every industry,
there’s a huge jumble of conversations happening, and it takes considerable time and expertise to filter, sort and analyze the
data. As part of Northstar Research Partners, social currency applies the same analytical rigour we apply to traditional research
studies, as we organize and distil the content into actionable insights that can enhance product and marketing strategy.
By focusing on measurement and analytics, social currency provides brands with a foundational understanding of the issues
and opportunities stemming from this medium. With benchmarks in place, brand can measure on a regular basis their
performance, understanding how and why the web responded to activities in market.

The Complete Research Solution

We can advise on your overall research strategy, not just one element. Social media research is not the panacea. We can
show you how social media insights link together with other learning to provide a more complete perspective on your
consumer and business.

About Northstar
social currency™ is a division of Northstar Research Partners , a team of over 100 research and insights consultants with 8 offices
globally. Northstar’s work encompasses the most critical elements of branding and marketing strategy for some of the world’s leading
brands across a range of sectors, including automotive, consumer goods, technology and services and retail.

Contact Information:
Patrick Gladney Director, Social Media
(t) 416.907.7100 x260 (e) pgladney@nsresearch.com www.socialcurrency.nsresearch.com