It's not often that financial services companies take home multiple trophies in a cross-industry retail-marketing competition. But last week, they took home almost half the top prizes in Forrester's Groundswell competition for the best use of "social" techniques in their marketing efforts.

Financial companies won nine of 20 possible honors including three of seven category winners and six of 13 runner-up awards (called "finalists"). Four of the winners were in tax prep, a surprisingly social activity.   

The financial category-winners:

• Supporting
  -- TurboTax Widget For Free Tax Help by Intuit, Inc.
• Embracing
  -- Intercontinental Hotels and Chase Create a New Credit Card by Communispace
• Mobile applications
  -- USAA iPhone App with Car-Buying Tools by USAA

Financial runner-ups (aka finalists):

• Listening (of 3 total)
  -- Listening to the Student Pulse by Bank of America and Communispace
• Talking (of 2 total)
  -- American Family Insurance on Facebook by American Family Insurance
• Energizing (of 2 total)
  -- TurboTax Embraces Customer Reviews for Viral Growth by Intuit, Inc.
  -- USAA Implements Ratings and Reviews by USAA
• Supporting (of 2 total)
  -- Get it Right Community by H&R Block
  -- Taxes on Twitter: @TeamTurboTax Provides Customer Support and Resources by Intuit Inc.

Intuit's TurboTax division alone accounted for three of the nine financial winners. USAA bagged two awards and H&R Block, Chase, Bank of America and American Family each received one Groundswell award.