“Can you keep Market open on Saturdays till the time banks are open...!!! Benefits: That will allow people working in IT companies to invest in shares properly... And they can also be the part of the market for a day in a week…,” wrote Ankush Kanodia on BSE's Facebook page.
Exchanges are now ramping up their presence of social media to ‘listen' to what people are talking about.
They are using social media more actively to connect directly with their target audience.
Research studies indicate a convergence of social media and capital markets.
Social mood is found to be a lead indicator of stock prices. Studies have also found a close relation between social media popularity of key brands and their respective share prices
In 2009, the National Stock Exchange when it established its presence on Twitter, quotes of the Nifty index were posted every ten minutes.
Now apart from live market quotes, the exchange posts announcements as well.
Users can follow Nifty, Junior Nifty, currency derivatives and interest rate futures updates on Twitter.
NSE has over 17,000 followers on Twitter.
BSE follows suit
The Bombay Stock Exchange started active involvement in social media about one year ago. “As an exchange, Twitter provides a medium that is good for connecting directly with the target audience, it is faster than any other medium because it's a push medium and helps sending the latest information, in quick short bursts,” said the BSE spokesperson. Presently, BSE has 2578 followers on Twitter.
Putting global exchanges in perspective, the NYSE Euronext has 93,650 followers, while nasdaq.com has 1,99,853 followers. Even indices have now developed a strong presence on social networking websites.
Although NSE was the first Indian exchange to have its presence on Twitter, only recently have they launched their Facebook page. The page is still in early stages of development.
On its Facebook page, BSE posts details of events that have taken place and those that are due on the FB page. “While we clearly cannot control or drive conversations, FB helps us ‘listen' to what people are talking and engage with them better,” said the BSE spokesperson. FB Page is ‘liked' by 8,858 people.
While Twitter posts can be automated to some extent, it requires much more efforts to design the Facebook page. Having a presence on Facebook would require the internet team to upload pictures, videos, etc, and also moderate the comments on the page.
As far as commodities exchanges are concerned, Indian Commodities Exchange (ICEX) has 23 followers and MCX India has 2,724 followers.