Banks and other financial firms are joining the cool kids online with a series of social-media outreach efforts aimed at educating consumers, according to a new report by Corporate Insight, a consulting firm in New York.

The report, entitled Consumer Financial Education Today: Best Practices, says that self-directed brokerage firms led the way with online forums, blogs, private messaging and user profiles. But now, Wells Fargo in particular has embraced blogging, created three separate blogs, one on its merger with Wachovia, one for college-age students and their parents and one explaining the bank’s history.

Given the number of mergers in the past year, only Wells Fargo has launched a blog to specifically to address its merger,” says James McGovern, vice president of consulting services at Corporate Insight. “It seems like a smart move to us—it’s an opportunity for the bank to put out its own message and develop some goodwill. I’m surprised Bank of America isn’t doing this.”

But, while it hasn’t gone the blog route, Bank of America has launched a social media community where customers can log onto educational forums to review lessons in personal financial management.

Meanwhile, Vanguard is one of the few mutual fund companies to experiment with Facebook as a way to educate readers about personal finance. The firm now has over 3,300 Facebook fans. Vanguard also offers a corporate blog focusing on investing, retirement and other personal finance issues.

Do social media strategies add anything tangible to the bottom line? “It’s still too early to tell,” McGovern says. “But it is undeniable that social media is changing the way companies and their customers interact with each other. All financial services firms need to consider what impact social media could have on their business going forward. We have yet to reach the full potential of social media, that’s for certain.”

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