1.
#SMING12
IMPACT OF SOCIAL MEDIA 2012

2.
ABOUT THIS STUDY
More and more news about financial But exactly what impact does all
institutions is appearing in online and that online buzz actually have on
social media. consumers? And how reliable do
consumers think all that information is?
ING has seen an increase in the
Is it different from other online media?
buzz around its brand over the past
And from traditional media?
few years too. From around 10,000
mentions each month in 2011 to
30,000 mentions in September 2012.
These questions have led ING to carry
Analysing this buzz has shown out a major study on the subject.
that people are discussing, sharing You can read the results of the study
and commenting on anything and in this report.
everything.
And all that buzz has quickly started
to seem very important.
2

3.
WHAT CAN YOU EXPECT FROM THIS REPORT?
Answers to the question of how consumers come into contact with financial news
in online and social media.
Answers to the question of how reliable consumers think that financial news in online
and social media is.
And insights into the impact that financial reports in online and social media have
on consumers.
All this has been presented on the basis of dozens of facts and insights into the
perceived reliability and impact of financial reports in online and social media.
3

4.
MAIN CONCEPTS
TRADITIONAL MEDIA ONLINE MEDIA SOCIAL MEDIA
Traditional media include Online media reports Social media reports
‘offline’ media such as include articles on online include posts/stories/
television, radio, news- news websites, news- reports which appear on
papers, news magazines paper websites, weblogs, Facebook, Hyves, Twitter,
and so on. In any case, forums/discussion plat- YouTube, LinkedIn,
it concerns reports, forms, review sites and Google+ and so on.
sources and media that the websites of compa-
are related to news and nies/organisations.
current affairs.
4

5.
WHAT IS THE MAIN THING THAT WE HAVE LEARNT?
Financial reports in online and social media have been shown to have a major
impact on consumers: social media play an increasingly influential role in developing
reputations and brand preference for companies.
Whilst traditional media are still perceived as being more reliable and having a greater
impact, the impact of traditional media is being put under pressure since the rise of
social media.
5

6.
CONTACT WITH FINANCIAL REPORTS IN
ONLINE AND SOCIAL MEDIA
IT HAS BEEN SHOWN THAT CONSUM-
ERS COME INTO CONTACT VERY FRE-
QUENTLY WITH FINANCIAL REPORTS
IN ONLINE AND SOCIAL MEDIA.
6

7.
HOW OFTEN DO CONSUMERS COME INTO
1 IN 3 CONSUMERS SEE CONTACT WITH REPORTS ABOUT THE FINANCIAL
FINANCIAL REPORTS IN 42%
SECTOR IN SOCIAL MEDIA?
SOCIAL MEDIA AT LEAST
ONCE A WEEK
More than half of consumers 15%
10% 12%
9%
see reports about the financial 8%
5%
0%
sector in social media ‘less
than once a month’ or more Never Less At least Weekly Several
than once a times a
Daily Several
times a
frequently. once a month
month
week day
HOW OFTEN DO CONSUMERS COME INTO
55% OF CONSUMERS SEE CONTACT WITH REPORTS ABOUT THE FINANCIAL
SECTOR IN ONLINE MEDIA?
FINANCIAL REPORTS IN
22%
ONLINE MEDIA AT LEAST 18% 19%
ONCE A WEEK 13%
13%
11%
5%
0%
Never Less At least Weekly Several Daily Several
than once a times a times a
once a month week day
month N=750
7

8.
HOW OFTEN DO CONSUMERS COME INTO
CONTACT WITH REPORTS ABOUT ING NEARLY 1 IN 5 CONSUMERS
56% IN SOCIAL MEDIA? SEE REPORTS ABOUT
ING ON SOCIAL MEDIA
AT LEAST ONCE A WEEK
16%
9% 9%
4%
29% SEE REPORTS ABOUT
3% 2% 0%
ING IN ONLINE MEDIA AT
Never Less than At least
once a once a
Weekly Several
times a
Daily Several
times a
LEAST ONCE A WEEK
month month week day
HOW OFTEN DO CONSUMERS COME INTO
CONTACT WITH REPORTS ABOUT ING IN
30% ONLINE MEDIA?
24%
17%
16%
5% 6%
2%
0%
Never Less than At least Weekly Several Daily Several
once a once a times a times a
month month week day
N=750
8

9.
CONSUMERS CAN RECALL
REPORTS FROM ONLINE
AND SOCIAL MEDIA EASILY
74% of consumers can recall
reports about ING in online and
social media.
Consumers recall reports from
news websites best of all.
A quarter of consumers can
remember reports about ING
on Twitter or Facebook.

