Last night I posed this question to Twitter:

“What is the best bank in Maine to open a business checking account? Any recs?”

A seemingly boring question, after all, my business is new and I’m looking for a reputable bank to do business with. I have a core group of friends on Twitter whose recommendations I trust, so I thought that would be the best place to start my bank information gathering.

I was right. In less than 30 minutes, 21 local Maine residents responded with recommendations, personal stories and nightmares of their experiences with over 8 banks in the Southern Maine area. The most loved local bank was Bangor Savings Bank. The ones to stay away from, according to the local twitter crowd, were Bank of America & Key Bank. A quick search of all eight banks mentioned only revealed one of them was using Twitter. Bank of America. (Update: TD Bank also has at Twitter account)

I understand that as a banking institution, jumping into social media can be risky. But if for no other reason than to listen to what consumers are saying about you..you will get value out of it. Whenever I present at social media seminars, I always emphasize that listening is just as important as engaging in social media.

Below you will find what I would do if I were working as a social marketing consultant for these banks:

If I were Bangor Savings Bank: I would send the current customers who gave a positive recommendation a toaster or a toolbox (or whatever they are giving away that month. I love free gifts from my bank). This would further solidify these customers as a brand evangelists. Another bonus is that you can bet your bottom dollar that they are going to tweet about their free gift too!

If I were Bank of America, KeyBank or TD Bank: I would reach out to those who have had issues and gave negative recommendations and do my best to answer any questions they had and reinforce that going forward those issues will be remedied in a much more timely and friendly manner.

If I were Norway Savings, Kennebunk Savings, Bath Savings or Gorham Savings: The consumer perception is positive for these banks. I would continue to monitor any conversations going on in social media and be ready to respond and say Thank you when a recommendation is given.

Do me a favor and pass this blog post along to anyone you know who works at one of these banks. They should know what consumers are saying about their company.

Penelope ascribes to an unconventional method of blogging….honesty. The kind of honesty that makes her vulnerable to a point where even I’ve felt uncomfortable reading it. YET…I cannot stop reading. It’s the kind of writing that makes me want more, like a soap opera laden with sound advice. I’ve pinpointed four elements of her blogging style that make hers a stand out.

1. Be Yourself

If there is one thing I can say about Ms. Trunk is that she is who she is and she is unapologetic about it. As a blogger its important to write in a way that reveals who you are in an authentic way to your readers. Sometimes that means being vulnerable, or funny, or pithy, or brutally honest, if it is who you are, you should find a writing style that allows you to come across that way. When I was operating my first celebrity gossip blog, I often had friends tell me, “It’s as if I can hear your voice saying exactly what you writing.”  Finding your voice and being able to blog in a style that communicates that voice is important to your audience. People are drawn to bloggers who tell interesting stories, your stories are unique, they are interesting, go with it.

2. Admit your Faults

As professionals, as parents, and as lovers, there are many things we probably aren’t supposed to admit. Professional women aren’t blogging about the guilt they feel about the time spent away from their children. Entrepreneurs aren’t opening talking about their company financial struggles or if their company going broke. In one of Penelope’s blogs she openly admits that she didn’t pay the electricity bill on time and it had been shut off. Guess what? These things happen in everyday life, yet most people are scared of admitting their faults and in turn don’t blog about it. Why not? These are the stories people want to hear, these are the stories that let people know you are human, these are the stories that allow you to seek help and advice, these are the blog posts that allow you to grow.

3. Use research to support your statements

Using other people’s research to support your own thoughts helps. It helps for two reasons, one others are more inclined to believe you and two, it shows that you are doing your homework. How often have you read a blog posts with lots of matter of fact statements and wondered, “Where the hell is the proof of that?”. Back up your blog posts with research…it makes you look smart.

4. Sex it up and dumb it down

Is there anything sexy about career advice? Not really. Penelope manages to make her career advice blog sexy by using stories to illustrate sound career advice. For example read this blog post about the effects of a long commute, now read it until the end…I’ll wait. You like how she took a seemingly harmless and slightly mundane topic and turned it into a scintillating tale?

This blog, Chrystiecorns.com is new. My goal is to make this a space where I share thoughts from my internal dialogue. I am a professional, a mother and someone’s ex-wife, I have a lot to talk about…so here goes nothing….like I once said, it can only go up from here.