RBC Blog Aimed at Young "Hip" Clients

We read over at Thicken My Wallet that RBC has now entered the blogging world.

Here's a sample mortgage-related post from RBC's new blog, which it calls "RBC p2p."  Link

Like most big company blogs, RBC p2p has a commercial vibe to it.  It's probably due to the legal disclaimers that appear when outside links are clicked, the RBC colors and branding, the RBC-focused content, and the frequent RBC references. 

Those aren't just RBC traits however.  It seems a lot of players in the mortgage business get into blogging to "cheer on" the home team.  Heck, even we started this blog partly because we thought it would be good for business. 

Yet, we've never forgotten the other reason we launched CMT:  to provide, to the best of our ability, open-minded, quality information.

The public needs sites it can rely on for impartial mortgage advice.  Mortgages are such a complex topic to most people.  Bloggers in our business therefore owe it to readers to paint the whole picture and not just talk about their own products and services.  That's something most commercial blogs don't seem to understand.

RBC probably won't be the last bank to jump on the blogging bandwagon.  Blogs offer staid old banks additional marketing exposure, a chance to be hip, and added search engine equity.

Unfortunately, most bank blogs will likely exist as impotent "advertorial" sites--at least until they discover the secret sauce of neutrality.  In our case, CMT happily tells readers about non-broker products because neutral reporting is what repeat readers demand.  Yet, when was the last time a bank wrote about a competitor that had better rates or products?

In the end, simple impartiality is sometimes the biggest thing separating good blogs from glorified advertisements.