The purpose of the research has been to find out more about a bank’s Facebook usage, and the degree of fit. In order to investigate this, two problem formulations were developed for the purpose of the research.
What are financial institutions doing in the online space of Facebook?
The second part of the research question was:
How fit is the technology of Facebook for Danske Bank, in regard to deliver a service, taking the richness of the medium into consideration?
In respect to the first question, a single case study of Danske Bank was conducted.
The medium of Facebook was chosen for this study because of its immense interest among the population. Close to 800 million people have a profile on the web page, leaving little doubt about Facebook’s popularity. Subsequently, financial institutions became the industry to be looked at closer because of the contradictions between a bank’s products and the openness of Facebook.
A single case study of Danske Bank was conducted for the research. When looking at the Facebook page, it became evident that the bank uses their Facebook page to spread news and information around their services. The information is shared through text- based posts and video uploads as well as photos. Danske Bank also interacts with their followers and answer customer inquiries. Moreover, the bank runs a popular idea bank, where they aim for ideas from their followers in order to improve the products and services based on customer’s desires. On the other side, it seem, as the bank do not manage to fully use the potential of Facebook. For example the usage of photos could have been more strategically used. Also, the uploaded videos do not seem to engage very much as there are very few comments and inputs to the uploaded material. The research provided detailed information on what Danske Bank in
particular uses Facebook for. As this was a single case study, one should be careful
with making generalizations from the findings, in order to say what financial institutions are doing on Facebook. As Facebook pages can be tailor made for the specific needs of the firm holding the page, different banks will utilize different functions. For example the idea bank feature seems to be unique for Danske Bank, and one cannot say that this is a practice for all financial institutions. However,
Flyvbjerg (2004) argues that a strategically chosen case can add to the generalizability of a single case study. It can therefore be said that a bank uses Facebook to
communicate with its followers, and give response to customer inquiries.
In order to answer the second question, a research framework was developed for the purpose of the study. As research on the field of banks and social media usage seem limited, this framework was a necessary contribution.
Through the task technology fit analysis, it turned out that Facebook is rich in terms of providing features that can benefit a bank in all of the four challenges; intangibility, accessibility, contactability and perishability. After looking at each of them
separately, most of the subcategories defining media richness get a medium to high score in terms of fit. Especially the aspects of multiple cues and feedback turned out to increase the fit for using Facebook to overcome the four challenges. Through the Media richness framework, the openness of Facebook was also taken into
consideration when evaluating the fit. Due to this, the openness gives many opportunities, such as sharing of ideas and open dialogue. On the other side, the openness makes limitations on what should dealt with on Facebook, limiting the fit for the four service challenges. When looking at the four challenges all together, instead of separately, it can be argued that Facebook is an important channel for a bank. In these digitalized times, it is a must to be present on Facebook. It works as a portal to market the business, but mostly, the followers and customers should set the rules on Facebook. It is a valuable arena to have customer contact and dialogue, and simultaneously function as a portal where the customers can reach and access the bank.
Even though the results indicate that Facebook is a valuable place to be present, the future is hard to foresee. How much a firm should invest in social media presence is
while other fades away on a continuous basis. This makes it hard to foresee which page that will be the most popular on the Internet in the future. Facebook does however hold an enormous number of users, and one can assume that Facebook will hold its position at least for a while. The trends have showed us that communication is now happening between the masses, and not one- way from a company to the
customers. Based on the developments, this trend will probably be amplified, and companies must therefore adopt, and be present in whichever forum that is relevant.
The technological changes and more self- service, make Facebook a much- welcomed forum for interaction between employees and customers.
Future research
As this particular study was of a relatively narrow scope, and little earlier research existed, the research has raised some new questions. Extensions and further research is therefore suggested. Also, the fact that Danske Bank, a leading social media usage company within its industry, does not manage to use the full potential of Facebook, indicates the need for more knowledge and research on this topic.
First of all, a similar research would be interesting to conduct for another social media site, such as Twitter or a blog. If using the Media richness theory, contextual factors should be implemented more consciously. In respect to the Task technology fit model, users attitudes should also be implemented as these may vary between social medium sites. For example, the existence of Google+ is still relatively new, but may represent a great competitor for Facebook in the coming years, and should therefore not be ignored in future research. Along with using another technology, a further research topic that could be of interest would be to investigate a different type of service organization, such as the airline or hospitality industry. Unique service challenges should be identified to represent the tasks for another type of business to analyze the fit of Facebook. Yet another interesting approach could be to use another
methodological approach. For example by gathering primary data through interviews in order to get a more nuanced view on Facebook usage. A comparative study through a multiple case design could also be interesting, either by comparing several financial institutions, or by comparing financial institutions with other types of service
organizations. A final future research suggestion is to look at Facebook usage for a bank operating in other cultures. For example to see if there are any differences in utilization between Western and Asian cultures.