Best Microsite or Custom Website
Transamerica turns a simple idea about a bland, “boring” industry into a trending topic on Twitter
The second most-talked-about topic on Twitter: financial services. Transamerica set out
to answer this question: Who should you listen to about your money online?
Winner:
Transamerica has disrupted the financial advice industry with a custom-website tool called “The Finfluencer.” Real “disruption” is rare and deserves singling out, so for this feat, Transamerica has won not just one, but two top awards—Best Microsite or Custom Website as well as Best Use of Twitter—in PR Daily’s 2015 Digital PR and Social Media Awards:
The tool’s algorithm crunches data on 140 characteristics to answer two questions for its users:
- How “Finfluential” am I in financial services?
- How “Finfluential” is the financial services expert I’m following on Twitter?
Users are rated on points in comparison to others who’ve been rated.
To use the “Finfluencer” algorithm, the user simply enters his or her email address and password, and agrees to follow Transamerica on Twitter. Since its inception, more than 2,000 persons have used the algorithm to discover the influence scores of the financial experts they follow. Forty-eight percent of the time, the inquirer took action, i.e., followed a Twitter user who scored high as a financial services influencer.
A custom algorithm that measures influence and relevance has not been created by any financial services company before and has rarely been attempted outside of financial services. Moreover, none of Transamerica’s competitors have tried to find out the niche influence ratings of financial services pros on Twitter. Transamerica is the first and only financial services firm to put all financial companies’ data out in the open and rate itself against others in a credible way.
In addition, Transamerica partnered with WiseBread to host a Twitter chat about financial services using the hashtag #Finfluential. The results:
- More than 4 million impressions
- 326,401 people reached
- 2,490 active participants
- Twitter reported the trending of the chat hashtag was a first for a financial services company
This is the kind of idea that makes clever social media persons slap their foreheads and say, “Why didn’t I think of that?” Big congratulations to Transamerica staffers Allan Gungomez, Kevin Petersen, and Lauren Murphy!