Globalization and social media strategies by financial institutions worldwide

Abstract

The objective of this research is to investigate financial institutions on social media; their strategies and the ways they deal with customers in the light of the process of globalisation. The objective material is ING Bank and its Facebook site within the process of its institutional expansion worldwide. On four continents, Asia, Europe, North America and Australia; four countries Australia, Canada, India and Turkey are investigated comparatively. For almost ten years, social media using among banking companies has had a remarkable rise especially on Facebook. ING Bank, which was awarded “the most successful effective banking management” in Eastern Europe in 2012, is one of them. The research investigates how far the bank achieves this success online; the discourses between the bank and its customers on Facebook pages. Discourse analysis and semiological analysis are applied to four categories —advertisements, feedbacks, surveys and social activities on Facebook pages in four countries of an international bank within a three month’s period.