Banks are already often the victims of phishing attacks and due to the open nature of social media sites, the risks there increase ten-fold. Instilling trust in customers that their accounts will be safe when they are discussed via a social network is not easy. All too often news breaks that another bank was caught up in an internet-based security breach like the September 2011 report that the Bank of Melbourne's Twitter account was hacked and phishing links were sent to account holders via direct message.

To be able to safely interact on Twitter, the first thing Eliason considered was security. He knew sending account information over Twitter could pose a massive risk for Citi and the customer. "The regulatory stuff presents challenges. Even if you send your account information via direct message, banks can't do that, it's considered private information."

So when Citi wanted to find a way to initiate dialogues between Citi customer service agents and customers and actually resolve issues via social media sites, Eliason sought help from LivePerson chat integration, an online engagement solution that facilitates live chats within Twitter.

"If you're having a dialogue with an agent [via Twitter], we want you to continue with that person," he says. Citi's first efforts with LivePerson on Twitter involved agents initiating a direct messaging with any customer that mentioned "Citi" or "Citibank" in a question or concern.

Agents use the @AskCiti Twitter handle to send a link via Twitter direct message to the customer to start a live chat. The customer clicks that link and has to accept the application as they would with any other Twitter application, such as TweetDeck. Once that is done, they are brought to a secure chat within Citi's website and can start discussing whatever issue they have with the agent.