By using the wall of its Facebook page as a digital bulletin board for community and patient information, a doctor’s office in Irving, Texas, has successfully melded traditional and digital marketing practices, reports USA Today.

MacArthur Obstetrics and Gynecology has more than 600 fans on Facebook and 1,600 Twitter followers. The platform has helped the practice establish itself as an industry thought leader, with the doctors answering their patients’ questions and posting relevant content.

Additionally, the Facebook page contains information such as the practice’s hours of operation, phone number, official website and address. This helps convert potential customers who may just go to the page for casual advice.

The social outreach has helped MacArthur gain several new patients. This was the case with Kristi Francisco, who told USA today one doctor’s presence on Facebook and Twitter were what inspired her to choose him. “I like the fact that he is so plugged in to the way everybody communicates,” says Francisco.

With Millennials becoming old enough to make their own healthcare decisions, a recent survey from Prudential Individual Life suggests that modern digital marketing platforms, such as Facebook, are becoming increasingly important marketing tools.

1. Lists simplify.
2. Lists promise instant knowledge.
3. Lists provide choices.
4. We are all victims of information overload. Lists help us make sense of the world.
5. Lists make it seem as if the list maker knows something that list readers don’t.
6. Lists appeal to an ever expanding population of ADD sufferers.
7. Lists appeal to the left brain need for order and linearity.
8. Lists are made of sound bytes. Sound bytes ‘R Us.
9. Lists are familiar. We grew up making them: laundry lists, grocery lists, and Christmas lists.
10. Lists can be updated, added to, or subtracted from easily.
11. Lists give us an instant opportunity to disagree.
12. Lists, with their declarative headlines, make list readers feel like they are just about to get a crash course on a topic of great significance.
13. Lists, when forwarded to friends or clients, position the list forwarder as a knowledgeable resource.
14. Lists include items that are numbered — and most readers assume that an item that’s numbered must be more true than an item that’s merely bulleted.
15. Lists can be printed quickly, folded up, and put into one’s pocket — as opposed to New Yorker articles, the collected works of Henry Miller, or Sunday’s New York Times.
16. Items on lists can be easily crossed off, giving the list maker an instant feeling of accomplishment.
17. Lists are great ways for list makers, especially in the hyperlinked blogosphere, to plug their own products and services

This post profiles some U.S. banks that have used social media in their marketing and communications plans in some interesting and successful ways. These banks have tapped into the root of what social media means to the community, enjoying success in the way of returning real value for their institutions.

1. Community Building

Missouri Bank, known popularly as Mobank, is a financial institution with a cool vibe that makes them a natural fit to utilize social media. They serve an eclectic customer base of visionaries and artists — people known to take chances, and though they have only three branches, they’re located in areas where people are invested in the community. They’re not using social media to “sell” anything, but instead utilize social media as a way to build upon the community-minded philosophy that they have spent years developing. Hip, young and cool, the bank parlays that image on a Facebook Page that acts as an online neighborhood for their customers to interact with each other and the bank – much like their branches.

“Being a Mobank customer is very much like being part of the ‘in group,’” said Grant Burcham, the bank’s President and CEO. “Our customers see each other in business, civic and social settings. Those networking opportunities are a great benefit of being a Mobank customer. As they embraced social networking, they expected to see us there.”

Mobank did have to consider the reputation management implications of launching a Facebook Page where anyone can post anything about the bank in the public sphere. Ultimately, they decided that they were confident with their customer relationships and that if someone was going to talk about Mobank negatively in a public forum, they’d find a way, but if it happened on a Page that the bank managed, they could respond to any concerns on the spot.

2. Product Research

Social media was a big part of formulating a new and popular type of checking account at 1st Mariner Bank. The company’s marketing department used social media tools to take a look at their customer’s needs and used that to build new products and services.

Steven L. Kruskamp Jr., E-Commerce Marketing Manager for the bank, said that the bank asked through social networks what was needed most in their marketplace. The bank was able to use social communications tools and online surveys to develop a financial life cycle for their customers and identify that many people today establish a long lasting relationship with a bank in their late teens. They also found that parents are a major influence in the decision of which bank people ultimately decide to use. At the time, they didn’t have an attractive account to market to both parents and 18-25 year olds. With more research using social tools, they identified which features and benefits were important and which combination would give them a competitive edge.

3. Customer Service

But for banks that are more active in engaging with their customers over social media channels about their products, real-time search can be helpful in addressing problems with customers. In other cases, a visibleTwitter account can be a quick and easy first step in the customer service chain when people want to get specific information.