10.
THE TOPICS THAT CONSUMERS RECALL ABOUT FINANCIAL MARKETS
AND ING VARY A LOT BETWEEN CHANNELS
Social media are mainly focussed on personal experiences and choices, customer
service and product services, and marketing communications. Traditional online
media are dominated by news on financial markets and the economic crisis.
TWITTER FACEBOOK FORUMS REVIEW SITES NEWSPAPER WEBSITES ONLINE NEWS WEBSITES
Financial crisis 37% Advertising/ 42% Personal 42% Customer 46% Financial crisis 60% Financial crisis 51%
communications experiences service &
Product services
Personal 37% Personal 36% Reasons for not 41% Financial market 55% Financial market 49%
experiences experiences choosing a bank Products 46% in general in general
Customer 36% Customer 36% Financial crisis 39% Reasons for 38% Financial situation 55% Financial situation 47%
service & service & choosing a bank of bank of bank
Product services Product services
N=108 N=313 N=99 N=134 N=498 N=476
10

11.
CONSUMERS remember OF THOSE FINANCIAL REPORTS THAT
CONSUMERS REMEMBER, THE TONE IS:
FINANCIAL reports,
whether they are
Facebook
positive, neutral or 42% 33%
negative
Review sites 58% 28%
The financial reports which
consumers recall from Facebook Blog 31% 26%
and review sites are mainly
positive. Forum / discussion platform 40% 25%
The financial reports which Twitter 41% 25%
consumers recall from blogs,
forums and discussion platforms Hyves 56% 20%
are mainly negative.
Newspaper website 56% 16%
The financial reports which
consumers recall from review Online news site 58% 16%
sites, newspaper websites and
online news sites are mainly Negative Neutral Positive
neutral.
11

12.
PERCEIVED RELIABILITY OF FINANCIAL
REPORTS IN ONLINE AND SOCIAL MEDIA
Financial reports in traditional
and online media are seen as
more reliable than reports
in social media. The study does
show, however, that reports
in social media are gradually
increasingly seen as reliable.
12

13.
CONFIDENCE IN SOCIAL MEDIA THERE IS RELATIVELY LOW
CONFIDENCE IN FINANCIAL
3,94
REPORTS IN ALL THE
General 4,66
MEDIA INVESTIGATED
5,05
On a scale of 1 (not reliable
3,92
at all) to 7 (very reliable)
Financial
market
4,63 traditional media do not
5,00 score higher than 5 (quite
reliable).
3,77
ING 4,49 TRADITIONAL MEDIA
4,77 ARE SEEN AS THE MOST
RELIABLE
Social media Online media Traditional media
N=1,100 Social media are seen as
less reliable than online and
traditional media.
13

14.
ONLINE MEDIA ARE GENERALLY SOCIAL MEDIA ARE SEEN AS
SEEN AS RELIABLE LESS RELIABLE
6 OUT OF 10 TRUST REPORTS 3 OUT OF 10 THINK THAT REPORTS
ABOUT ING IN ONLINE MEDIA ABOUT ING IN SOCIAL MEDIA ARE
RELIABLE
41%
65% 39% 39% 37%
64% 36%
58% 32%
28% 27%
23%
30%
27% 26%
12% 10%
9%
ING Financial markets General ING Financial markets General
Unreliable Neutral Reliable Unreliable Neutral Reliable
14

15.
SOCIAL MEDIA ARE TRUSTED MORE
BY FREQUENT SOCIAL MEDIA USERS
7
6
5
4
3
2
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Average perceived reliability of social media by
frequency of use on scale of 1 (completely
unreliable) to 7 (very reliable) N=1,100

16.
CONSUMERS THAT USE 4,68
SOCIAL MEDIA REGULARLY Total 5,04
TRUST NEWS IN SOCIAL 5,27
MEDIA JUST AS MUCH AS 4,74
TRADITIONAL MEDIA General 5,01
5,14
For consumers that use social
media at least once a week, 4,68
the differences between social, Financial market 5,23
online and traditional media 5,44
are minimal, or even negligible. 4,56
ING 4,72
5,21
01 02
Very unreliable 03 04
Neutral 05 Very reliable 07
06
Social media Online media Traditional media
Consumers who use No significant differences
social media at least
weekly.
16

17.
THE IMPACT OF FINANCIAL REPORTS
Traditional media and online
media have a greater impact on
consumers than social media.
At least, that is what consumers
say. Reports in social media
more often succeed at changing
opinions, preferences or
behaviour than reports in
traditional and online media.
17

18.
THE WAY THAT
CONSUMERS THINK ABOUT
THE IMPACT OF ONLINE
MEDIA DIFFERS FROM
THE WAY THEY BEHAVE
IN REALITY
In a direct ranking of the
perceived impact of various
media forms, social media are
given a low score. However,
reports in social media
more often lead to a change
of opinion, preference or
behaviour. This means that
the real impact of social media
is greater than the impact of
online news media.

