The document analyzes the Facebook pages of Canada's major banks - BMO, CIBC, National Bank, RBC, Scotiabank, and TD. It finds that while most banks provide basic information on their corporate pages, Scotiabank delivers a richer experience for visitors. It also notes that banks are more successful engaging customers through targeted causes or customer segments. Lastly, it questions whether banks have unified strategies for their various Facebook pages and how they can further improve engagement.

1. Deepak Pershad’s Blog
Canadian Banks on Facebook – A Quick Review
Canada’s major banks are obvious candidates for deep social media engagement, given their large
customer bases and expertise in other marketing disciplines such as direct marketing and CRM. Not
surprisingly, all of the top 6 banks have Facebook pages to reach out to and engage their customers. The
purpose of this post is to take a brief look at their pages, and provide some observations on how they’re
doing.
The banks reviewed were:
 Bank of Montreal (BMO)
 Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC)
 National Bank
 Royal Bank Financial Group (RBC)
 Scotiabank
 TD Bank Financial Group (TD)
Some observations on each bank’s Facebook pages are provided below.
Bank of Montreal (BMO)
BMO appears to take the minimalist approach to its corporate page, which provides basic information
about the Bank, and a link for more detail to a Wikipedia entry. The community page is however robust,
with ongoing dialogues with customers, advice for different demographics, credit card offers, and
branch locations. Also prominent are supported causes, such as the BC Children’s Hospital Foundation,
and BCSPCA. And finally, there is the very popular Student Price Card page, which is “is your pass to
exclusive deals on fashion, food, entertainment, lifestyle, travel and more,” and which garners the most
“Likes” by far.
In the Bank’s words, “We're here to share tips and ideas, discuss what's on your mind and help simplify
your financial matters. Talk to us – we're listening!”
Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC)
The CIBC corporate page also provides an overview of the Bank, and a link to a Wikipedia entry. The
Bank’s related posts address its charitable and student hiring opportunities. Once again, the Community
page is much richer, with a clear focus on CIBC’s corporate causes, such as the Canadian Breast Cancer
Foundation (with video clips included), and the Bank’s corporate focus on Youth, Education, Health, and
Employee Engagement.
Unfortunately, another Facebook page which shows up in a Google search for CIBC Face book pages is
one entitled “Boycott CIBC.” It’s not clear who the driving force is behind this, but given that it has not
been updated in over a year, and has only 33 “Likes,” it shouldn’t be too much of a concern to CIBC.
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2. National Bank of Canada
The National Bank provides an overview of the bank, through a Wikipedia link. Another Facebook page
links to a single Mortgage Development Manager, and apparently there is a blank Community page. It
appears that there are some significant opportunities for National Bank to improve its Facebook
presence and customer engagement.
Royal Bank Financial Group (Canada)
A search for RBC generated at least 3 separate sites on Facebook. The corporate site once again provides
a brief overview of the Bank, with a link to the relevant Wikipedia page. The most robust site is that for
the RBC Blue Water Project (a multi-year, fresh water protection project), complete with videos, photos,
and a test you can take to reveal your “water personality.” There is also a separate page for the RBC
GranFondo Whistler Cycling Event.
Scotiabank (Canada)
Scotiabank has clearly put a lot of thought and effort into its corporate pages. Individual pages provide
advice, information and rich media to engage customers in the terms of their different financial needs.
Other separate Scotiabank pages include Scotiabank Nuit Blanche (Scotiabank Nuit Blanche is Toronto's
free city-wide sunset-to-sunrise celebration of contemporary art), and the Scotiabank International
Optimist Regatta (excluded from this review as only Canadian pages are being considered for this post).
TD Bank Financial Group (Canada)
Like BMO, CIBC and RBC, the TD corporate site once again provides a brief overview of the Bank, with a
link to the relevant Wikipedia page. However, the related posts do refer to TD’s various community and
charitable events. Where TD really shines is its TD Money Lounge pages, which rival those of Scotia’s
corporate pages for richness of content and engagement, and include active discussions, and exclusive
offers.
While Scotia’s corporate pages address multiple target audiences defined by specific financial needs, the
TD Money Lounge focuses on students and their specific needs. TD has also put a fair bit of effort into
its Friends of the Environment pages, which include discussions, events, photos and basic information
about the Foundation. Other TD Facebook Pages include a relatively basic TD Canada Trust page, and a
targeted TD Canada Trust “Split it” (split your bills with your friends) page.
