Banking

The four biggest banks in the US, Bank of America, Citi Bank, JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo Bank together have assets of $7.883 trillion dollars.
It is interesting to learn about each bank and exactly how successful they are. In this article we will compare assets, their online presence and what strategies each bank uses on Facebook and Twitter.

JP Morgan Chase – (JPM)

The Chase Bank (formally referred to as JP Morgan & Chase) is the resulting company of a merger between Bank One,
Chemical Bank, Bear Stearns, the Bank of Chicago, and Washington Mutual Is the largest bank in the U.S. with assets of $2.509 trillion US dollars.

Social media reports 3,787,601 likes for their Facebook page. with 1,219 people talking about them. Majestic SEO reports 1,232,691 links to the site in the last 5 years, from 39,221 domains. They have 18,292 Twitter followers.

Topics they include on their community page include charitable contributions such as their recent $25K towards helping Uganda with clean water, holiday support like July 4th, encouraging people to plant seeds of change in their communities, and supporting military veterans to engage in service projects to help cope with post traumatic stress disorder.

Bank of America

Founded in 1904 in San Francisco as the Bank of Italy, designed to serve immigrants, this bank has become a household name, one of the most recognizable brands in banking. Assets worth $2.175 trillion US dollars and acquisitions like CountryWide Financial and Merrill Lynch added considerable wealth to the corporation.

Notable building projects have brought national attention to the company. The Bank of America Tower – a $1 billion dollar skyscraper in Manhattan, New York – is known as one of the most ecologically friendly buildings in the world. They have also built twenty eight other buildings that are located throughout U.S. as well as in Hong Kong.

Controversies and law suits against the company are numerous. American federal prosecutors filed a $1billion civil lawsuit against Bank of America for mortgage fraud (October 24, 2012). The US government filed a law suit against them in 2010 which resulted in payment of fines up to $137.7 million dollars.

Social media reports 1,044,200 likes on their Facebook page and 41,013 talking about them. Majestic SEO reports 17,645,960 backlinks to their website in the last 5 years. Twitter reports 125,276 followers.

Topics they discuss on their Facebook page deal with saving money, entertaining on a budget and encouraging going “green” in daily living habits. They even post schedules of summer activities such as upcoming state fairs. They express concern for local tragedies like the recent loss of the 19 firefighters in Arizona. Charity is high on their list of content articles. Rewards for opening new credit cards include donations to the Susan G. Koman for the Cure. Honoring our American troops is also recognized.

Citi

Citi Group also known as Citi Bank has 200 million customer accounts in 160 countries.
Assets are $1.882 trillion dollars. They have donated (3 year $6 million a year fund) to financial innovation and research. During 2012, The Citi Foundation invested $76.5 million in programs that support the economic empowerment and financial inclusion of more than 1.1 million people globally. They also make a huge effort to coordinate Global Community Day where thousands of volunteers give of their time – 1.3 million volunteer hours to be exact – to improve playgrounds, planting trees, picking up trash and improving various communities. They were the top affordable housing lender for three consecutive years.

Citigroup has 551,171 likes for their Facebook page. Majestic SEO reports 53,912,259 backlinks coming from 26,045 different domains. They have 157310 Twitter followers.

Discussions on Facebook include geography quizzes, charitable giving news and environmental contributions. Twitter updates report more of the same.

Wells Fargo

Wells Fargo assets are worth $1.437 trillion U.S. dollars. They claim to serve 70 million customers, have over 9,000 stores in more than 35 countries, and have more than 12,000 ATM’s.

Their banking philosophy is well stated here: “Now is not the time to retreat but to reach out and connect with our stakeholders and communities, to listen and understand, to do what’s right, to admit mistakes and learn from them and, most important, to tell the Wells Fargo story and what makes us different to as many people as we can.”

Wells Fargo Facebook page posts about Community Leadership Awards, interviewing tips, customizing credit cards with your own photo, tips about using credit cards when traveling outside the U.S., graphic puzzles and quizzes. They have 45,837 Twitter followers

Conclusion

Although JP Morgan Chase bank is clearly the leader in total amount of assets, and has a grand following on Facebook, Citi Group is the leader in getting inbound links and Twitter followers. Each bank has their own social media strengths and there is something to be learned from how they are using social media effectively. It seems evident that community involvement plays a big role in succeeding in developing a good online presence. For those people that have their own sites without the financial power of the big banks, you can get some good ideas about how you can improve your own online presence. Offering community service or promoting green living goes a long way.