Last Thursday, I attended a brainstorming meeting at Wainwright bank. Bob Glassman, co-founder of the bank, is exploring the idea of increasing the banks web presence and sent out an open invitation to progressive bloggers in the Boston area to participate in the discussion.
Before attending this meeting, I knew very little about Wainwright bank and its socially and politically progressive policies and activities. So, from a personal standpoint this was a very educational meeting for me. I told Bob that I currently do all of my banking at Bank of America simply because they were the most recognizable name and they haven’t yet pissed me off. Apparently, inertia is a big problem for banks when trying to build membership. After learning more about the banks commitment to the community, I’m a bit more motivated to consider switching banks.
In the meantime, they’ve given me quite a bit to think about as far as business blogging goes. The meeting was quite successful and productive in part because of Wainwrights openness in considering all suggestions as well as the high caliber of participants in the conversation. The other people at the meeting were:
Most of these bloggers are outwardly progressive in their blogging content and were at the meeting to hear about Wainwright’s plan for extending their progressive stance to the internet. I think I was a unique participant in the fact that I don’t usually write about politics on my blog and I was most interested in talking about Wainwright’s strategy for communicating online. All in all, I think this made for a perfect mix in perspectives and opinions. No matter how Wainwright ultimately decides to participate in the blogosphere, I think they are already on the right track simply by considering it, studying it and getting to know the bloggers who most closely represent their potential audience. Wainwright had many concerns about the whole idea and asked a lot of great questions including:
- How will this balance with current regulation?
- What are the ethical contrainsts?
- What needs to be done to build trust and achieve transparency?
- How do we build and audience and develop an online personality?
- Will this be one way or two way communication?
- Is a Wainwright blog the best option?
- If so, what should be the post topics?
Bob made one comment that really stuck with me. He was concerned that the blog would look too much like an advertisement and that by pushing themselves out there, they would only turn off potential customers. Whatever Wainwright did, Bob wanted it to be genuine. He said, “What we do and who we are is very unique and fragile. The more you market it, the more you de-value the brand.” This can be very true in many circumstances, but what I tried to help Bob understand is that a blog does not have to be a vehicle for driving Wainwrights message. Instead, it can be a forum for Wainwright to connect with its audience and, most importantly, for the public to get to know Wainwright. The banks personality will shine through very subtly in the topics it chooses to write about.
I got the impression that the meeting served as a great starting point for Wainwright to “wrap its head” around the idea of blogging and online communication and how they might fit into the mix. I hope that, as they become more comfortable with the idea, we will get more opportunities to discuss strategy and tactics.
The following is what I would recommend for Wainwright:
Start participating immediately. This can mean a variety of different things such as building a list of blogs with relevant content, maybe advertise on some of thosed blogs, make online friends through comments or guest blogging. Shai made a great point in his post about the meeting
“Also, I should mention that there’s been some hesitation from other bloggers in attending the meeting, because they felt that they were just helping Wainwright figure out their marketing strategy for free, and/or are being asked to provide free advertising. I had some worries about that before the meeting, but they are pretty well allayed by now. As liberals, we are all very suspicious of being manipulated by corporations, and corporations with a progressive image are sometimes the worst offenders. That skepticism is healthy, but it should not be so strong as to wall us off from bona fide allies. If we are going to build a lasting movement for real progressive change, then we are going to have to build (or work with) institutions to keep the momentum going. Just as the union movement in the 1930’s needed newspapers, union halls, solidarity committees, and all sorts of other supporting institutions, so will we need think tanks, media outlets, and yes, banks, to aggregate political and financial capital to support our causes. We should not hesitate to establish those institutions when we need to, but we certainly shouldn’t re-invent the wheel when we have a perfectly solid ally, as we do with Wainwright.”
Develop a Wainwright blog. This shouldn’t happen right away. As Wainwright starts participating online, it will become clear to them how they want to grow and increase that participation. The details will show themselves. I suspect a blog will still make sense and Wainwright will have to make decisions about format and content. I think it will be a hybrid of sorts.
The blog should have many contributors with one Chief blogger to keep things organized. Bob should post on a regular schedule and his VPs should post as news worthy topics arise. For example, somebody from the mortgage department could post about the sub-prime lending issue. They should also invite their non-profit customers to guest blog; this will be the best way for the bank to talk about their progressive outlook on issues. They should also leave commenting open to encourage a 2-way conversation. Sure, the conversation may not always be positive, but the bank will have an opportunity to really show its personality in the way in reacts to these comments. This is where I believe the next blogging brainstorming meeting will come into play. Hopefully, Wainwright will be able to learn from the more seasoned Boston bloggers and will be able to avoid many of the common blogging mistakes.
From my perspective, it is becoming increasingly clear that all businesses will need to begin thinking about their web presence; a blog may not make sense for all of them, but participation online will be inevitable. I’m happy to see that Wainwright is setting itself up to be a pioneer in the process.
But, we had enough chickens for me to learn early on that chickens will lay eggs whenever and wherever they darn-well feel like it. And they won’t be quiet about it, either. 
