Banks Slow to Twitter

You might think that the Twitter social networking tool would be an ideal way for banks to update the world about their banking deals, promotions, and offers, but that doesn’t seem to be the case. Recent twitter user stats indicate that banks have been slow to attract followers to their company Twitter accounts. In fact, abysmally slow if you compare the number of followers of major banks to some pop icons as highlighted below:

Pop Icons on Twitter

Britney Spears: 545,676 Twitter followers

Lance Armstrong 391,494 Twitter followers

Al Gore: 378,970 Twitter followers

Major Banks on Twitter

Wachovia Bank: 2,342 Twitter followers

Wells Fargo Bank: 676 Twitter followers

ING Direct: 624 Twitter followers

Chase Bank: 351 Twitter followers

With stats this bad the banks surely have to be blamed. For instance, Chase Bank has only made a paltry 5 Twitter updates for all of 2009. Banks could easily update their CD rates, money market rates, checking account rates, mortgage rates, and savings rates on Twitter. In addition they could post their latest bank deals, new products, and promotional offers. News items like the opening of  bank branches or banking policy changes could also be part of their updates.

Twitter seems to be growing exponentially. If half of a million people follow on a daily basis the latest rants from Britney Spears, why wouldn’t a rate chaser follow a number of banks to keep track of bank rate deals and find the highest savings rates? Speaking of Twitter accounts, sign up to follow MoneyRates on Twitter for the latest financial news, advice, and tips.