Reserve Bank cautious on social media
"The risk ... is that soundbites can be misleading." Steve Topliss of BNZ
The Reserve Bank plans to communicate more broadly as it tries to directly influence the economic decisions of consumers and businesses.
However, a banker said that was unlikely to deflect from past criticisms of the bank’s communications, which had more to do with the content of its messaging than how and to whom the bank was talking.
The bank has dipped its toes into social media, notching up 339 followers on Facebook and 5061 on Twitter, and Youtube videos.
But communications manager Mike Hannah said it had avoided ‘‘two-way’’ communication with people through social media because of the risk that ‘‘informal’’ communications might be seen to be sending new signals about its intentions, or could damage its reputation.
‘‘A quick informal comment on Twitter or Facebook can quickly attract unintended negative reactions and go viral,’’ he said.
Nevertheless, the Reserve Bank planned to ‘‘continue to broaden its engagement’’ with publishing 121 stakeholders, he said.
Hannah did not detail the changes in a speech in Christchurch but said the bank would continue to ‘‘explore and experiment’’ with social media.
‘‘The success of our policies relies heavily on the behaviours of households, businesses and other stakeholders being consistent with [our] policy objectives.’’
BNZ research head Steve Topliss said it would make sense for the central bank to do that also.
‘‘An increasing proportion of the population are pretty difficult to communicate with if you don’t go through some sort of electronic channel.’’
The problem with a lot of social media communication was that it was often very brief in nature, he said.
‘‘The risk ... is that soundbites can be misleading.’’
Criticisms of the bank had centred on the fact that people thought some of the messaging from the bank had been confused, he said.
‘‘Frankly, that is something where it doesn’t matter what form of communication you use.’’
It would be a mistake for institutions such as the Reserve Bank to try to target messages to different audiences, Topliss said. Instead, they should assume that ‘‘everybody reads everything you say’’.
‘‘You have to be careful not to get too ‘cute’ and assume you can give a simplified message to one group of people and expect others to understand what your motivations are,’’ he said.