As Ros says, we should note that what we are talking about is not, at least from our end, of Twitter as an open-channel for corporate communication as is used universally today, albeit incipiently, with many initiatives. Latinia strictly proposes the use of Twitter as an alert channel, via direct messages (DM), where the convenience of the clients prevails, being able to choose which channel to use to receive status of their accounts, cash withdrawals, etc., whether via SMS, push-notes or Twitter. In Latinia we have called it tweet banking. To this respect, Latinia has introduced the latest innovation of its infrastructure product LIMSP during this past year, after the implementation of push notifications, working on opening to new asynchronous channels on its service delivery product line-up.
Twitter, will have and really already has a greater presence in financial institutions, but the majority only use this channel to transmit contents, principally Press Releases and other corporate information. This limitation is due to inertia and its own characteristics as a channel where the tendency is for open communications, something over which the brand has little control of. Latinia opens another means, as the company understands Twitter to be another channel of choice based on the axiom of getting personalized and relevant information to the client, over and above the specific technological limitations 140 characters and, in the case of DM, a daily limit of sent messages. Such information is of private nature, which is why Latinia has chosen to work with DMs and not with open communications.
Moreover, Latinia talks of tweet banking as the company did of SMS Banking, e-mail banking, instant banking, etc., on their day. The unstoppable proliferation and fragmentation of channels to help the financial institutions manage their business is a challenge equal to the potential it represents, and moreover, Latinia is very comfortable working with asynchronous channels. Twitter is still, though less and less, associated with young users, indeed future banking clients, but similar to the 35-44 year-old band where the take-up is massive. With tweet banking Latinia proposes the use of this channel based on the unequivocal, private relationship between bank and client – it is enough for the latter to be a follower of the former, enabling the sending of private and personalized contents, with no one else being privy to them.