19.
Informative television programmes AND newspapers ARE
PERCEIVED TO HAVE 4 to 5 times MORE impact than social media
# MEDIA TYPE impact score
Informative television programmes on news and current affairs (such as NOS Journaal, RTL
1 16
Nieuws, Pauw & Witteman, EenVandaag, DWDD etc.)
2 Newspapers, national and regional (such as Trouw, Telegraaf, Financieel Dagblad,
15
Dagblad van het Noorden, Noord Hollands Dagblad, Brabants Dagblad etc.)
Newspaper website (such as Trouw.nl, Telegraaf.nl, FD.nl, dvhn.nl, noordhollandsdagblad.nl,
3 brabantsdagblad.nl etc.) 12
4 Online news websites which are not linked to a newspaper/periodical/magazine (such as Nu.nl, Z24.nl etc.) 10
5 Informative radio stations such as BNR, Radio 1 etc. 8
6 News magazines (such as Elsevier, 360, Quote, HP/de Tijd etc.) 8
7 The company’s website 7
8 Review sites (such as kieskeurig.nl, vergelijk.nl, independer.nl and zoover.nl) 7
9 News and current affairs on entertainment radio stations such as Radio 538, Qmusic, Sky Radio etc. 5
10 Forums/Discussion platforms (such as forum.fok.nl, forum.viva.nl, nujij.nl, Radar/Kassa forum etc.) 4
Entertainment television programmes on news and current affairs (such as Pownews,
11 3
RTL Boulevard, Shownieuws, Dit was het nieuws etc.)
12 Social media (Facebook, Twitter, Hyves, LinkedIn etc.) 3
13 Blogs (such as Geenstijl.nl, Dumpert.nl, deJaap.nl, DutchCowboys.nl, Emerce.nl etc.) 1
19

20.
HOWEVER...
Financial reports lead __% of consumers to...
OPINION CHANGED NEGATIVELY CONFIRMATION OF CURRENT CHOICE
39%
33% 34% 36%
29% 30%
26% 26%
22% 21% 22% 24% 22% 24% 24%
19%
OPINION CHANGED POSITIVELY CONVINCED OF CHOICE
33%
27% 29%
25% 25%
22% 23% 20%
20% 19%
16% 17% 17%
12% 14% 13%
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20

21.
CONNECTION BETWEEN IMPACT THE IMPACT OF FINANCIAL
AND FREQUENCY REPORTS IN SOCIAL MEDIA IS
9 GREATER FOR FREQUENT SOCIAL
8
MEDIA USERS
Impact of social media
7
6 Reports about ING in social media in
5
particular have a significantly greater
4
3
impact on daily social media users.
2
1
0
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Frequency of social media use
N=750
ING Financial sector
N=750 N=750
21

22.
CONNECTION BETWEEN IMPACT THE MORE RELIABLE CONSUMERS
AND RELIABILITY THINK REPORTS IN SOCIAL MEDIA
8 ARE, THE GREATER THE IMPACT
7
THAT THEY HAVE
The impact of reports in social media is
Impact of social media
6
5
twice as high for consumers who think
that social media are very reliable than
4
for consumers who do not think that
3 social media are reliable.
2
1
0
Very unreliable Neutral Very reliable
ING Financial sector
N=646 N=643
22

23.
17
17
16
16
15
CONNECTION BETWEEN TRADITIONAL MEDIA THE IMPACT OF
Impact Informatieve TV TV
15
14
AND FREQUENT SOCIAL MEDIA USE TRADITIONAL MEDIA
Impact Informatieve
14
13
DECREASES AS
13
17
12
17
CONSUMERS USE
12
SOCIAL MEDIA MORE
Impact of informative TV
11
Impact of newspapers
15 15
11
10 FREQUENTLY
10
13 9
13 This effect is strongest
9
8 amongst young people.
11 11
8
7
9 79
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W
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O
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Frequency of social media use ING (N = 750)
Frequency of social media use
ING (N = 750) (N = 750)
Financiële markt
ING (N = 750)
Financiële markt (N = (N = 85)
ING jongeren 18 - 24 750)
Financial market (N = 750)
INGjongeren 18 --24 (N = 84)
FM jongeren 18 24 (N = 85)
ING youth ages 18 - 24 (N = 85)
FM youth ages 18 - 24 (N = 84) FM jongeren 18 - 24 (N = 84)
23

24.
THE IMPACT OF FINANCIAL REPORTS
IN SOCIAL MEDIA IS 2 TO 2.5 TIMES
GREATER ON YOUNGER PEOPLE
The impact of online reports is more or less
the same for all ages.
8
7
6
Impact factor
5
4
3
2
1
0
18 - 24 25 - 34 35 - 44 45 - 54 55 - 64 65 +
years years years years years
SOCIAL MEDIA REPORTS - FINANCIAL SECTOR N=655
ONLINE MEDIA REPORTS - FINANCIAL SECTOR

