Posts by Ed Kountz from August 14, 2008

Ed Kountz | August 14, 2008, 05:30 PM
Wesabe Members Can Now Twitter Expenses

Like social networking and the buzz phrase 'Web 2.0', Twitter has been H-O-T recently. Since it was reported in April that a U.S. student Twittered his way out of an Egyptian jail, it’s been impossible to chuck a wireless mouse without hitting at least one reference to the cutting-edge micro-blogging site. That story is referenced (under the once-in-a-lifetime headline “Student Twitters Way out of Egyptian Jail)

HERE

Now, social finance site and web-based finance management service Wesabe … itself the recipient of a good amount of attention in recent months … has rolled out the ability to update a Wesabe account via Twitter. Wesabe…whose blog-friendly online community combines social networking with a community-based approach to better money management...in essence now allows users to text the details of a transaction to Wesabe via Twitter.

See the Wesabe blog entry

HERE

Never mind that recent JupiterResearch data indicates that use of social media is still on the bleeding edge when it comes to researching financial products. Just 1 percent of all online users report using a social networking site to research financial products, and Twitter itself has just a couple of million users. But among 18-24 year olds, social networking sites are seeing somewhat higher usage for financial product research, and the buzz around social finance clearly shows that younger adults are listening. See my report; Online Financial Research: Targeting and Influencing Young Affluents, July 17 2008

HERE

Twittering expenses to Wesabe is hardly going to be an earth-shattering innovation over the medium-term, but is representative of the changes that Web 2.0, and mobile, are bringing to financial services and relationship management. And of course, it also gives me a reason to mention both hot names in one cool entry.