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Hitwise Intelligence - Sandra Hanchard - Asia Pacific

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Twitter Up 518.2% in Australia - Is Twitter Relevant for Your Brand?

September 02, 2008

Last Thursday I led a roundtable session at the Innovation in Financial Services Marketing forum, where Twitter came up frequently during the topic of justifying emerging technologies for financial services brands.

There was a lot of speculation that Twitter has picked up recently in local usage, which our Hitwise data backs up. Visits to Twitter by Australian Internet users increased by 518.2% year-on-year, comparing weeks ending 1 September 2007 and 30 August 2008 (note we're tracking web visits only).

Synergies between Twitter and Financial Services Websites

While we've commented on Twitter's growing but niche audience in the past, I found the discussion around its business applications particularly relevant as I've been playing around with linking Twitter to my Wesabe account, a personal financial management tool. Both Twitter and Wesabe allow users to share their collective learnings, and can therefore act as powerful platforms for consumer advocacy.

Twitter might not be the most appropriate marketing channel for all brands, but it can serve as a fast communication tool when needed as well as a barometer of consumer sentiment towards your brand (Steven Noble from Forrester contrasted a number of 'positive' and 'negative' comments on Twitter about major Australian banks).

How can you determine the viability of Twitter and other social platforms for your marketing initiatives? One way is to assess the 'audience fit' between your websites. Here's a list of brands in the Banks & Financial Institutions industry that have a close alignment to Twitter in terms of demographic profiling, using our new Hitwise Lifestyle Similarity Tool: