The leasing sector
appears to be lagging behind other industries in its use of social
media technology. However, greater adoption is expected over the
next few years. Nick Huber reports.
Go deeper with GlobalData
The
leasing market has been “slow” to harness the marketing potential
of blogs and social networking sites such as Facebook and LinkedIn,
research suggests.
A survey of US equipment
finance industry professionals published in November last year by
the Equipment Leasing and Finance Foundation found that market has
been generally slow to adopt social media technology and lagged
behind the “best practices” of other industries.
The research, which
questioned 1,000 finance professionals, also found that although
social media use was in its early stages in the sector, 41% of
respondents expected that their organisations would be more active
in the coming months.
In Europe, it appears there
has been little research or information into how leasing companies
are using social media.
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By GlobalDataA spokeswoman for the Finance
& Leasing Association, which represents UK consumer and motor
finance companies, said it had not conducted any research into
social media, and did not provide guidance to members on strategies
for using social media.
Success
story
One
UK-based company to realise the benefits of social media is
Bluestone Leasing.
In mid-April 2011, it
announced the launch of a new website that incorporates social
media features, including a blog and a YouTube channel – thereby
providing Bluestone Leasing with another platform to communicate
with its customers.
The company, which finances
assets ranging from software and refrigeration, to furniture and
buses, will use its blog – www.bluestoneleasing.com/go/blog – to
inform customers, partners, colleagues and others in the leasing
sector about developments at the company and the leasing
industry.
Its website also includes an
instant messenger feature allowing users to communicate online with
a member of the Bluestone Leasing team.
Steve Russell, sales director
at Bluestone Leasing, said: “We have redesigned the website to be
as accessible as possible. Several team members have been involved
in the making of the website, which includes videos of staff
explaining what we offer to customers and the benefits of leasing
finance.
“We wanted the new website to
give Bluestone a human face, whether that is through the instant
messenger, staff videos, our blog or our Twitter feed. We want
people looking at us online to feel like they have already met the
team before they set foot in our office.”
A spokeswoman for Bluestone
Leasing told Leasing Life that social media was not yet widely used
in the leasing industry, but predicted that it would take off over
the next few years.
She commented: “[Social
media] is more commonly used in some of the industries which our
customers operate, such as the IT industry, so it is a great way to
connect with them.
“We also feel it is only a matter of time before it
becomes more widely adopted in the leasing sector, a few years down
the line [from now] we expect the use of social media will become
the norm – it will seem as strange for a company not to have a blog
or Twitter feed as it would do today if a company didn’t have a
website.”
