Twitter

Measuring Twitter Velocity

Posted by Anu Heda on Sep 15, 2016, in Thoughts , tagged with Twitter

An additional way to examine industry Twitter usage is through a velocity test. To measure velocity, I examined the number of days firms need to post 20 tweets (unique content, not retweets or likes). I did this in September of 2015 and again last month. I found one point very interesting: in a small sample, there are not easily identifiable trends associated to specific firms (i.e., firm X always tweets the most).

Additionally, the sort rank for velocity changed dramatically. In 2015, BlackRock (3 days), PIMCO (4), and UBS (4) required the fewest days while AB (34) required the most. In 2016, PIMCO (3) increased velocity by 1 day, while the next two firms Goldman Sachs (5) and Natixis (7) stayed in similar velocity. The remaining firms slowed down a bit. The slowest 2016 firm, Voya (27), needed considerably less time than AB in 2015.

As social media adoption and usage evolves through its nascent stages for the asset management industry, I’d wager that a velocity test each month would result in differing sort ranks each time.

Twitter by the Numbers

Posted by Anu Heda on Sep 12, 2016, in Thoughts , tagged with MFS, PIMCO, social media, Twitter

In 2016, there are very few, nearing zero, asset managers without a Twitter account. We follow over 100 asset managers and similar to most users we scan through their tweets at idle moments and occasionally click-through to interesting topics. Given the prevalence and long-standing presence (7+ years in some cases) of Twitter across the industry, a basic question comes to mind: are firms gaining larger Twitter followings? I’ve studied a small set of firms over the last year and arrived at three takeaways. But first, the data.

For instance, MFS increased daily tweets by 80% and saw a 66% positive change in followers.

Takeaways from this analysis:

Nobody has fewer followers than last year, supporting the notion that Twitter (and perhaps all social media tools) has become more valuable for asset managers. Even the three firms that tweet less than they did a year ago have increased followership.
The industry has not settled on a “normal” amount of activity. Different firms are experimenting with volume ranging from every other day (Deutsche Asset and Wealth Management at 0.6 tweets per day) to every four hours (PIMCO at 6.3).
In this 13-firm sample, there’s weak correlation between increased activity (via daily tweets) and increased followership. We have no clustering around the trend line.

Note: PIMCO was excluded from the chart for scaling purposes. PIMCO increased Twitter activity by 1,475% and experienced 12% growth in followers.

Check out the Direct Competition on Twitter

Posted by Mike McLaughlin on Sep 14, 2012, in Thoughts , tagged with ETFs, iShares, Twitter, Vanguard

As I reviewed the responses to QE3, I ended up checking out the #AskMcNabb hashtag used for Vanguard’s Twitter Q&A with its CEO. Check out what showed up as the promoted Tweet at the top of the thread:

It’s not just fees. The big ETF players are competing hard across the board.

How Did Asset Managers Respond to QE3?

Posted by Mike McLaughlin on Sep 14, 2012, in Thoughts , tagged with Direxion, iShares, Janus, OppenheimerFunds, PIMCO, QE3, Russell, Twitter, Vanguard, Virtus

It’s almost old news by now. Yesterday, the Fed announced QE3 and ongoing purchases of mortgage-backed securities at the rate of $40B per month. So, how did asset managers respond?

Using Twitter as an (incomplete) proxy for firms’ responses, here’s the short, chronological list of activity as of 5pm on the day of the news:

Janus gives a 140-character critique of the Fed. No further analysis as of yet, but a responsive opinion.
Direxion tweets some specifics to traders.
iShares establishes its point-of-view by calling the buying program “aggressive” and links to a news story from Reuters.
Virtus ties the Fed’s move to senior floating rate debt and links to an ultra-concise blog post.
In the #AskMcNabb Twitter Q&A, Vanguard’s Bill McNabb notes that he is not favor of QE3 due to excessive long-term risks. (Note that the questioner also asked how much Mr. McNabb can bench press. Unfortunately, no insight was given.)
PIMCO links to Mohamed El-Erian’s thoughts on FT.com. Bonus points for being the first long-form response; a slight ding for requiring an extra click to get to the content.

That is six responses within about six hours. As a sidebar, it’s interesting that none of the content referenced any of trending conversations on Twitter (#QE3, #Fed, etc.). Per the screen capture below, a search showed Oppenheimer and Russell taking advantage of Twitter’s social features. But these were from before the Fed’s announcement.

I don’t know exactly what I expected when I started to look, but overall I’d characterize the volume as a bit disappointing. The biggest financial news of the week warranted a bigger, faster response. Firms know that; it’s still a matter of getting the process ironed out.

Your CEO is Not Using Social Media? No Problem

Posted by Mike McLaughlin on Sep 06, 2012, in Thoughts , tagged with Fast Company, social media, Twitter

Over at Fast Company, HootSuite CEO Ryan Holmes tosses out another in the endless line of arguments about how companies aren’t using social media effectively. The points he makes are generally fine. Two of the central tenets have been, are, and will remain true for a long time:

He didn’t need a college degree. And he doesn’t need Twitter either.

Social media is a huge opportunity for corporations and will significantly impact the bottom line
We have a long way to go before these benefits are even close to fully-realized

People get it. Even skeptics understand there’s real opportunity. But it all takes time. After all, the same two ideas above still hold true for “old” technologies like e-mail, CRM tools, and (gasp) Web sites. If Mr. Holmes is up for it, he’ll be able to recycle his article a few years from now and probably not have to change much of anything.

Still, I have an issue with the starting point of Mr. Holmes’ argument. If you didn’t click through to the article, it begins with the following:

On June 6, Larry Ellison–CEO of Oracle, one of the largest and most advanced computer technology corporations in the world–tweeted for the very first time. In doing so, he joined a club that remains surprisingly elite. Among CEOs of the world’s Fortune 500 companies, a mere 20 have Twitter accounts. Ellison, by the way, hasn’t tweeted since.

Mr. Holmes is making the point that big-time CEOs don’t get social media because only 20 have Twitter accounts. There are two big problems with this:

A Lack of Usage Does Not Equal a Lack of Understanding. There are thousands of CEOs who know relatively little about finance, or marketing, or operations. This doesn’t mean that they don’t realize they are important to their organizations.
Social Media Needs to be Genuine. There’s no point to a social media presence unless you truly care about it. If Larry Ellison and 480 other Fortune 500 CEOs aren’t huge Twitter fans, they’re better off not having Twitter accounts. And if they give it a shot and it doesn’t take, that’s fine, too.

Corporate executives typically have good reasons for doing or not doing social media at this point. They get it. They just might choose not do it.