Citibank gives new meaning to sharing

If you’re like, well, 400 million other people, you have a Facebook account. With that account, you can share status updates, videos, random thoughts, and now, you can share your banking reward points when you’re a Citibank account holder and ThankYou Rewards member.With the bank’s new Facebook app, account holders can pool points to take vacations together, buy big gifts or make charitable donations. Citi account holders can earn points for credit card use and via their checking accounts.

An innovative leader

While there are plenty of negative headlines about big banks, I have to give Citibank some credit here for their innovative approach to using social media to transform the banking experience. Some banks have been reluctant to do much of anything with Facebook and Twitter, but Citi has been a leader on this front.

Getting social to raise customer satisfaction

For so many banks, Facebook and Twitter have become channels dominated by the voices of angry account holders – just take a look at Bank of America’s Twitter feed to understand how many customers use it as a place to raise their complaints. That’s why Citi’s proactive efforts to reap the positive side of getting customers talking, sharing and liking their bank is so important. It’s what may actually distinguish Citi as a too-big-to-fail institution that isn’t too big to take extra steps to provide a better customer experience.

As social media tools continue to evolve, I expect we’ll see plenty more of this type of effort to engage account holders. You can read more on this tool via the official press release from Citi.

What do you think of Citi’s new tool? Would you use Facebook to share banking rewards points?