25.
WOULD YOU LIKE TO LEARN MORE?
25

26.
THE FOLLOWING SLIDES GIVE A
DETAILED OVERVIEW OF THE RESULTS
OF THE STUDY.
THEY ARE BASED ON FIVE RESEARCH
QUESTIONS.
26

27.
STUDY CONDUCTED BASED ON FIVE SURVEY QUESTIONS:
SURVEY QUESTION 1
How often do consumers come into contact with reports in social media about the financial sector in
general and ING in particular?
How often do consumers find these financial reports in online and social media to be reliable?
SURVEY QUESTION 2
SURVEY QUESTION 3
traditional media (television, radio, etc.)?
To what extent does trust in financial reports in online and social media differ from trust in messages in
To what extent do consumers remember financial reports in online and social media?
SURVEY QUESTION 4
SURVEY QUESTION 5
reputation?
To what extent do financial reports in online and social media have an impact on brand preference and
27

28.
RESEARCH QUESTION 1
To what extent do consumers
come into contact with reports
in social media about the
financial sector and ING in
particular?
28

29.
Facebook and YouTube 67 %
Facebook
are the most used social 24 %
72 %
media platforms 54 %
YouTube 73 %
67% of consumers use Facebook 13 %
at least once a week. YouTube is 31 %
used a lot too: 54% of consumers Google+ 36 %
55 %
use this network at least once a 23 %
week. Linkedin 34 %
Uses this medium at
least weekly
57 %
Pinterest and Foursquare are the 21 %
least popular. Twitter 26 %
66 %
Uses this medium at
least monthly
16 %
Hyves 25 %
59 % Never uses this
medium
5%
Foursquare 8%
88 %
N=1,500
5%
N=1,500
Pinterest 7%
90 %
29

30.
Online news sites and 63%
Online news
newspaper websites sites
72%
are used the most. 20%
More than half of consumers use 60%
these platforms once a week Newspaper
sites
68%
(63% and 59% respectively). 21%
Uses this medium at
Weblogs and forums/discussion 26%
least weekly
platforms are the least popular. Review sites 52%
Review sites are mainly used 22%
Uses this medium at
sporadically. least monthly
21%
Forums/
discussion 32%
Never uses this
platforms 51% medium
15%
Weblogs N=1,500 23%
64% N=1,500
30

31.
TYPE OF SOCIAL MEDIA USERS
EXPLANATION OF USER TYPES
• Inactive: Respondent who has indicated that he/she
Inactive 10% uses social/online media, but creates, contributes or
consumes content less than monthly.
• Consumer: Respondent who has indicated that he/she
Consumer 87%
uses social/online media and consumes content at least
monthly.
Contributor 70% • Contributor: Respondent who has indicated that he/she
uses social/online media and contributes content at
least monthly.
Creator 64%
• Creator: Respondent who has indicated that he/she
N=1,500 uses social/online media and creates content at least
monthly.
The largest proportion of our respondents are media consumers, whilst many of them
are contributors and creators. There is also an overlap between media consumers,
contributors and creators, and most creators are consumers of media too.
31

32.
HOW OFTEN DO CONSUMERS COME INTO
33% OF CONSUMERS SEE FINANCIAL CONTACT WITH REPORTS ABOUT THE
FINANCIAL SECTOR IN SOCIAL MEDIA?
REPORTS IN SOCIAL MEDIA AT LEAST 42 %
EVERY WEEK
More than half of consumers see reports about 15 %
the financial sector in social media from time to 10 % 12 %
8% 9%
5%
time. 33% of consumers come into contact with
this sort of reports at least once a week. It has also Never Less than At least Weekly Several Daily Several
once a once a times a times a day
appeared that 14% of consumers see reports about month month week
the financial
sector at least once a day.
HOW OFTEN DO CONSUMERS COME INTO
CONTACT WITH REPORTS ABOUT THE
55% SEE REPORTS ABOUT THE FINANCIAL FINANCIAL SECTOR IN ONLINE MEDIA?
SECTOR IN ONLINE MEDIA AT LEAST 22 %
19 %
18 %
EVERY WEEK 13 %
13 %
11 %
Consumers come into contact with reports about 5%
the financial sector more often in online media, and 0%
more than three quarters of them see reports like
Never Less than At least Weekly Several Daily Several
this from time to time. 55% of consumers come into once a once a times a times a
month month week day N=750
contact with reports about the financial sector in N=
online media at least every week. 24% say that they 750
see financial reports every day.
32

