In February NAB built a micro-site and took to Twitter, Facebook and Youtube to launch an extraordinary attack on its rivals, "breaking up" with them over home-loan interest rates.

According to the Australian newspaper, NAB's general manager of digital personal banking, Chris Smith told a conference last week that the campaign has paid off, with the bank boosting its Twitter followers and Facebook fans.

More impressively though, the bank saw "a 50% boost in credit card applications, about 20% increase in mortgage applications, 35% increase in interest from customers in other banks moving over to us, but the overall big takeaway was a one per cent increase in our share of the mortgage business."

As with other channels such as the telephone and Internet, social media is an important tool and "if you don't embrace it it's at your own risk," Smith told the CeBIT business technology show.

NAB is now on the second stage of its campaign with a new slogan boasting "we're not popular with the other banks anymore".

It is also launching an Australian Football League (AFL) competition on Facebook, inviting participants to submit videos of them commentating on certain game moments. The bank's Facebook fans will pick a winner who then gets to commentate on a quarter final for a local radio station.

Neighbouring Commonwealth Bank has also been getting active in social media with the launch of its 'Community Seeds' campaign, in which Facebook users are invited to vote for one of six grassroots community organisations. Each vote earns the organisation a one dollar donation up to a maximum of $150,000, with CBA donating an additional $20,000 to the charity with the most votes.

Australia's banks aren't alone in their experiementation with social media, according to a Business Spectator Accenture survey of the country's CEOs. Of those polled, 40% have a social media strategy in place, while a further 16% are currently working on one.

NAB seeking new relationships on social media - The Australian