Matt Wadley, a communications manager with Wachovia in Charlotte, also contributes to the blog. He says Wachovia communications employees have boosted their emphasis on social media since merging with Wells Fargo late last year. Wells, he says, has been experimenting with social media since 2006.

“Wells Fargo has pushed the envelope in this industry,” Wadley says. He notes Wells Fargo launched a Twitter account in March, at twitter.com/ask_WellsFargo, in addition to the Wells-Wachovia Blog and a presence on Facebook.

“We want to be where our customers are, and for many of them, that’s online,” Wadley says. “It’s a new way of thinking about talking to your bank.”

BofA is integrating its marketing efforts with social media. Spokesman Joe Goode says the company maintains Web pages at Facebook.com and MySpace.com, featuring news and other information. In January, the bank launched a Twitter account, twitter.com/BofA_Help, to answer customer concerns and questions.

“We want to engage our customers where they’re at in real time,” Goode says. “Social media is the pervasive way to do that.”

Goode declines to disclose how much the bank is spending on social media. But he says BofA’s overall budget for online marketing will exceed last year’s spending.

Keath, the consultant, says banks trail other industries in how they leverage social media. He believes one reason is tied to legal concerns. He says banks often have all their communication reviewed by lawyers before publication. And social media thrive on a more free-flowing, unfiltered dialogue.

“That really scares some companies,” Keath says.

But the surging popularity of social networking is pushing banks to draft policies and train employees to take advantage of the phenomenon.

“To not be in that space, you run the risk of missing the conversation,” Wadley says.

At Family Trust, CEO Gardner says launching the credit union’s blog took about 120 days of planning and a minimal investment. He says blog entries are edited by a marketing manager before they’re published, as a safeguard. But writers are encouraged to write about themselves and even approach controversial topics.

“We want to be a little edgy to get comments and start a conversation,” Gardner says. “But we’re also careful not to cross certain lines.”

He believes credit unions will be more successful with social media in the long term because they’re more consumer-driven than big banks. And credit unions can relate informally to their core customers better than large institutions, he says.

“You won’t find banks making their multimillion-dollar deals through social networking,” he says.

And that fedora?

“That’s actually a photo of me with my daughter on vacation at Isle of Palms,” Gardner says. “We used it for the blog because it gives a more personal connection.”

CHARLOTTE BUSINESS JOURNAL

---

Adam O'Daniel is a staff writer for the Charlotte Business Journal.