A new survey by market research firm Corporate Insight reveals that Twitter is ahead of Facebook in the financial services sector, and is “the most popular third-party network employed by financial services companies.” Ten months ago, Twitter was used by 57% of the 85 companies surveyed; as of two weeks ago, this number rose to 67%. Over the same time period, the percentage of these companies with Facebook increased only from 56% to 59%.
Corporate Insight began measuring social media statistics back in 2008, and their first report – in Autum 2008 – showed that 32% of companies tracked had a Facebook presence, and only 15% were using Twitter. This shows Twitter’s impressive growth among firms in the financial services sector in comparison to Facebook, which has seen slower rates of adoption in this industry, despite remaining the most popular social network worldwide.
Why has Twitter emerged as the more valuable social network for the financial services industry? Alan Maginn, a senior analyst at Corporate Insight, told the Financial Times that “Facebook is more of a relationship-driven community, whereas Twitter is more content-driven,” and the latter allows firms to “concentrate more on the value of content they produce.”
The types of companies tracked by Corporate Insight include banks, credit card issuers, self-directed and full service brokerages, mutual fund companies and annuity providers.
