Sorry bankers, your customers do not want to be your Facebook friends, or follow you on Twitter, or see your Pinterest or Instagram pictures.

According to findings released yesterday by Carlisle & Gallagher Consulting Group, the consultancy, fully 87% of customers find banks’ use of social media “annoying, boring or unhelpful.” The findings show negative attitudes toward interacting with banks on social media for problem-solving, and show that customers doubt the overall effectiveness of banks’ use of social media.

Here are the numbers:

• 90% of consumers prefer to discuss their problems in private with their bank;
• 68% of consumers would never use a social media channel to solve a problem with their bank; and
• 52% of consumers believe banks’ use of social media is ineffective.

It is not explained in the survey results what effective use of social media might mean, but presumably it involves photos of cats.

But just because customers don’t think much of what banks are doing on social media and don’t think that banks can help them with financial problems in the channel, does not mean that customers ignore their banks on social media. For example, 1 in 3 customers responded that they would use social media to complain to a bank. The majority of those complaining would choose Facebook for that purpose, followed by Twitter and LinkedIn:

• Facebook – 54%
• Twitter – 18%
• LinkedIn – 12%
• Blogs – 10%
• Other – 6%

Banks need to be on social media to field complaints and protect their brands, in other words, and perhaps to move discussions about problem-solving to a more secure channel. The large banks, by and large, do this well:

@emaker_ I called and left a message for you. Please return our call at the number provided or DM us when you are available. ^er

— Bank of America (@BofA_Help) March 18, 2014

It should also be noted that, though the survey indicates customers don’t want to be Facebook friends with their banks, JPMorgan Chase’s Community Giving Facebook page has 3.7 million likes. Counting 45.5 million FDIC-insured deposit accounts, this works out to 1 Facebook like per 12.3 customers. Bank of America’s Facebook page has about 1.7 million likes versus 62 million FDIC-insured deposit accounts, or 1 like per 58 customers.

Jason Vitug, CEO of social media startup Phroogal, told Bank Innovation that while some financial matters must always remain private, social media is making other things that were once private more public. “Whom people seek to do business with or continue to do business with will be increasingly more public.”

Phroogal, which was the top vote-getter in the Bank Innovation DEMOvation Challenge earlier this month, is a community where users can ask each other for advice on questions about their finances, anonymously or not, as they choose.

Vitug added that he agrees with the survey results that banks are misfiring on social media. “I agree that banks’ use of social media has been focused on selling rather than helping,” he said. “It’s been focused on marketing the bank rather than educating. Social isn’t a place to sell. It’s a channel to educate that may ultimately mean your consumer chooses an alternative. But, that information is important in creating products that bank consumers will find more valuable.”