Introducing The Social Media Power 100 Rankings For Banks And Credit Unions

The Financial Brand has ranked the social media activity for the top 100 banks and credit unions around the world.

PLEASE NOTE: The interactive database is no longer available. Static lists will be published every quarter so financial marketers will be able to reference data from previous periods. You can see the "Power 100" social media rankings for April, May and June 2013 by clicking here.

The Power 100 is an interactive list of retail banks and credit unions who have achieved the most social media traction. Components of the Power 100 score include Facebook ‘Likes,’ Facebook engagement rate, Twitter followers, tweets sent, YouTube views and YouTube subscribers.

Users of the Power 100 interactive database can view stats for each individual social media channel (Facebook, Twitter, YouTube), and can filter results to just banks, credit unions or both.

The Power 100 database was created in partnership with Unmetric, who will also provide ongoing support to maintain the list.

Who Was Included in the Power 100?

Inclusion in the Power 100 was limited to financial institutions who provide retail consumer banking services (i.e., loans and checking accounts), and conduct the bulk of their marketing in English. This includes — but is not limited to — banks and credit unions in the U.S., Canada, the UK, Australia, New Zealand, India, South Africa, Singapore, the Philippines, Ireland and Nigeria.

Over 750 financial institutions were initially screened for possible inclusion in the inaugural edition of the Power 100, with scores calculated for around 500 of them. Since there are at least 25,000 banks and credit unions in the English-speaking world, undoubtedly some that should appear in the Power 100 rankings were not captured in this initial release. However, the database will expand rapidly to encompass virtually every major social media presence in the retail banking space.

To include your financial institution in future Power 100 rankings, please complete this form here.

The Power 100 database will be updated quarterly, with the next public release scheduled for early July.

If you have more questions about the Power 100, please check out this list of FAQs. If your question isn’t addressed there, please leave a comment below or contact The Financial Brand and we’ll do our best to address your question.

( Read More: 5 Critical Questions That Should Be Driving Your Social Media Strategy )

Who Made The Top 20?

( Read More: 7 Ridiculously Simple Social Media Fixes For Financial Marketers )

How Were Scores Calculated?

Rankings for the Power 100 list are based on a score calculated in the following manner:

• 1 point for every 1,500 Facebook ‘Likes’
• 1 point for [Facebook ‘Talking About’] x [Facebook Engagement Rate] ÷ 20
• 1 point for every 500 Twitter followers
• 1 point for every 1,000 tweets sent
• 1 point for every 15,000 YouTube video views
• 1 point for every 50 YouTube subscribers

While this scoring system is subjective, it has been carefully weighted (1) to adjust for the relative value of each social channel, (2) based on the range and averages for the financial industry, and (3) to adjust for the ease/difficulty of growing an audience in each channel.

It takes a total score of at least 14 to break into the top 100 overall. A score of at least 6 is required to make it into the top 100 list of banks only or credit unions only.

Top Performers in Facebook, Twitter and YouTube

Facebook ‘Likes’
Bank with the most Facebook ‘Likes’: Chase (3,843,994)
Credit union with the most Facebook ‘Likes’: Navy FCU (520,621)
Average for all financial institutions: 41,903
Median for all financial institutions: 1,952

Facebook Users Talking About Them
Bank with the most Facebook users talking about them: ICICI (125,802)
Credit union with the most Facebook users talking about them: Navy FCU (22,007)
Average for all financial institutions: 944
Median for all financial institutions: 42

Facebook Engagement Rate
Bank with the highest Facebook engagement rate: Mercantile (59.7%)
Credit union with the highest Facebook engagement rate: CFE (16.71%)
Average for all financial institutions: 3.75%
Median for all financial institutions: 2.16%

Twitter Followers
Bank with the most Twitter followers: BofA (121,865)
Credit union with the most Twitter followers: SOFCU (13,745)
Average for all financial institutions: 2,778
Median for all financial institutions: 728

Tweets Sent
Bank sending the most tweets: FNB (101,451)
Credit union sending the most tweets: Servus (6,553)
Average for all financial institutions: 2,138
Median for all financial institutions: 917

Most Twitter Users Followed
Bank following the most users on Twitter: Citi (28,309)
Credit union following the most user on Twitter: SOFCU (14,998)
Average for all financial institutions: 857
Median for all financial institutions: 362

Most YouTube Views
Bank with the most YouTube video views: E*Trade (14,898,145)
Credit union with the most YouTube video views: Navy FCU (347,779)
Average for all financial institutions: 106,633
Median for all financial institutions: 5,414

Most YouTube Subscribers
Bank with the most YouTube subscribers: E*Trade (26,283)
Credit union with the most YouTube subscribers: IC (183)
Average for all financial institutions: 171
Median for all financial institutions: 10

( Read More: Enthusiasm For Social Media Dampening In Financial Industry )

How Did Credit Unions Fare?

25 credit unions made the inaugural Power 100. All but four of these hail from the U.S. — three from Canada and one from Australia.

Navy FCU has over 500,000Facebook ‘Likes,’ the most of any credit union in the world, the 8th most among all financial institutions globally. The next closest competitor, Thrivent Financial, has 182,521 ‘Likes’ (and they are a disputable "hybrid credit union).

( Read More: Most Credit Unions Using Facebook, But Some Say They’ll Quit )

Among the 25 credit unions that broke into the Power 100 rankings, 11 of them have at least 10,000 ‘Likes’ on Facebook.

A Twitter account for SOFCU that was abandoned following a merger with First Community Credit Union has the most followers of any credit union in the world. Even though SOFCU hasn’t tweeted anything since October 2012, that didn’t stop them from eking their way to #62 in the Power 100 rankings.

Among credit unions actively using Twitter today, no one has more than The Golden 1 in California, with 7,702.

Very few credit unions generate any significant traction in YouTube. Even among the credit unions in the Power 100, only three have generated more than 100,000 all-time video views.

You Don’t Have to Be Active in Every Social Channel

Even among banks and credit unions in the Power 100, it’s clear that financial marketers don’t have to be active on every single social media network. Within the Power 100, two don’t use Twitter and seven don’t have a YouTube channel, although all of them have a Facebook presence.

Financial institutions have faced an avalanche of pressure from consultants telling them that they need to rush out and create a presence on every single social media platform out there. Despite this constant badgering, some banks and credit unions have held out.

Out of the top 100 banks in the U.S., eight aren’t using any of the major social networks: Astoria Federal Savings, OneWest Bank, Signature Bank, Hudson City Savings, Frost National Bank, First-Citizens Bank & Trust, Great Western and Valley National Bank.

Out of the top 100 credit unions in the U.S., 16 don’t use either Facebook, Twitter or YouTube: State Farm, State Employees (NC), San Antonio, Police & Fire, Tower, Northwest, Municipal, Merck Employees, Melrose, Landmark, HarborOne, Digital Federal, Bank-Fund Staff, American Airlines, Community First and Connecticut State Employees.

If many social media "experts" were right, these financial institutions that have shunned social channels should have gone out of business by now.