2023 Customer Awards: Truist - Best-in-Class: Social

Company: Truist

Company background: Truist Financial Corporation is a purpose-driven financial services company committed to inspiring and building better lives and communities. It is headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina. Truist has leading market shares in many high-growth markets in the country and offers a wide range of products and services through their retail and small business banking, commercial banking, corporate and investment banking, insurance, wealth management, and specialized lending businesses. The company was formed in December 2019 as the result of the merger of BB&T (Branch Banking and Trust Company) and SunTrust Banks. Its bank operates over 2,100 branches and has over 50,000 employees. It is a top ten U.S. commercial bank with locations in 17 states and Washington, D.C. It is on the list of largest banks in the United States by assets; it is the 10th largest bank with $574 billion in assets as of March 31, 2023. The bank services over 15 million clients across the United States. In 1872, Alpheus Branch and Thomas Jefferson Hadley founded the Branch and Hadley merchant bank in their hometown of Wilson, North Carolina. After many transactions, mostly with local farmers, Branch bought out Hadley's shares in 1887 and renamed the company Branch and Company, Bankers. Two years later, Branch, his father-in-law Gen. Joshua Barnes, Hadley, and three other men secured a charter from the North Carolina General Assembly to operate the Wilson Banking and Trust Company. After many more name changes, the company finally settled on the name Branch Banking and Trust Company. Branch remained an active member of the company until his death in 1893. The 1903 Branch Banking and Trust Company Building at Wilson was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978. BB&T sold Liberty Bonds during World War I and grew to have more than $4 million in assets by 1923. BB&T Insurance Services was added in 1922 and a mortgage division was added in 1923. Even though banks across the United States failed as a result of the 1929 Stock Market Crash, BB&T survived; it was the only one to do so in the town of Wilson. In 1897 the Bank of Lumberton was started by Angus Mclean in Lumberton, North Carolina, the predecessor of Southern National. In 1955 Hector MacLean, Angus Mclean's son, was named president. The Bank of Lumberton changed its name to Southern National Bank in 1959. With the purchase of several banking institutions by 1986 Southern National was North Carolina's seventh-largest banking company. In 1990 Hector MacLean retired from the bank. During his presidency, the bank changed its name, grew from $3 million in assets to $3.3 billion, and grew to 148 branches. By 1993, with acquisitions in South Carolina, the bank had just over $2 billion in assets, it was the third largest financial institution in South Carolina. In 1995, BB&T merged with Southern National Bank. This gave BB&T 437 branches in 220 cities in the Carolinas and Virginia. The merged company became Southern National Corporation, but all of its banking subsidiaries took the BB&T name. In 1997 Southern National Corporation changed its name to BB&T Corporation and its stock symbol SN to BBT. BB&T has been in the insurance business since 1922. By 2010 BB&T's insurance division had grown to be the sixth largest broker in the US and the seventh largest in the world with $1 billion in annual revenue. The division has completed 60 mergers since 1999. In June 2020 BB&T Insurance Holdings rebranded as Truist Insurance Holdings and moved its headquarters to Charlotte, North Carolina inside the Truist Center, Truist's corporate headquarters. Insurance services has been an important area of growth for Truist. In 2020 it accounted for 10% of Truist's revenue. The CEO of Truist stated the company's goal is to have the insurance division eventually make up 14% to 15% of Truist's revenue. SunTrust Banks is the combination of three companies, two banks, one based in Georgia, and one based in Florida, and an investment company. The three companies are Trust Company of Georgia, Sun Bank, and The Robinson-Humphrey Company. The earliest predecessor of these banks' dates back to 1891 with the formation of the Trust Company of Georgia. The earliest predecessor of Sun Bank was founded in 1911 as The People's National Bank in Orlando, Florida. In 1920, it became the First National Bank. In the early 1930s, during the Great Depression, the First National Bank and Trust Company failed. It was reorganized as the First National Bank at Orlando. In 1973, the bank merged with other Orlando banks to become SunBanks. In 1985 the Trust Company of Georgia and Sun Banks Inc. merge to form SunTrust Banks Inc. The Robinson-Humphrey Company was founded as a municipal bond shop in 1894. It blossomed into the leading investment banking firm in the South. In 1982, the company was sold to American Express. Under AmEx, the firm operated as part of Shearson Lehman Brothers Inc. In 1993, deal maker Sandy Weill orchestrated a deal for Shearson's retail division, and Robinson-Humphrey was included in the sale, using the Smith Barney unit of Primerica Corp. The company was acquired by SunTrust in 2001. In June 2020 SunTrust Robinson Humphrey and BB&T Capital Markets combined to form the new Truist Securities. On February 7, 2019, it was reported that Winston-Salem-based BB&T and Atlanta-based SunTrust Banks would come together in a merger of equals to create the eighth-largest US bank. It would be the biggest bank deal since the 2007-2009 financial crisis. The merged bank would be headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina. It was subsequently announced that Winston-Salem would be the bank's headquarters for community banking, while Atlanta would be the hub for wholesale/retail banking. SunTrust had been the last major bank headquartered in Atlanta, which had been the South's financial capital for much of the 20th century. On June 12, BB&T and SunTrust announced that the merged company would be called Truist Financial Corporation. The merger was completed by the end of 2019. The merged bank continued to operate under the BB&T and SunTrust names until the two banks' computer hardware, software and networking systems were integrated. Truist unveiled its logo in January 2020, with two Ts representing touch and technology, and a shade of purple combining the blue of SunTrust and the burgundy of BB&T. Truist said it had completed changing signs on branches as of February 22, 2022. Truist is a leader in the majority of the markets it services and its footprint represents some of the fastest growing geographies in the United States. Truist has a diverse business mix with a combination of national and regional lines of business (LOBs). Revenue by LOB is summarized by the chart below as of the end of 2022.

Contact: Nikki Pearce

Title: Social Media Manager

Related URLs: www.Truist.com ; https://twitter.com/TruistNews ; https://www.facebook.com/truist ; https://www.instagram.com/truist/ ; https://www.linkedin.com/company/truistfinancial/ ; https://www.tiktok.com/@truist ; https://www.pinterest.com/truist/

Kudos Category: Best-in-Class: Social

1. Tell us how you are using Khoros’ Social Media Management capabilities (moderation, publishing, listening, etc.). Please include a full list and be as specific as possible.
Khoros is our Enterprise social tool of record and our secure way to engage with clients across social media platforms through Marketing and client service engagements. Khoros security & governance features provide brand protection. Capabilities: Moderation, publishing, content calendar, listening

2. Share your goals and key strategies with these capabilities and how Khoros Social Media Management helps drive success for you.
Continue to become educated and experts with all capabilities provided by the platform to execute more proficiently. Ensure we’re using all integration opportunities to the fullest to provide our company with best-in-class social media capabilities.

3. What specific results did you achieve by optimizing your social strategies with Khoros? Did you seize new revenue stream opportunities, serve customers better, protect your brand and/or grow your business (increased subscribers, engagement, awareness, etc.), grow revenue, reduce costs, or a combination of these things?. Please include quantifiable metrics where possible.
Marketing - we experienced a 6.34% Avg Engagement Rate (all channels). Care- We implemented recommended best practices improving our avg TAR by 43% in 2 months. We did this by creating response templates, updating Care settings, and stressed the importance of this metric across the Truist Care Team.

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Special Thanks: Jordan Cribb

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