33.
HOW OFTEN DO CONSUMERS COME INTO
19% SEE REPORTS ABOUT ING CONTACT WITH REPORTS ABOUT ING IN SOCIAL
MEDIA?
IN SOCIAL MEDIA AT LEAST EVERY 56 %
WEEK
Almost a fifth of consumers come into
contact with reports about ING in social 16 %
media at least every week. Another 6% 9% 9%
3% 4% 2%
of them say that see at least one report
about ING in social media every day. Never Less than
once a
At least
once a
Weekly Several
times a
Daily Several
times a day
month month week
29% SEE REPORTS ABOUT ING
HOW OFTEN DO CONSUMERS COME INTO
IN ONLINE MEDIA AT LEAST ONCE CONTACT WITH REPORTS ABOUT ING IN ONLINE
A WEEK MEDIA?
30 %
Consumers come into contact with reports 24 %
about ING more often in online media, but 17 %
16 %
it is still concerns a minority of consumers.
29% of consumers see online reports 5% 6%
about ING at least every week. 2%
Never Less than At least Weekly Several Daily Several
once a once a times a times a day
month month week N=750
33

34.
Conclusions
Consumers come into contact with reports about the financial sector more
frequently than reports about ING.
Consumers come into contact with reports in online media more frequently
than reports in social media.
Consumers primarily see reports about the financial sector in online media.
A minority of consumers come into contact with reports about the financial
sector and ING in social media every week.
But over half of them see reports about the financial sector in social media
from time to time, and a third of them see these every week.
Specifically for ING, this means that more than half of consumers never come
into any contact with reports about ING in social media. But it was shown that
a fifth of consumers do see reports about ING in social media every week.
Though they are often not the majority of consumers that see reports on
ING or the financial sector in online media or social media, the figures are
substantial for a sample that is representative for the Netherlands, with more
or less as many online media/social media savvy users.
34

35.
RESEARCH QUESTION 2
To what extent do consumers
think that financial reports
in online and social media are
reliable?
35

36.
GENERAL
32% OF CONSUMERS THINK THAT FINANCIAL 27%
REPORTS ABOUT ING IN SOCIAL MEDIA ARE 19%
21%
RELIABLE 13% 12%
The perceived reliability of reports about ING is 6%
4%
slightly lower than that for reports about financial
markets (39%) and general news stories (36%).
Additionally, reports about ING in social media are
FINANCIAL MARKETS
the ones most often perceived as unreliable. 41%
24%
see these reports as unreliable, compared with 23%
18%
39% for reporting about financial markets and 37% 13%
for reports in social media in general. 7%
9%
5%
41 %
39 % 39 % 37 % 36 %
32 % ING N = 461
28 % 27 % 28 %
23 %
21 %
19 %
10 % 10 % 10 %
3%
ING Financial markets General
Very unreliable Neutral Very reliable
N = 434
Not reliable Neutral Reliable
36

37.
7,0
FREQUENT SOCIAL MEDIA USERS CONSIDER
6,0
SOCIAL MEDIA MORE RELIABLE
5,0
Consumers who use social media more frequently
4,0
also find it to be more reliable. Consumers who use
social media every day give it a score of 5.6 on a 3,0
scale of 1 (not at all reliable) to 7 (very reliable). 2,0
Consumers who never use social media give it an Very unreliable
1,0
average score of 2.2.
r
lly
ly
kly
ily
ve
th
na
Da
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Ne
on
io
Frequent social media users find it ‘quite reliable’ to
W
M
as
cc
‘reliable’ (scores 5 and 6 on a scale of 1, unreliable,
O
Average perceived reliability score on a
to 7, very reliable). Consumers who never use social scale of 1 (totally unreliable) to 7 (very
media say that it is ‘unreliable’ (score 2 on a scale of reliable)
1 to 7).
Differences between monthly use and weekly use
and weekly use and daily use are negligible.
37

38.
CONSUMERS THAT MAKE MORE Very reliable
7
ACTIVE USE OF SOCIAL MEDIA
6
THINK THAT FINANCIAL REPORTS
5
IN SOCIAL MEDIA ARE MORE Neutral
4 3,4
3,9 04
03
RELIABLE 3
2
For all types of users it has been shown Very unreliable
1
that more active users give a higher Inactive Active Not a Consumer
reliability score than less active users. Consumer
Very reliable
07
06
05 04 04
Neutral
04 03 03
03
02
Very unreliable
01
Not a Contributor Not a Creator
Contributor Creator
38

