Last week, Virgin Money agreed to buy Northern Rock for £747m.  It will take over the non-toxic banking and mortgage lending arm of the nationalised bank, which was bailed out by the Government in 2008.  Virgin will rebrand Northern Rock’s 75 branches and the move finally gives Richard Branson’s financial arm a bricks and mortar presence on the highly-prized High Street, and one million customers to boot.

But, what impact will the deal have on Northern’s customers and what’s the reaction been like in the social conversation?  In the past week, almost 40 percent of the customer conversation has been positive and almost 10 percent negative.

A quick analysis of most influential tweets from a customer perspective, ranked by our partners Peer Index, shows the stability of the Virgin brand and its strong track record on customer service were the stand-out positives as the news of the deal broke.

‘If I were a Northern Rock customer I would be delighted that safe hands Virgin has bought my bank’. (Gary Bainbridge, 17/11)

‘Branson to apply customer service magic to banking? RT @SkyNewsBreak: Northern Rock to be sold to Virgin Money for £747m’ (Peter Hall, 17/11)

‘Northern Rock a steal for Virgin Money but anything that boosts the customer service offering in the sector must be good – Metro Bank aside!’ (StevieBoy 6, 18/11)

On the day of the announcement, Virgin Money was quick to start engaging on Twitter:

RT @VirginMoney: “Bringing together Northern Rock and @VirginMoney will create a strong and stable bank with 4m customers” said @RichardBranson’
(leeasummers, 17/11)

However, negative comments included the following:

‘And don’t forget Branson colluded with @British_Airways to ripoff customers. I’m closing my Northern Rock account today’ (LDNCalling, 17/11)

‘Selling Northern Rock to @richardbranson won’t mean a better deal for customers http://t.co/N6zk9Eq5’ (Mike Ashworth, 21/11)

‘Dominic Lawson: If I were a Northern Rock customer, I would not welcome the arrival of Richard Branson http://t.co/jxkCvsiE’ (bryansj3, 17/11)

Richard Branson has promised to bring “fresh ideas and an injection of new competition” to UK banking, an industry which for some has been just about as popular as a tooth extraction without anaesthetic.  It will be interesting to come back to the conversation and run a social media analysis on the completed merger.

In the meantime, the wider spat over the sale of Northern Rock continues.  CPSThinktank yesterday summed it up in under 140 characters.

‘Malcolm Wicks says Northern Rock modern day morality pla; Cameron: Northern Rock sale saves taxpayer money & gets another bank lending.’

What are your thoughts?