Bank of America sees many of the same questions on Twitter that they get on typical channels like via telephone or in person, according to David Knapp, who runs the bank’s Twitter account, but they are starting to see social spaces as a potential channel of choice for customers to get the information they need. However, because of the sensitive nature of banking and the openness of social media, customers need to be careful when sharing information with customer service reps on social channels. On Twitter, Knapp regularly takes conversations private using direct messages and from there to more secure communications channels to gather sensitive details.

Though Knapp and Bank of America are now seeing much positive feedback on their Twitter account, when they first opened credibility was an issue. “When we first entered the space our credibility as a representative of Bank of America was a challenge,” Knapp said. “But as we began to help customers, and social media sites picked up our work, our legitimacy grew.”

As Wachovia is absorbed into parent company Wells Fargo, the legacy division at the bank still continues. Tim Collins, the SVP of Experiential Marketing, uses social media not only to service Wachovia customers but to answer questions about the status of the merger between the two banks. The bank had been involved with listening on social media for years before they decided to open a Twitter account, which they use to help customers with questions related to checking products and online banking. Wachovia has now fully embraced social media as a way to communicate with customers, even going so far as to create a special set of hashtags for the bank on Twitter.

It took them a couple of tries to get social media right, however. Collins cited one very interesting miss in providing customer service through social media for Wells Fargo. Their first program, called “Stagecoach Island,” was piloted in Linden Lab’s Second Life platform. “We quickly realized that our customers would feel more comfortable on a more flexible platform,” said Collins.

4. Marketing & Promotion

Jeff J. Gahnz, Vice President of Marketing and Public Relations at Nicolet National Bank realized that as a small community bank, their competition could afford to spend his entire marketing budget in one week-long campaign. But as he sat in a meeting and listened to the CEO of the bank explain something extremely complex in a matter of five minutes, he wondered how many people would want to be in that room to hear what he said. They realized that ideas they talked about in meetings could be shared with others using social media channels, and it would be a way to create value for customers that required only a small investment. The bank shares ideas and information through its blogs and audio and video podcasts on a community hub called The Vault.

Citi is one of the big banks using social media to build a community around its brand. As might be expected for such a large financial institution, different divisions have shown themselves to be more independent and innovative than the rest. Citi Credit Cards, for example, has launched a campaign that centers on the power of harnessing your Facebook network. Their Make a Difference, One Friend at a Time program combines the friends in your networks and charitable giving by promising to donate $50 to the charity of your choice for every approved credit card application your refer through your social graph.

First National Bank of Omaha (FNBO), an online-only bank, encouraged customers to utilize the ease of transferring balances online to maximize the interest they earn on the money in their bank accounts via an innovative social media marketing campaign called the Pay Yourself First Challenge. The campaign helped customers develop a personalized saving plan, and FNBO utilized a number of different social media outlets, including YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, iTunes and blogging to get the word out.

The challenge involved five contestants competing to reach a savings goal. The bank recruited contestants by having them submit videos via YouTube describing their saving goals, and during the competition each contestant blogged about his or her progress. FNBO chose the winner based on a combination of reaching their goal and online votes. The contest helped to create awareness for their brand and showed current and potential customers how they can use FNBO’s online banking tools to become more successful savers.

5. Transparency

Nicolet National Bank has used social media in order to be more transparent, said Jeff Gahnz. The President of their bank answers questions directly on their blog, for example, and they have helped people with mortgage questions, business loan queries, and general finance questions. They have also blogged their thoughts on the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), where the money has gone, and why their bank participated.

“Right now, in Washington, the phrase you hear most often with banking and finance is transparency,” Gahnz said. “We are leaders in this area because of social media.”

For FNBO, the emergence of social media has allowed for more opportunities to communicate with their consumers, which is important to them. They understand the benefit of participating in the conversations that are already happening online, rather than avoiding or attempting to control them.

“Banks could potentially miss opportunities to mitigate risk … by choosing not to participate in social media,” said a bank spokesperson. “As a result, we recognize the value of a controlled and closely managed approach to social media as one of the many ways that we can be transparent with our customers and prospects.”

www.Mashable.com - Lon S. Cohen is a freelance writer.

1. Be Relevant…offer your audience valuable information for free.

2. Offer content in a variety of mediums…audio, video, text, etc.

3. Use stories to give meaning to the information that you’re sharing.

4. Be Consistent.

5. Guide Your Visitors To Make The Best Decisions.

6. Build A Trusted Base of Fans.

7. Lead People To Personally Positive Results

In this segment Mark tells us that when potential clients are ready to make a buying decision, you want them to think of you as the best solution.  But how does one do that?  By engaging in the process of listening and providing feedback your reputation as a trusted source of free and valuable information will grow.

In this segment Kathy asks Mark about his recommendation for how often content should be introduced into your social media system…and why.

In this segment Kathy asks Mark, “What is the most effective medium for delivering content?”

In this segment Kathy asks Mark about how to create content that will get keep an audience engaged.