Social Finance: The New Influentials

Most investors would acknowledge that social media is playing an increasing role in their investment decisions. Yet no-one has mapped the emerging network of influence likely to be playing a crucial part in those decisions.

Until now that is.  MindfulMoney's ‘Social Finance: The New Influentials'' report is aiming to better understand what this network looks like and to see if a number of super connections, so beloved of writers like Malcolm Gladwell, exist.

The research indicates that they do.

Some professional investors believe that many of the sites in this loose network have proved a better source of information than the traditional media, especially and crucially in the run up to the financial crisis.

Clearly, a new and significant source of information is available to investors. One with an audience of over 38million.  However given that this is the case, it is also important to understand who the main players are, how they interact with the Government and other sectors and how they influence each other. 

Little Britain 

For the UK, it is interesting and maybe a little chastening that most of the sites in the top twenty are state side, a point not lost on Stockopedia's CEO Edward Croft, when he likened the state of the UK's financial blogoshpere to a 'barren wasteland' . However, the UK does have some centres of influence too.

In the US, there is an established culture of independent Wall Street players and Wall Street watchers running their own blogs - sites which have established themselves as central to this network as the map shows.

In the UK, the established financial media continue to provide the main hub of connections, though sites such as FT Alphaville might be described as a hybrid between the traditional media and the new generation of sites.

The Importance of Networks

Having established the existence of this network, and described its nature in some detail, MindfulMoney plans to bring you news of how this network responds to its own existence in the next few weeks, and to continue to research and consider its impact over the next twelve months.

It will be interesting to see if the UK side of the network grows, if traditional media brands raise their game, what ethical issues may arise, and perhaps most importantly, how it is embraced by institutions, retail investors and their financial advisers.

If you would like to recieve the full pdf report as well as updates to future Social Finance research, click here .

SEE ALSO: What the New Influentials think about Mindful Money’s New Influentials report

The network map was generated using issuecrawler software, a product of www.govcom.org.