Twitter me not??

 If you are  amongst the many who have not yet converted to the likes of Twitter and Facebook because you think it’s for teenagers to organise parties or for Generation X’ers to extol the content of their breakfast or their nightmare commutes into work, then you’re right (partly!..)

And yet, social media is about so much more than that. Essentially, for a brand, it’s about engaging with your customer and for a consumer it’s about interacting with a brand in a way that multi-million media budgets spent on TV advertising just don’t allow.

Some brands have got their media strategies buttoned down just right and if, as a consumer you don’t want to have anything more than just a presence on the likes of Twitter and just follow a few key brands and people, then it can prove invaluable as it did at the weekend for those HSBC customers (and followers of the HSBC Press Office) affected by the IT hardware failure suffered on Sunday. The glitch left some of their customers unable to make card payments or withdraw cash from ATMs.

A tweet sent out by the HSBC UK press account stated that services were affected on Sunday afternoon with the fault fixed by around 19.30.

The bank apologised to angry customers, many of whom had taken to Twitter themselves to berate it and threaten to move accounts:

HSBC Press Office

hsbc_uk_press 20 May 12

Our ATMs should be back up now. Sorry for the inconvenience. Please call customer services if you need further help 08457 404404 #HSBC

HSBC UK Press Office

@hsbc_uk_press 20 May 12

Sorry again for the problems this evening. An IT hardware failure affected some ATM and card transactions. All services available now #HSBC

The bank developed a dedicated social media monitoring team in light of a major IT outage November.

You might expect a brand like HSBC to have an established social media presence, so you would therefore be surprised to find out that on Twitter, Lloyds for example has an account that is for online banking queries only.

Eurasia Insights, in conjunction with Payments Cards and Mobile are running a Social Media In Payments briefing with companies such as Gemalto and Realex speaking about their social media strategies at the event. It is due to take place at The Andaz in London on June 26^th. For more details, go to

http://www.regonline.co.uk/Register/Checkin.aspx?EventID=1054388

For a brand, social media is a fundamental string to the PR bow and updating your Twitter account should be the new health and safety, politically correct cigarette break, as routine as flossing your teeth.

And for a consumer, well, what have you had for breakfast?

For jobs in the card and payment industry, go to http://www.cardandpaymentjobs.com