National Australia Bank's brave experiment with social media appears to have blown up in its face.
NAB initially set up myfuturebank.org (now sadly deceased) to engage with customers online and listen to their experiences of using the bank. But faced with the inevitable critical comments that tend to surface in such a public forum, the bank seems to have
lost the plot entirely.
NAB's efforts to turn the conversation in its favour were picked up by social media consultant Cheryl Gledhill at Web design agency
molt:n, who - it must be said - pulled no punches in her take on the bank's input to the site. Unfortunately, not only has NAB closed down myfuturebank.org, it also appears to
have succeeded in putting the frighteners on Cheryl's employers who have pulled her original observations.
But this being the interconnected age, we can still catch up with the conversation courtesy of a helpful archive from
Innovation Feeder (at least until NAB gets wind of that one as well).
Listen and learn people, listen and learn.