39.
ALL RESPONDENTS
ING-CUSTOMERS THINK SOCIAL Very reliable
7,0
MEDIA REPORTS ABOUT ING
6,0
ARE MORE RELIABLE THAN NON- 5,0
CUSTOMERS DO 4,0
Neutral
3,9
3,6
3,0
Though the difference between the
2,0
averages is rather small (customers Very unreliable
1,0
give an average score of 3.9, non- ING customer Non-customer
customers give it 3.6), that difference
is significant. The higher score of 3.9 is USE SOCIAL MEDIA WEEKLY
still relatively low on the scale of 1 to 7. Very reliable
7,0
The score of 3.9 means that consumers 6,0
feel fairly neutral about reports about 5,0
4,0
ING in social media. 4,0
Neutral
3,7
3,0
Amongst the consumers that use one 2,0
of the social networks at least every Very unreliable
1,0
week, ING-customers find social media ING customer Non-customer
reports on ING more reliable than non-
customers do.
39

40.
GENERAL
ONLINE MEDIA ARE SEEN AS RELIABLE 44 %
SOURCES
26 %
The overwhelming majority of consumers 18 %
8%
say they see online media as being reliable 0% 1% 2%
(sometimes ‘reliable’ to ‘very reliable’). This N = 351
applies whether it refers to reports about ING
FINANCIAL MARKETS
(58%), the financial markets (65%) or reports
48%
on news and current affairs in general (64%).
In any case, online media are generally seen 27%
as ‘quite reliable’. It is striking that only a very 14%
small proportion of consumers think online 1% 2%
6%
2%
media are unreliable. N = 377
65 % 64 % ING
58 % 42 %
30 %
30 %
27 % 26 % 14 %
7%
12 % 2% 4% 2%
9% 10 %
Very unreliable Neutral Very reliable
ING Financial General
markets N = 336
Not reliable Neutral Reliable
40

41.
PERCEIVED RELIABILITY OF ONLINE MEDIA
ONLINE NEWS PROVIDERS ARE
CONSIDERED TO BE THE MOST RELIABLE 77%
71%
66% 64%
Out of all the online media, newspaper websites
46%
are considered the most reliable (77% scored
them ‘quite reliable’ to ‘reliable’), followed by 21%
online news sites (71%).
BLOGS: THE LEAST RELIABLE
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ite
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sit
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Bl
eb
bs
fo
Out of all the online media, newspaper websites
ws
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we
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vie
pl
ne
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n
are considered the most reliable (77% scored
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isa
us
ws
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them ‘quite reliable’ to ‘reliable’), followed by
O
an
sc
Ne
rg
di
online news sites (71%).
O
s/
m
ru
Fo
Percentage that feels this medium is reliable
COMPANY WEBSITES SCORE REASONABLY
WELL
64% of consumers think company websites are
reliable, when referring to news items and current
affairs which involve ING, for example.
41

42.
7
Very reliable
AGE HAS A LIMITED INFLUENCE ON HOW 6
CONSUMERS SEE THE RELIABILITY OF
FINANCIAL REPORTS ON ONLINE AND 5
SOCIAL MEDIA
4
Neutral
The frequency with which consumers use
3
social media plays a major role in the extent
to which they think social media are reliable. 2
Very unreliable
Age turns out to account for differences 1
amongst consumers that use social media 18-24 25 - 34 35 - 44 45 - 54 55 - 64 65+
every week.
Weekly use of social media
Weekly use of online media
Amongst frequent social media users, older Less than weekly use of social media
consumers find social media more reliable Less than weekly use of online media
than younger consumers. Consumers aged
35-44 years are the most sceptical when it Amongst infrequent social media users too,
comes to reports in social media. there are no significant differences between
Age is not associated with any differences the extents to which they find social media
between frequent social media users’ and online media reliable.
perception of the reliability of online media.
42

43.
Conclusions
The perceived reliability of social media varies. In most cases, the reliability
score stays roughly around the middle, on a scale of 1 (very unreliable) to 7
(very reliable).
There are slightly more consumers who think that social media are unreliable
than those who think they are reliable.
Whether consumers find social media reliable is dependent on factors such
as the frequency with which they use social media, their social media profile,
and whether or not they are a customer.
The more frequently consumers use social media, the more they think that
social media are reliable compared to those who use them social media less
frequently.
Although the differences are less pronounced, it has been shown that older
frequent social media users (at least weekly) find financial reports in social
media more reliable than younger regular social media users do.
ING-customers see reports about ING in social media as being more reliable
than non-customers do.
43

44.
RESEARCH QUESTION 3
To what extent does the
perceived reliability of
financial reports in online
and social media vary from the
perceived reliability of reports
in traditional media such as
television, radio etc.?
44

