Use of Facebook in Nordic banks. How are some of the Nordic banks using Facebook, could they be more successful?

Abstract

The reputation and image are of high interest in today´s society and social media has become the key instrument for organizations to flourish in that area. In this thesis it will be investigated how few a banks in Nordic countries present themselves and communicate to the public using Facebook. The best practises on how to use social media to engage with the public and some theories on how an organization can increase it´s trust and loyalty to the public by communicating with them on social media will also be presented. The Icelandic banks for an example endured breakdown in 2008, the consequences were decrease in trust and loyalty, and it is interesting to recognize if those banks are using best practises on Facebook to re-claim the trust and loyalty. In the study the chosen sector is banks. Banks are well-established organizations where trust and loyalty is important. Netnography a method specifically designed to study communities online is used on banks Facebook Pages to analyse how the banks are using Facebook. The Facebook Pages were monitored for one month to collect quantitative and qualitative data. The main conclusions are that these banks in the Nordic countries are performing in different manners; some banks are obviously using best practises according to the resources in this thesis and others are not. Certain banks had more activity on their Facebook Pages and are posting more of successful posts. When it comes to responsiveness and participation in interaction with the public on the bank Facebook Pages some of the banks are vigorous and others not. Overall this study contributes to improve understanding of various factors on how organizations, and then particularly within the banking sector, can use Facebook.