Bank of America's Attempted Reputation Restoration

After our discussion last week about "online reputations," I was interested to see this recent article on BNET.com regarding Bank of America's efforts via facebook to restore their brand reputation after the $5 Debit Card charge fiasco.

Curious, I logged into facebook to see the state of things. Interestingly, BofA does not have a corporate page and exclusively uses a "Building Opportunity from BofA" platform to communicate with their audience. The page communicates nothing of value about the company's products and services and instead features anecdotes on BofA's community volunteers and community initiatives. A particularly frustrating post encouraged followers to contribute to feedingamerica this holiday season...it was followed by a barrage of comments to the theme of "if BofA wasn't so greedy, maybe I'd have money to share."

BofA's facebook strategy seems incredibly weak: they are duping their followers with a less-than-transparent invite, and they page doesn't seem to be well tended to...there are certainly comments I wouldn't want unanswered on my company's page. Their twitter presence is a bit more controlled, though the reach is much smaller (less than 20K followers of BofA_Help, and 16K followers of BofA_News). Facebook's BofA hate sites approximate a total of 15K fans.

I found this Social Media Triage chart to be interesting when considering a company like Bank of America. It seems like they are using the "distraction" technique to boost their reputation...it's hard to tell whether this campaign will work in the long run...but it seems certain that people need a forum to share their perspectives and that BofA is skirting the issue, forcing people to air their grievances on BofA's fluffy "do good" page where the comments are not monitored, cultivated, and recognized in a constructive manner. They would do better to have one BofA facebook presence that incorporates all communication strategies: help conversation, "do good" updates, and banking service news and information. By segmenting these conversations on twitter and not fully embracing them on facebook they are limiting their reach, confusing their audience, and stifling their message.