Wells Fargo launches second blog
Posted by Trey Reeme on September 5th, 2006
Colin has the scoop on Wells Fargo’s new blog, The Student LoanDown℠. In typical WF fashion they made sure to include the service mark. (Brent will be working on a new banner for Open Source CU℠ today.)
It’s their second niche blog with the first being Guided by History℠, which eloquently deals with disaster preparedness. I’ve followed it since March and still subscribe. If you’ve never seen this blog, just imagine the Red Cross joining forces with Lifehacker.
I’m not very excited about this new Wells Fargo launch. For a topic as dry as student loans, my take is you’ve got to set it up to be both entertaining (see UMB Bank’s My Ugly Room campaign) and uniquely informative (stuff you can’t get anywhere else). Think: What’s the incentive to subscribe? That’s the key.
Something about this doesn’t make me think they’re going for entertaining. Maybe part of it’s their “Blog Roll” and the links to, um, four dot-govs (including FAFSA, gee that’s an acronym I thought I’d never have to say again).
Plus, aren’t student loans typically made and forgotten until graduation? There goes your long-term reader base (if you’re not careful to keep it relevant, that is). So who’s the readership here? Might this be too narrow a niche?
The design is bearable – a little on the MySpace side with a WF feel to it. The authors aren’t anonymous and comments are allowed. All good things. But I feel like I’m having to look too hard for something good to say here. Maybe the content will prove me wrong.
Of course I’m rushing to judgment – after all, the official WF announcement isn’t slated until tomorrow. If they prove me wrong, I’ll certainly write about it.
On the topic of the blog not having a real audience -
Who in the world is the target market of “Guided by History?” Granted, you (Trey) subscribe to the blog, because you are particularly interested in financial institutions who blog. But I can’t imagine the kind of average consumer who would want a new “the world is ending” tip or article showing up in their feeds every day.
You’d have to be a creeped-out paranoid consumer to have an ongoing interest in that.
RE: “Who in the world is the target market”
I don’t work for Wells, but I would see an evolution here: 1) Banks’ internal politics are anti reputational risk, so what can we do to get started? The 100th anniversary of the SF earthquake provided the impetus for Guided by History blog. 2) Internally Wells can see no-one is dying as a result of the blog, and in fact the Banks internet reputation is being enhanced. 3) enhance GBH to become more national in focus and tap into the disaster preparedness meme in the US. 3) Next step – what can be do to make our blogging become more financial – something that will also allow us to learn about the social network meme, and how we can use that to our competitive advantage. Enter Student LoanDown. The ideal synergy between a young demographic, financial/ budgeting needs and blogging. Its low risk and provides high potential upside in terms of learning and branding.
Now we can debate the quality of the implementation of the blogs, and thats a good debate to have. But to me its a pretty logical approach, and I see clear targeting going on here.
Trey, thanks for taking a look at our newest Wells Fargo venture. Your suggestions are valuable and much appreciated.
Please keep reading (another post went up this morning) and keep the feedback coming. We’re listening!
Staci Schiller, lead blogger, The Student LoanDown
You’re right Colin, my question is really more about the implementation than the overall concepts.
They’re both great ideas in theory – the idea of a bank (who’s brand is built around their longevity) blogging about preparedness by looking through history is great positioning. I just wonder about the kind of community that can really grow.
When I look through the blog, 90% of the posts have zero comments. This says readers are less than engaged. When I click “Get Involved” it takes me to an error page.
As a move of pure positioning GBH works. And as an internal demonstrative tool, “See VPs? Blogging isn’t scary,” it’s effective. But as consumer community engagement, it’s lacking.
The strategy seems more Wells Fargo-focused, and less consumer-focused.
Meanwhile, I have nothing but optimism for the Student LoanDown. I hope they dig into their audience and put some meaningful stuff out there that the kids want to read. I’ll be excitedly keeping my eye on it.
And either way, I applaud Wells Fargo for experimenting with blogging. There’s only one way to learn, and they’re doing it.
To Staci: Your lowdown intro article rocked. You just lay it out: “Hello cynical consumer, I know you fear corporate America like me. But know what? I’m not corporate America, I’m people. Good people. Let’s hang out.”
I like good people too.
Now Brent…let’s not get too down on blogs with 0 comments. I remember a time not too long ago when this little blog was, by all accounts, an online conversation between you and Trey. :)
It takes time to form a community around a blog…I know you know that…just wanted to remind you!
So along those lines…what is the timeframe on building a blog community? Do you think OSCU has (to use an older buzzword) “tipped”? If so, what helped push it to that point?
True-that, Mark, but also our traffic was around four unique hits per day (you, Trey, Matt, and myself).
And maybe sometimes one of our moms.
Based on the amount of coverage Wells Fargo received from their blog (check the Google Blog Search for “wells fargo guided by history“), and the fact that it’s been around since March, GBH has had ample opportunity to build a community.
If people were interested, it would have happened by now.
And for OSCU, I wouldn’t use the word “tipped,” but I would say that we’ve been fortunate enough to end up with an active and vocal community. I love the people who come hang out, I even love that they call us out sometimes.
What are friends for?
Speaking of that, Colin and I are pals again. No need to worry about us pitching fits and making it awkward at parties.
Kudos to Wells for taking this step – reaching out with a blog that relates to personal finance!
Now – I may think that the blog name itself is a little too narrow (if the topics will include ALL the ways to pay for college) – but I’d bet Wells is just starting from their core product offering and that they are hoping to branch out from there.
I do wonder however if with the title of the blog: