The FINANCIAL -- The presence of Georgian companies on facebook has been increasing.
However Georgian companies have not set their limits at the social
network, and are in parallel registering their own channels for free on
YouTube.
The majority of videos on banks’ channels are TV commercials and TV reports. The average number of views is 50,000. The Christmas video of Bank of Georgia showing their popular Santa dance performance has been watched 73,000 times.
TBC Bank, whose net profit reached 24 million GEL as of the first quarter of 2010, has recently joined YouTube. The Bank previously had its presence there with TBC Smart Club.
“The internet is developing rapidly in Georgia as well as all over the world. We started with facebook and have not yet joined YouTube. We maximally want to cover all the channels of communication that our clients have access to,” said Salome Kokosadze, Marketing Communications Manager at TBC Bank .
“We are considering developing other social network channels in the future which will be gaining momentum in Georgia,” Kokosadze added.
TBC Bank joined YouTube on 27 April, 2010. Currently the total number of uploads’ views is 474 and channel views - 380. TBC Smart Club’s total number of channel views exceeds 1,765 while uploads’ views are 15,234. Smart Club joined YouTube on 16 August, 2010.
Bank of Georgia, which has a record number of likes on Facebook, already exceeding 223,685, and is the number one most liked bank on facebook compared to giant global banks, has an active campaign on YouTube with in total 1,931,879 uploaded video views. The Bank joined YouTube on 3 November, 2010. The total number of channel views of Bank of Georgia exceeds 35,791.
“Social media is one of various communication channels that we use to be in touch with our customers. Like every communication channel, social media serves a purpose. Bank of Georgia regards social media as a way to directly communicate with its customers, get timely feedback, answer customer questions and have two-way communication,” said Sophie Balavadze, Brand Executive at Bank of Georgia .
To the question - “Will TBC Bank shift its operations from traditional to online social media?” Kokosadze said “Tendencies are leading to this, however it is still difficult to predict the future”.
facebook is now the number one most surfed webpage in Georgia according to Alexa.com, California based subsidiary company of Amazon, which is known for its website ranking. facebook is followed by Google.com and YouTube.com in Georgia.
However while Georgian banks are active on facebook, Twitter is the least popular communication channel. TBC Smart Club, which has 178,525 “likes” on facebook, has only 12 followers on Twitter. Bank of Georgia seems more active with 89 followers and 563 tweets.
Due to the number of Bank of Georgia ’s “likes” it has beaten the highest ranking banks throughout the world. Such huge numbers of likes are usually attracted by celebrities and media organizations only. What’s interesting is that the top leading banks like HSBC , Deutsche Bank, Societe Generale, Commerzbank, UBS AG, Barclays, GP Morgan, CitiBank, and VTB , with more than billions of total assets, don’t have an official presence on facebook.
The number of Bank of Georgia ’s fans is even more than the number of fans on the BBC News fan page which has 109,620 likes, Financial Times - 183,638, and Euronews - 39,544, the top TV channels worldwide.
Currently the most active Georgian pages on facebook are as follows: Bank of Georgia , TBC Smart Club, Sofia Nizharadze, Iphone +, Iavnana, Zoommer, Face Control, GO! Electronics, TravelTime, TBC Game. The list also includes popular TV shows and public figures.
Related Stories