45.
PERCEIVED RELIABILITY OF 3,9
ALL MEDIA IS RELATIVELY General reports 4,7
LOW 5,1
Consumers say that reports
of financial reports are not Reports about
3,9
particularly reliable from any of financial 4,6
markets
the media forms studied. The 5,00
perceived reliability of reports in
social media is generally fairly 3,8
neutral. Online media reports are Reports about
4,5
ING
mainly considered to be ‘reliable’,
4,8
but reports in traditional media
forms are also seen as ‘quite Very unreliable 1,0
0,0 2,0 3,0
Neutral 4,0 5,0 Very reliable
6,0 7,0
reliable’.
Social media Online media Traditional media
REPORTS ABOUT ING ARE PERCEIVED AS LESS RELIABLE
For the most part, reports about ING were perceived to be less reliable than
reports of news and current affairs in general and about financial markets.
45

46.
THE MORE FREQUENT THE USE OF 4,68
SOCIAL MEDIA, THE MORE RELIABLE Total 5,04
SOCIAL AND TRADITIONAL MEDIA ARE 5,27
PERCEIVED TO BE
4,7
Amongst consumers who use social media General 5
at least once a week, there are only minimal 5,1
or even insignificant differences between 4,7
their perceptions of the reliability of reports Financial market 5,2
in social, online and traditional media. 5,4
4,6
NO DIFFERENCE BETWEEN SOCIAL,
ING 4,7
ONLINE AND TRADITIONAL MEDIA FOR 5,2
GENERAL NEWS REPORTS
1,0
Very unreliable 2,0 3,0 Neutral
4,0 5,0 Very reliable 7,0
6,0
There were no differences in the perceived
Social media Online media Traditional media
reliability of general news reports in social,
online and traditional media.
Consumers who use social No significant differences
Both for reports about financial markets media at least weekly.
and reports related to ING, there were no
differences in the perceived reliability of
online and social media.
46

47.
TRADITIONAL NEWS SOURCES TYPE OF SOCIAL MEDIA USERS
ARE THE MOST RELIABLE Traditional, news source 5,4
The reliability that consumers Online, news source 5,1
attribute to financial reports in Traditional, total 4,9
online news sources is significantly
Online, total 4,6
higher than the reliability they
attribute to financial reports in Traditional, entertainment 4,3
traditional media such as television Online, blogs, etc. 4,2
and radio in general. However, Social 3,9
the perceived reliability of reports
Very unreliable
Very unreliable 1
0 2 Neutral
3 4 Very reliable
5 6 7
on traditional news sources such
as the television news, on the
other hand, is significantly higher
than the perceived reliability of
financial reports on online news
sources. The perceived reliability
of reports on traditional news
sources is significantly higher than
the perceived reliability of financial
reports on traditional entertainment
sources.
47

48.
Conclusions
Financial reports in traditional media are generally seen by consumers as
more reliable than financial reports in social media.
The perceived reliability of social media increases the more frequently
consumers use social media.
Frequent social media users show smaller differences or none at all in their
perceived reliability of reports in traditional, online and social media.
Reports about news and current affairs in general, for example, are seen to be
equally reliable in traditional media and social media. Additionally, online and
social media are considered to be equally reliable when it comes to reports
about both the financial market and ING.
Traditional news sources (television news, newspapers and radio stations
such as BNR) and online news sources (newspaper websites and online news
sites) are perceived to be the most reliable. Entertainment from traditional
sources (such as Pownews and the news item on QMusic), online social
sources (blogs, etc.) and social media are given the lowest reliability scores.
48

49.
RESEARCH QUESTION 4
To what extent can consumers
recall financial reports from
online and social media?
49

50.
CONSUMERS RECALL MORE REPORTS TO WHAT EXTENT DO CONSUMERS REMEMBER
REPORTS ABOUT ING IN SOCIAL MEDIA, BASED ON
WHEN THEY ARE MORE FREQUENT FREQUENCY OF USE?
SOCIAL MEDIA USERS 70%
The more frequently that consumers use 60%
a social media channel, the better they are
50%
able to recall financial news, such as reports
about ING. 40%
It emerges that consumers recall reports about 30%
ING much better when they are more frequent
20%
users of the Facebook network.
10%
Consumers who use Facebook every day can
remember reports more easily. 0%
Never Occasionally Monthly Weekly Daily
The more frequently consumers use Twitter,
Twitter Facebook Hyves
the more Twitter reports they remember too.
It is remarkable that consumers who use
Twitter every day recall reports about ING
less well than those who use Twitter weekly.
50

51.
CONSUMERS CAN WHAT PERCENTAGE OF RESPONDENTS CAN RECALL
RECALL REPORTS REPORTS ABOUT FINANCIAL MARKETS?
ABOUT FINANCIAL
Newspaper website 62%
MARKETS MAINLY
FROM NEWSPAPER Online news site 57%
WEBSITES AND Facebook 16%
ONLINE NEWS
SITES. Twitter 15%
Blog 14%
62% of consumers
Hyves 9%
can recall reports
about financial Forums/discussion platforms 8%
markets. For online Review sites 5%
news sites this
Percentage that recalls reports in this medium over the past 6 months N=397
percentage is 57%.
For other media,
the percentage of
consumers that can to the reliability scores 16% for Facebook and
recall reports on of forums and blogs, in 15% for Twitter.
financial markets is this aspect social media
lower. Compared score the strongest, with
51

