Social Media Provides Strong Engagement Opportunities For Credit Card Holders

Issuers of credit cards have been forced to search for alternative channels to build stronger loyalty among cardholders, as they are facing severe competition from debit card providers and new payment tools such as mobile apps and wallets, which undermine their market share.

Social media is one of the possible solutions for triggering a higher engagement amongst consumers thanks to its increasing use by the young and wealthier cardholders. However, in order to capitalise on this growth, sector players need to understand how to use social media in the right way.

These are the conclusions of a report that I read from management consultancy Auriemma Consulting Group, which has found that currently 71.7% of credit cardholders already have an account on a social media platform. However, despite the high share, just 13.8% of the people have subscribed to the Facebook page of their credit card provider. It turns out that even those who are already following their credit card provider on the platform hardly ever interact with them, as 68% of subscribers have never replied to messages or shared information from their page.

Consumers will be tempted to subscribe and interact with credit card issuers on social media only when they see the real benefit of doing it. The report shows that getting in touch with customer services through the issuer’s social media page is the option consumers want to be given most, followed by redeeming rewards or other incentives and enlisting in cardholder subscriber events.

Matt Simester, managing director at ATG, believes that providing consumers with exclusive and frequent offers is the essence of making them loyal on social media. It’s also a way to give prominence to a brand and overwhelm competitors, he said.