Darlington Building Society is looking to improve customer communications via social media.

The mutual continues to offer customers face-to-face contact in its network of local branches but it has also established a social media presence with Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn accounts enabling more informal engagement with customers, and the ability to impart information about the many community activities the Society and its staff support.

In a few months the Society has attracted more than 450 Twitter ‘followers’, and is the building society with the fastest percentage growth of followers. It also has more than 200 Facebook ‘likes’ and 240 Linked In ‘connections’. It also stores a selection of photographs showing the Society’s community spirit in action on Instagram.

It is expected that the social media engagement will continue to grow and a number of Facebook and Twitter competitions are planned.

Colin Fyfe, chief executive of Darlington Building Society, said: “Our engagement with customers has certainly been enhanced through our social media presence and the aim now is to build on this.

“Darlington Building Society has built its reputation on outstanding, personal customer service and this will continue. Building meaningful relationships with customers is a critical goal of any institution but technological innovations are changing the way we interact.

“The world of social media undoubtedly presents great opportunities for the financial services sector. Darlington Building Society wants to encourage more interest from younger consumers and all the data points to social media as the means by which this demographic both communicates and sources information.”