SHARETHIS

FINANCE STUDY

EVERY MONTH, 32M USERS GENERATE 68M SOCIAL

ACTIONS RELATED TO FINANCE
32 million finance sharers
3.1 million sites and apps
120+ social channels

SHARETHIS SOCIAL INTELLIGENCE PLATFORM

3 MONTHS OF DATA COLLECTION
53 BILLION
page views

204 MILLION
social signals

LANDSCAPE

THE FINANCE SOCIAL LANDSCAPE

SOCIAL ACTIONS PER MONTH:

Accounting

2.5M

Banking Services

Tax Preparation & Planning

0.7M

Debit & Checking Services

2.2M

Savings Accounts

2.2M

Credit Cards

10.5M

Debt Management

13.3M
0.7M

Loans
Credit & Lending

20.9M

Asset & Portfolio Management

Inheritance & Estate Planning

Financial Planning &

Management

Insurance

4.8M

12.8M

10.8M

0.7M
0.4M

Retirement & Pension

3.5M

Health Insurance

3.2M

Home Insurance
Life Insurance

Investing

5.2M

Vehicle Insurance
Brokerages & Day Trading
Commodities & Futures Trading

0.1M
1.2M
0.3M
0.8M
1.1M

Currencies & Foreign Exchange

6.3M

Derivatives

0.1M

Funds

0.3M

Real Estate Investment Trusts

0.5M

Stocks & Bonds

0.4M

FINANCE TOPICS BY CHANNEL

(topics ranked in order of social volume)

LINKEDIN
Retirement
Debt Management
Tax Planning
Trading
Portfolio Management
Real Estate

FACEBOOK

FINANCE
SHARING

Real Estate
Taxes
Retirement
Insurance
Banking Services
Asset Management

6%
7%
7%

5%
12%
19%

6%

OTHER
SHARING
71%

61%

TWITTER
Trading
Stocks & Bonds
Commidities
Funds
Investing
Futures

The Twitter feed is the ideal place for socializing

news, market updates, and investments.
Facebook and LinkedIn are active forums for
financial planning and advice.

FINANCE TOPICS BY DEVICE

(topics ranked in order of social volume)

DESKTOP

TABLET
Portfolio Management
Real Estate
Trading
Banking Services
Estate Planning
Accounting

Credit & Lending

Insurance
Retirement
Retirement
Accounting
Taxes

FINANCE
SHARING

35%

29%

16%

27%

OTHER
SHARING
57%

SMARTPHONE
Stocks & Bonds
Trading
Portfolio Management
Insurance
Derivatives

36%

People are twice as likely to use tablets to share

about finance.
Smartphones and tablets are mostly used to share
about investments and keep up with market news.

TRENDS

SEASONALITY
Finance social activity spikes around key time periods: tax season, New Years, key
quarterly earnings reports, and periods of stock market volatility
Tax Season

New Years:
Savings & W2

Market
Volatility
Holiday Spend
Activity

1-Jan

1-Feb

1-Mar

1-Apr

1-May

1-Jun

1-Jul

1-Aug

1-Sep

1-Oct

1-Nov

1-Dec

WEEKLY CYCLICALITY
Finance Activity shows a very consistent pattern. Peak activity occurs during the
beginning of the week anywhere between Monday to Wednesday. Activity surrounding

Sun
Tues
Thurs
Sat
Mon
Wed
Fri
Sun
Tue
Thu
Sat
Mon
Wed
Fri
Sun
Tue
Thu
Sat
Mon
Wed
Fri
Sun
Tue
Thu
Sat
Mon
Wed
Fri
Sun
Tue
Thu
Sat
Mon
Wed
Fri
Sun
Tue
Thu
Sat
Mon
Wed
Fri
Sun
Tue
Thu
Sat
Mon
Wed
Fri

finance drops as the weekend approaches and remains low through Sunday.

Sunday
August
10th

Friday,
November
17th

SHARING MIRRORS MARKET VOLATILITY

26.3
24.6
21.2

CBOE VOLATILITY INDEX (VIX):

18.6
16.2

16.0

15.6

17.2

13.7

FINANCE RELATED SOCIAL ACTIVITY:

21-Sep

25-Sep

29-Sep

3-Oct

Source: FRED economic data, December 2014

7-Oct

11-Oct

15-Oct

19-Oct

10

SHARING MIRRORS MORTGAGE RATES

30yr US FIXED RATE MORTGAGE AVERAGE:
4.23%

4.20%

4.19%

4.12%

4.12%
4.02%
3.98%

3.97%
3.92%

REAL ESTATE RELATED SOCIAL ACTIVITY:

10-Sep

17-Sep

4.01%

24-Sep

1-Oct

8-Oct

Source: FRED economic data, December 2014

15-Oct

22-Oct

29-Oct

5-Nov

12-Nov

11

DAILY FINANCE ACTIVITY

Sharing

0:00

2:00

4:00

7am - 11am
Personal Investing

Search & Consumption

6:00

8:00

10:00

12:00

14:00

16:00

People search and browse more

finance content in the mornings,
particularly surrounding
investments and market activity.

Market News

Stocks
Retirement Planning

20:00

22:00

0:00

3pm 7pm
Real Estate
Tax Planning

Real Estate
Managed Funds

18:00

Personal Investing

Sharing activity peaks in the

evenings, and much of this
activity pertains to longer-term
financial planning goals.

Retirement Planning
Insurance
Market News

12

LIFE STAGES

13

MILLENNIALS AND BOOMERS ARE MOST ACTIVE IN

Millennials share about credit cards
and investments
Social Actions

Index vs Gen. Pop.