52.
WHAT PERCENTAGE OF RESPONDENTS CAN RECALL
REPORTS ABOUT ING?
Newspaper website 44%
Online news site 42%
Facebook 29%
Twitter 26%
Review sites 18%
Forums/discussion platforms 18%
Hyves 17%
Blog 16%
Percentage that recalls reports in this medium over the past 6 months N=1,500
From newspaper websites and online news sites, consumers can recall reports
about ING less well than they can recall reports about financial markets. In this regard,
social media score better.
52

53.
THE SUBJECTS THAT CONSUMERS REMEMBER VARY SHARPLY
BETWEEN PLATFORMS
TWITTER FACEBOOK FORUMS / REVIEW SITES NEWSPAPER ONLINE NEWS
(N = 108) (N = 313) DISCUSSION (N = 134) WEBSITE SITE
PLATFORMS (N (N = 498) (N = 476)
= 99)
1 Financial crisis Advertising / Personal Service & Financial crisis Financial crisis
(37%) communication experience provision of (60%) (51,1%)
(41.9%) (42.2%) service (46.3%)
2 Personal Personal Reasons to not Products (46.3%) Financial market Financial market
experience (37%) experience choose the bank in general in general
(36.1%) (41.4%) (55.4%) (48.9%)
3 Service & Service & Financial crisis Reasons to Bank’s financial Bank’s financial
provision of provision of (39.4%) choose the bank situation (54.6%) situation (46.6%)
service (36.1%) service (35.5%) (38.1%)
4 Stock markets, Product (30.7%) Service & Personal Organisation Organisation
share prices etc. provision of experience (42%) (37.2%)
(31.5%) service (37.4%) (33.6%)
5 Financial market Financial crisis Products (35.4%) Organisation Stock markets, Stock markets,
in general (30.6) (26.8%) (27.6%) share prices share prices
(39.6%) (33.6%)
OVERALL Financial news & Marketing & Products & Products & Financial news Financial news
service, service, service, service,
provision of provision of provision of provision of
service service service service
(negative) (positive)
53

54.
OF THOSE FINANCIAL REPORTS THAT
Consumers remember
CONSUMERS REMEMBER, THE TONE IS:
reports which are positive,
neutral and negative in tone.
Facebook 25% 42% 33%
It is not fundamentally the case
that negative reports are easier Review sites 14% 58% 28%
to remember; positive reports are
remembered by many consumers too. Blog 43% 31% 26%
The tone of the reports that consumers Forums/discussion platforms 34% 40% 25%
remember can vary significantly. The
overall tone of reports that consumers Twitter 34% 41% 25%
remember is predominantly neutral.
Hyves 24% 56% 20%
Newspaper website 28% 56% 16%
Online news sites 26% 58% 16%
Negative Neutral Positive
54

55.
REPORTS ON TWITTER, BLOGS AND Review sites 4% 7% 10% 14% 65%
FORUMS ARE THE MOST LIKELY TO
INCITE CONVERSATIONS Forums/discussion
6% 17% 9% 12% 56%
platforms
The consumers were asked whether they had
Blog
discussed the reports that they could recall 11% 14% 11% 16% 49%
with other people. In most cases, more than
Online news sites 3%6%3% 13% 77%
half of the consumers do not discuss the
reports with other people.
Newspaper website 3%6% 5% 13% 74%
Social media reports lead the most frequently
to conversations. Of the social media
Hyves 9% 7% 7% 13% 65%
networks, reports on Twitter are the most
frequently discussed (59% of consumers
Facebook 7% 8% 7% 15% 64%
discuss the reports ‘a few times briefly’).
REPORTS ON ONLINE NEWS SITES AND Twitter 9% 16% 18% 16% 41%
NEWSPAPER WEBSITES ARE THE LEAST
LIKELY TO INCITE CONVERSATIONS
Online news sites and newspaper websites are Yes, discussed several times in detail Yes, discussed several times briefly
the least likely to incite conversations. Around Yes, discussed a few times in detail Yes, discussed a few times briefly
three quarters of consumers do not discuss No, not discussed
reports from these networks (77% and 74%).
55

56.
Conclusions
Around three quarters of consumers could recall news stories about ING
from online or social media in the last six months.
Reports in online media are the easiest ones to remember, in particular
reports on newspaper websites and online news sites.
Consumers can recall reports better the more they use social media.
Reports on the financial sector too are most memorable on newspaper
websites and online news sites. Here again, Facebook and Twitter were
the social networks where consumers could remember the most reports.
56