Last fall (2010), Meghan Lantier of Bliss PR, a B2B PR agency in New York City (www.blisspr.com)
suggested the following guidelines for banks considering the use of Facebook:
1. Know why you are on Facebook
2. Develop a content strategy
3. Provide education, tools, and guidance
4. Create a game plan for when/if it goes horribly wrong
5. Keep it fresh
Though she did not include community pages in her assessment of selected U.S. institutions, they have
been reviewed in this post. While it’s hard from external observation to assess how the banks do on
point # 4 (likely very diligently), it appears that BMO, CIBC, Scotia, RBC and TD each have their individual
strengths in using Facebook. TD, RBC, BMO and CIBC do well with targeted and community offers, while
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3. Scotiabank provides a terrific corporate page experience by going well beyond the typical Wikipedia
listing link, and delivering a rich visitor experience.
Some key takeaways and questions from a review of these institutions’ Facebook pages and Meghan
Lantier’s observations are:
 Do more than just providing a basic overview or Wikipedia link on your corporate page (well
done, Scotiabank!)
 Banks do better when leveraging a specific cause or targeting a specific customer segment
 Is there an underlying, unified content strategy behind the various Facebook pages put up by
the different teams/divisions of each bank? What is your (the reader) assessment?
 Does it help to have simple links between the different Facebook pages, if multiple pages are
being managed by separate teams?
 Are there more active ways of engaging target visitors?
As always, I’m very interested in your thoughts about this post, and how you feel Canadian banks could
further leverage their presence on Facebook. The links to the various pages are provided after the table
below.
Canadian Bank Facebook "Likes" 03-Aug-11
Bank Page Likes
BMO Corporate 775
Community 2,825
Student Price Card Targeted 57,850
CIBC Corporate 1,402
CIBC Run for the Cure Community 4,617
National Bank Corporate 179
Community 14
RBC Corporate 773
RBC Blue Water Project Community 28,154
RBC GranFondo Whistler Cycling Community 1,427
Event
Scotiabank Corporate 15,199
Scotiabank Nuit Blanche Community 13,275
TD Bank Financial Group Corporate 967
TD Money Lounge (for students) Targeted 21,623
TD Friends of the Environment Community 2,038
Foundation
Split it by TD Canada Trust Targeted 8 (active users)
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4. CANADIAN BANKS ON FACEBOOK - LINKS
BMO
http://www.facebook.com/pages/BMO-Financial-Group/110549485634247#!/pages/BMO-Financial-
Group/110549485634247?sk=info
http://www.facebook.com/BMOcommunity
http://www.facebook.com/SPCCard?v=app_6009294086
CIBC
http://www.facebook.com/pages/CIBC/115545151793616
http://www.facebook.com/CIBCcommunitymatters
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Boycott-CIBC/91229261844
NATIONAL BANK
http://www.facebook.com/pages/National-Bank-of-Canada/108154775871723
http://www.facebook.com/pages/National-Bank-of-Canada-Mortgage-Development-
Manager/14967682330#!/pages/National-Bank-of-Canada-Mortgage-Development-
Manager/14967682330?sk=info
http://www.facebook.com/pages/National-Bank-of-Canada/109652389057375
RBC FINANCIAL GROUP
http://www.facebook.com/pages/RBC-Royal-Bank-of-Canada/110538095641294
http://www.facebook.com/rbcbluewaterproject
http://www.facebook.com/GranFondoCanadaWhistler
SCOTIABANK
http://www.facebook.com/scotiabank
http://www.facebook.com/sbnuitblancheTO#!/sbnuitblancheTO?sk=info
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Scotiabank-International-Optimist-Regatta/254776742978
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5. TD BANK FINANCIAL GROUP
http://www.facebook.com/pages/TD-Bank/110847885606597#!/pages/TD-
Bank/110847885606597?sk=info
http://www.facebook.com/tdmoneylounge#!/tdmoneylounge?sk=wall
http://www.facebook.com/pages/TD-Friends-of-the-Environment-Foundation/21338413843
http://www.facebook.com/apps/application.php?id=4245957541#!/apps/application.php?id=42459575
41&sk=info
http://www.facebook.com/pages/TD-Canada-Trust/109198759105660#!/pages/TD-Canada-
Trust/109198759105660?sk=wall
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