Synchrony Financial (SYF) Social Media Overview

Who is Synchrony Finanical (SYF)?

SYF is a consumer financial services business that has a wide range of credit products, but the primary segments of its revenue can be broken down to Retail Card (Private label and Dual Card products with Lowes, Walmart, Gap, Amazon, American Eagle, ect.), Payment solutions (Large, one time buy Financing with: Yamaha, Sleepy’s, Lumber Liquidators) and Care Credit (Helps Finance Vision and dental bills). These different businesses are all financed by SYF’s Bank and even though they are different products they have the same goals for its shareholders, make money. At Year End 2015 SYF had $83B of Assets and had a Net income of $582MM. So, the company has money at its disposal, does business with some huge Brand names (Marvel, Wal-Mart, and Lowes) and just needs guidance in Digital Marketing, which would make them a primary target for any Digital marketing consultant.

Where are they active in social?
           The brands presence on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook and YouTube comes off as very clean, direct and professional. They post a lot of pictures with great messages that are short and to the point, but they seem to be using a lot the same content on each of their platforms. They even use the same banner picture across Facebook, Twitter, and Linkedin.  I’m sure creating a unique experience through all of the platforms is difficult for any company because once you have some quality content to share; you want that message displayed from everywhere. SYF is starting to make good connections with different groups and social tags, however, most of its posts interact with another form of SYF’s Social Media.  If they keep creating these quality posts that are relevant to different social networks, groups and users they will increase their following over time.  

On Facebook - (3-5 posts per week)

·         Have 3,882 Likes with posts getting between 5 - 2,600 interactions (A large gap).

·         They have a Timeline, About, Complements and Concerns pg. and Photo/Video pg.

·         Have good filler content linking to relevant news articles its followers might be interested in, however, there is a lot of overlap in the filler content.

 

 

On Twitter - (3-5 posts per week)

·         They have a SYF Page and another Ask Synchrony page

·         Collectively have over 3,750 Tweets, ~6,750 Followers, & Following ~1,000

·         Unique contest with one of their clients

SYF recently started a Credit Card product with Marvel and have been doing a good job collaborating with them through social media. As you see to the right, they hosted a costume contest recently and just declared a winner. They were trying to build awareness for the new program and are advertising people to "save like a hero" with your new Marvel CC (financed by SYF). Contests are a good way for SYF to engage social network users.

 

In another post, SYF drops the hash tag #girlsthatcode, showing their support for the education of girls in tech field. This is a great message and creates awareness of a credit company to a group of people that might be a little strapped for cash because they are in school. SYF uses this post on both Facebook and Twitter, to link users of both to each of the social networks.

 

 

 

Linkedin – Post less then FB and TWTR

·         SYF’s largest group of followers, but seems to have the lowest level of engagement as far as interactions.

YouTube – 1 video every 1-2 weeks

·         Most watched video (underwhelming but informative). (Click Here).

·         SYF’s YouTube videos with Marvel “Saving the world is hard, saving with Synchrony Bank is easy” got the most collective views through the 4 video ad campaign.

 

Competition

SYF has some stiff competition on social media, but there is a lot to be learned from competitor’s campaigns. All of the posts I’ve highlighted here are from the past month, and the competition was able to get more engagement then any of SYF’s posts. Granted, these companies have had a longer time to establish their social media presence, but they still have some great ideas.  Capital one is very active on social and has recently posted a contest to win $10,000, been posting behind the scenes footage of a Jenifer Garner commercial (celebrity influencer) and have been teaming with well know travel bloggers (social media influencers).  These influencers and contests will help Capital One reach new audiences and help build the brand. SYF has already done some contests, but should look to involve some Celebrity and social media influencers in their social media marketing.

 

 

 

Another competitor is Allied Bank and they have come up with 2 recent campaigns that are doing pretty well. The first campaign I’ll highlight is one that goes the funny route, it starts off every commercial showing the following “No Branches = Great Rates. It’s a fact of life. Just like…” they then come up with funny sayings like, “how boardrooms= bored rooms, ouch” and “how grandkids = free tech support”. I found them pretty hilarious and effective. 

Allied Bank also created an app that they have been pushing, that warns people of their poor spending habits by letting them know when they start to approach a business which they often “splurge” on. I thought this was a very unique campaign because it’s addressing a fear of many of its customers. Very few people get credit cards with the intention of overspending on it, and going into debt. Everyone wants to be able to manage their spending and it is comforting knowing the bank is also trying to look out for your best interest as well. In these ads Allied bank uses some celebrity influencers to get their point across with a little humor. I think they made light of a very delicate subject, while still getting their message out there. Another opportunity is for SYF to socially post about their community service involvement (Which Citi has done below). Capital one, Ally Bank and Citi are engaging with their customers in interesting ways (all of which require a more intensive capital investment), and it’s time for SYF to join the party.

 

 

 SYF... Time to respond