BMO Becoming More Active on Twitter

Twitter, a social networking service that allows users to send and read messages, otherwise known as tweets. These tweets are publicly visible by default and can allow people around the world to know what the user is doing at any given time of the day.

Financial institutions have been using Twitter as a means to get in touch with the public, whether it is to make them aware of products or even deals.

We are slowly seeing major Canadian banks take a more active role on Twitter, however they were still not tweeting as much as they could be and should be.

BMO is among the Canadian banks that are slowly taking a more active role on Twitter. By just scrolling down their page you can see that they would tweet (at most) once a day, and even then it isn’t consistent. There may be no activity for a couple of days, which is definitely something you do not want to happen on Twitter. One major error BMO had been doing is not tweeting back to their followers, or anyone in particular. You want to communicate on Twitter, make a conversation that interacts with the person.

I noticed that last week, the activity has sky rocketed on their twitter page. Why you ask? Well BMO has decided to start tweeting! Whether it is about their products and services or even to assist people with any problems they may have. One Tuesday alone, there were 6 tweets, which is amazing considering before we were lucky to see them tweet once a day.

Looking at another Canadian bank, like RBC, I found that they are not using Twitter to its full potential at all. The last tweet was Febraury 22nd, which is almost 3 weeks ago. What I find interesting is that they have over 3,000 followers, and the number of tweets sit at 301. BMO on the other hand has 358 followers, and they have sent out 75 tweets. BMO has only been on Twitter since January 17th, while RBC has been on since May 5th, 2009. BMO will surpass RBC on Twitter in a matter of weeks at the rate they are going and sooner or later they may be able to compete with the Superstars of Twitter among the banks, a.k.a ING Direct Canada.

ING Direct Canada tweets as much as possible, answering questions, talking about products, and simply conversing with anyone who talks to them. ING tweets several times a day, interacting with everyone and in their latest event for the THRiVE chequing account they tweeted non stop getting the attention of everyone in the cities that the THRiVEtastics event took place in.

ING was able to accomplish great things yesterday, with the help of various social media outlets. Twitter played a huge role, and was able to spread the word of their event, the THRiVEtastics, and allow it to accomplish what it had set out to do.

I am glad to see banks make use of Twitter, and I can’t wait to see BMO’s presence increase on Twitter, hopefully being able to battle with other banks whose presence are high. Plus, BMO I tweeted you twice and no reply. I was a bit sad and hope we can develop a strong twitter relationship, just don’t tell my girlfriend she might get jealous.