18-25

2.4x

26-30

1.3x

31-35

1.1x

36-40
41-45
46-50

1.0x
0.9x
0.8x

51-55

0.8x

56-60

0.8x

61-65
66-70
71-75
76+

Baby Boomers share about retire

ment and mortgages

0.9x
1.0x
1.4x
1.6x

14

FINANCE SHARING SKEWS TOWARD BOTH

ENDS OF THE INCOME SPECTRUMS
Social Actions

Index vs Gen. Pop.

4.34x

3.06x
2.67x
2.38x
1.63x

1.60x

1.35x
1.05x

Less than
$15k

$15k $19k

$20k $29k

$30k $39k

$40k $49k

1.29x
0.95x

$50k $59k

0.74x

$60k $74k

0.57x
$75k $99k

0.68x

$100k $124k

0.95x

0.91x

$125k $149k

$150k $199k

$200k $249k

$250k $399k

$400k $499k

$500k+

15

FINANCE SHARING PATTERNS ARE ALIGNED

WITH LIFESTAGES
FINANCE TOPICS BY AGE AND LIFESTAGE
Topics indexed vs general population

18 - 23
$15k - $40k

20 25
$30k - $60k

25 30
$30k $80k

28 34
$50k $120k

30 39
$100k+

1st Job &

Graduation

Renting 1st
Apartment

Student
Loans

First Car &

Home

Long Term
Planning

Credit cards (1.3x)

Credit & Lending (1.4x)

Debt Management (1.2x)

Loans (1.3x)

Estate Planning (1.4x)

Banking services (1.2x)

Home Insurance (1.3x)

Banking Services (1.2x)

Car Insurance (1.2x)

Retirement Planning (1.4x)

Health Insurance (1.2x)

Investing (1.2x)

Investing (1.1x)

Home Insurance (1.2)

Portfolio Management (1.3x)

16

1ST JOB/GRADUATION SEASONAL SOCIAL

ACTIVITY
Social activity around job searching during students 2nd semester (Mar) and when they begin
their new job at the the end of the summer.

P18-25 LOOKING FOR THEIR FIRST JOB AFTER COLLEGE

1-Oct

1-Nov

1-Dec

1-Jan

1-Feb

1-Mar

1-Apr

1-May

1-Jun

1-Jul

1-Aug

1-Sep

17

RENTING 1ST APARTMENT SEASONAL SOCIAL

ACTIVITY
Users share content about apartments more frequently at the end of the month and overall
activity spikes in the late spring through the summer.

P20-25 RENTING THEIR FIRST APARTMENT

1-Oct

1-Nov

1-Dec

1-Jan

1-Feb

1-Mar

1-Apr

1-May

1-Jun

1-Jul

1-Aug

1-Sep

18

STUDENT LOANS SEASONAL SOCIAL ACTIVITY

Social activity around student loans peaks when users apply for financial aid and again 6
months after graduation when they have to start making payments.

P23-28 LOOKING TO PAY OFF STUDENTS LOANS

1-Oct

1-Nov

1-Dec

1-Jan

1-Feb

1-Mar

1-Apr

1-May

1-Jun

1-Jul

1-Aug

1-Sep

19

CAR & HOME BUYING SEASONAL SOCIAL

ACTIVITY
In-market auto consumers share the most near national holidays and in the Winter and Summer
when dealership sales events are more prevalent. Sharing activity around buying a home spikes
noticeably in the spring and starts to slow down over the summer.

P28 - 34 LOOKING TO BUY THEIR FIRST CAR AND HOME

1-Oct

1-Nov

1-Dec

1-Jan

1-Feb

1-Mar

1-Apr

1-May

1-Jun

1-Jul

1-Aug

1-Sep

20

FINANCIAL PLANNING SEASONAL SOCIAL

ACTIVITY

Sharing activity around estate planning, retirement planning, and portfolio management
remains fairly steady throughout the year, but peaks just before the new year.
P30 - 39 LONG TERM FINANCIAL PLANNING

1-Oct

1-Nov

1-Dec

1-Jan

1-Feb

1-Mar

1-Apr

1-May

1-Jun

1-Jul

1-Aug

1-Sep

21

SHARING CAN BE A KEY INDICATOR

OF FINANCIAL INTEREST AND INTENT
AND IS HUGELY DEPENDENT ON
MARKET EVENTS AND LIFE STAGE

TAKEAWAYS & IMPLICATIONS

SOCIAL LANDSCAPE
Finance is a social but nuanced topic, encompassing several dozen
key conversations occurring across various channels and devices.
Pay close attention to the social patterns of your consumers and
align your targeting strategies accordingly.
TRENDS & SEASONALITY
Finance social activity displays noticeable seasonal trends around
key economic trends. Monitor these trends and automate media
delivery to ensure your messaging reaches users at the peak
engagement.
DEMOGRAPHICS & LIFESTAGE
Millennials are a rapidly growing and highly engaged audience for
finance. But its not enough to target their age group; align your
messaging strategies with their priorities and lifestages.

23

SOCIAL DATA IS A VALUABLE TOOL TO REACH

FINANCE INTENDERS
IDENTIFY
Use social data to identify users who shared relevant finance content.

TARGET
Align messaging with interests and lifestage and deliver media to
contextually relevant content.

OPTIMIZE
Use social signals to determine where and when to spend media dollars

Heavy-up deployment around key

events to drive conversion when
conversations are abuzz

Monitor sharing trends in real time and

capitalize on user intent as quickly as
possible throughout the purchase funnel