Kristin Moyer

Juergen Weiss from IAS Insurance here.  My colleague Steve Leigh and I have just published a research note about the presence of Financial Services Providers on Twitter (available to Gartner clients). There has been a lot of hype around this micro-blogging service but the reality is that less than 20% of the largest global insurers and banks actually have a presence on Twitter.  And those that have a Twitter account usually don’t have a huge number of followers or tweets as our research indicates.

Is this good or bad? Well, it depends for which purpose Financials Services Providers want to use Twitter. Those that take Twitter seriously can provide an additional service channel to their clients which can help to build stronger customer relationships. Those that consider Twitter only as a one-way communication or marketing tool haven’t understood the community nature of this service and will fail to provide any value.

And even if banks or insurers believe that Twitter is nothing more than a fad they should continue to keep an eye on this service. We have identified for example one example where an impostor tweeted under the name of a global investment banking and securities firm. This can seriously hurt your brand or confuse prospects and customers.  What do you think? Are you alrady tweeting and what? What’s your opinion about Twitter?