We were delighted to learn that Banca Transilvania is once again in the Top Social Brands this year — in other words, in 8th place. Compiled and published by Biz magazine, the ranking tracks how brands in Romania have evolved on social media over the past year: what they did, how they performed and what new ideas they brought to promote themselves online.

Likes for BT, since 2009

BT’s social media story began in 2009, when we set up a profile on Facebook. Then came YouTube, Twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram — and just as many great opportunities to engage with fans and customers. On social media we share, listen and respond; we bring news, visuals, live streams, videos, GIFs and hashtags. We want to give fans as many reasons as possible to follow us, to root for us and to pause with us as they scroll.

Back in 2016 we were 27th in the Top Social Brands; from 2017 onwards we’ve been in the top 10, alongside other major brands in Romania.

10 results and ideas (April 2018–April 2019) that kept us in this ranking:

• Our bank still has the largest fan community on a Romanian bank’s Facebook page: 570,000 — about the size of a pretty large city here.
• BT is the only bank in Romania with a blog. Over the past year, we had around 200,000 visitors. As you’d expect, the most-read pieces are the how‑tos that help customers learn banking quickly. We take that on board.
• We continued — including on social media — our online banking shopping campaigns, bringing Beards Day and Coffee Lovers’ Day, with discounts and perks on BT products and services such as personal loans and credit cards.
• Campaigns with bloggers, vloggers and Instagrammers.
• Special project: working with Simona Halep to launch the national-pride campaign “Let’s get things done, Romania!”, which went viral on social media, reaching over 2 million people.
• Endorsement campaigns promoting BT Pay, the first bank wallet in Romania.
• Campaigns with celebrities to promote entrepreneurs in BT’s Bucurestiul Intreprinzator programme, through which we set out to spotlight some of the people who have helped turn Bucharest into the most entrepreneurial city in the country. In 2018 the project included a phase of real endorsement and #realmentoring: we chose several public figures to talk about their favourite entrepreneurs and how they support them: Dana Rogoz and Fabrica de Litere; Andrei Rosu and Rawdia; Micutzu and DIUD; Vlad Dobresacu and Supa Dupa; Melania Medeleanu and Galateca; and Andreea Raicu and Manuri.
• Real-time marketing.
• Raul, Romania’s first chatbot dedicated to BT’s communications with entrepreneurs via Facebook and Skype.
• The SME in Romania project, a series of video sessions where we talk about why entrepreneurs start a business, and where they share both business and life ideas and advice.

For Banca Transilvania, social media is one of the places where we feel very much at home, because it means #humanbanking.