| By Jim Bruene on January 6, 2009 1:46 PM | Comments (8) |
What better way to start the new year than to blog about a blog. And it's big news. Bank of America, through its Center for Future Banking (see note 1), launched a blog called The Future Banking Blog. The blog, quietly began after Thanksgiving (note 2), has averaged about 2 posts per week, about right for a banking blog (note 3).
The content so far has been wholly unrelated to Bank of America or its products. The blog is part academic, part strategic, bringing insights from the Center's joint team of MIT academics and BofA business execs.
The design however, is pure Bank of America (see below). It uses the BofA color palette and includes a prominent powered by logo in the upper right. It's also housed under a bank URL <futurebanking.bankofamerica.com>.
All in all it's a good effort, positioning BofA as a thought leader in the upside-down world of commercial banking circa 2009.
Note:
1. The Center is seeking an Executive Director. The position was posted on Dec. 16, but given the holiday, it's not too late to toss your name in the hat.
2. Hat tip to Colin Henderson at The Bankwatch for writing about it.
3. For more info on financial institution bloggin, see our Online Banking Report on Banking and Social Media.
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Thanks for pointing this out, Jim. I somehow missed it on Colin's site. Of course the Head of Applied Innovation at RBC, Avi Pollock, commented on one of the posts on December 24th. He beat us all to the punch.
If this blog has a connection to Bank of America networks then it is now targeted by millions of hackers that wanted to earn fast money.
Who is this blog for? I don't see much of an upside for BofA.
BofA sponsored the MIT lab presumably to get inside knowledge and ideas about future banking innovations. I can't imagine they'd want the lab's research and finding broadcast around the world.
As far as BofA's commercial or retail banking business is concerned, this blog isn't going to have any effect.
This is an ultra-safe baby step into the blogging world. Until you risk Joe Anonymous coming to your blog and spitting venom over his last overdraft fee, a financial institution doesn't really have a blog.
Jeffrey - thanks for the feedback on the blog. The blog is meant to serve the broad community of innovators and thought leaders working within Banking. It is about collaboration and new forms of engagement.
The opportunities within banking and industry as a whole are going to require fresh new concepts and maximum participation to tackle them effectively. The blog is one component of a more comprehensive strategy serving this goal.
There will be opportunities to share the Center's research. Especially in those cases where there is industry impact.
Would be great to disuss further, just drop me a line.
-Jeff
This is a nice collaborative effort!
Jim, it’s a good thing the blog isn’t pushing Bank of America products and services, that’s what their website is for! The blogging community is very cautious of blogs as sales tools. They’re better used by corporations to reach out and engage consumers in open communication.
However, the collaboration with the Center for Future Banking takes the content in another direction. While it could be loosely consumer focused, I think it’s more appealing to professionals in the banking world. They need define who there readers are and speak to those interests. With that said, how relevant are some of the current posts?
To build a strong/ targeted reader base, they must be willing to discuss revolutionary banking ideas. It can’t be watered down saving real insights for Bank of America, or off topic (discussing Google Chrome . . . Yawn). There are simply too many blogs publishing reworded news stories and empty opinions. I agree with Jeffry that’s it’s a safe step, and look forward to reading more.
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@jeffrey - I would take the opposite view. Any move into any type of social media is an enormous leap for a big bank. Therefore imho any move is better than no move. It creates a beachhead .. a launchpad for future endeavors, and gets senior brass used to the idea.
this blog has been taken down.
guess it generated more ill-will than good will.
Guess it didn't work out like planned.....