Despite having active Twitter accounts for more than two years, one in five credit unions said they have abandoned the social media channel after struggling to attract followers.
According to a study by The Financial Brand, which analyzed 350 activated credit union Twitter accounts, 74 or 21.1% abandoned their accounts.
The typical Twitter quitter has an average of $300 million in assets and 30,000 members, according to the study. Their accounts were created in late 2009 and they gave up after sending nearly 100 tweets. The credit unions had about 250 followers and followed 110.
Financial Brand said smaller credit unions – those with less than $200 million in assets – tended to quit Twitter more frequently than those with more than $1 billion in assets.
The study found that early adoption of Twitter didn't appear to have a significant impact on account activity. Of the 22 credit unions that joined in 2007 and 2008, the average follower tally was 777 or one follower for about every 70. Of those credit unions that had more than 1,000 followers, 75% joined the social media channel in 2009 or later.
According to Financial Brand, the typical credit union on Twitter has 300 followers and adds approximately one new follower every two days. They follow 150 accounts, have been on Twitter since December 2009 and have sent 350 tweets since then.
The study found that the majority of tweets tend to be links back to a press release or a credit union Web page. The data showed that very few @replies are ever sent by a credit union to other Twitter users.
“With a total of 203 of the 350 credit unions (58%) initiating their Twitter initiative in 2009 or before, it's hard to say Twitter hasn't been given a fair run,” Financial Brand said. “The typical credit union has been on Twitter 2.2 years, which is more than enough time to evaluate its viability. Wouldn't you think that if consumers had any interest in connecting with financial institutions on Twitter, they'd have done it by now?”
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