Is social media too risky for banks? Can banks make a social media connection with customers that will shake off the negative impressions developed during the past few years? SunTrust Bank and “Biz” Stone (@biz to Twitter users) say yes.

Still - many organizations are not using social media as part of their marketing and customer relationship management tactics. In research just released by Harvard Business Review, nearly two-thirds of the 2,100 companies who participated in the survey said they are either currently using social media channels or have social media plans in the works. However, many of those are only experimenting with social media. They either don’t understand the channels or don’t know how to effectively integrate social media into their strategy.

While at the BAI Retail Delivery conference, I spoke to several CEOs and CMOs to learn how they were using social media to connect with customers. They were eager to learn of new developments, but nervous about the perceived risks associated with talking with customers about their account issues online. They feared that social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter were not yet safe enough for financial services providers.

My advice and that of many experts including Biz Stone: if you aren’t participating in these channels, others will be. To help convince any doubters, I decided to tear a page or two from SunTrust Bank’s social media playbook and share it here.

I heard of SunTrust’s Facebook page and social media experiences during the first session I attended at BAI: “Marketing Post-Crisis: Rebuilding Consumer Trust through Innovation."? Rilla DeLorier, CMO of SunTrust Bank, said that SunTrust had found success turning unfriendlies into evangelists. She said that social media lets your best customers tell the story for you – a much more powerful way to get the right message out.

When asked how SunTrust handles issues like account security, DeLorier said that SunTrust is transparent with its customers. SunTrust tells customers that it is monitoring posts to protect customers when they accidentally post information that may put them at risk. Then SunTrust pulls customer posts that have sensitive account information.

If you are serious about customer service and customer relationship management, then you have to think like your customers and be where your customers are. Today’s customers are on their cell phones, laptops and iPads. They don’t have time or want to be bothered with a visit to the local branch. There is no perfect scripted answer, but SunTrust found a way to handle this nicely.

SunTrust is not alone; there are other banks and financial institutions who are incorporating social media into their marketing strategy. Take a look at what @Citi and @BofA_Help are doing on Twitter. For a deeper understanding of social media, including how you can set up your organization’s social media guidelines, deciding who in your organization should be using social media and what you can gain from it, watch this on demand webinar, From Engagement to Results: The Business Value Behind Social Media.

Readers, how is your organization using social media? Are you experimenting or have you jumped in with both feet and getting measurable ROI?