The Stock Market Listens to Your Twitter Brand

“The chatter changes and the stock price changes.”

Citing results that surprised the researchers, a new study claims that Twitter conversations about a company or product have a direct relationship with the firm’s stock price. If online chatter goes up so does the market valuation.

While previous research had demonstrated a positive relationship between Twitter conversations and sales, this was the first time a strong connection to stock price was shown.

From Texas Enterprise at The University of Texas at Austin:

“It surprised the daylights out of me,” McAlister says of her latest analysis of chatter’s effect. “I had thought it might have something to with sales. I thought sales might have an impact on brand equity. And there might be a remote impact on firm value.”

But the relationship was stronger and faster moving than that. “It’s immediate,” she says. “The chatter changes and the stock price changes.” This sort of information is of interest to investors, and some hedge funds have already begun using online chatter to guide investment strategy.

If you’re looking for ammunition to convince your executive team to take social media seriously, these experts just handed you a sky rocket.

Read the full story at Say What? Research Reveals Impact of Web Talk by Mark Henricks, writing for Texas Enterprise.

Why Social Media Relationships Matter in B2B

It can bring great minds together, and give marketers daily opportunities to learn.

Aaron Strout of WCG

Social media is great for Coke, but what about JSR Micro? One has billions of thirsty customers worldwide, the other makes customized chemicals for a small cadre of high performance chip manufacturers. How much online socializing do you need when you can shake the hand of every one of your key customers during a two-day trade show?

Statistics gathered by Social Media B2B show that B2B firms have been slower to adopt social media and online marketing, with 36% of executives saying they had low interest in social media, and 46% believing social media is irrelevant to their company. “Nobody talks business on Facebook,” they say.

Aaron Strout, interactive group director at WCG, begs to differ. ”It is actually easier to have one-to-one relationships with B2B customers, where you might know by name the 100 buyers who matter the most to your company,” he asserts.

In his view, social media need not be a high-numbers game, but can effectively be used to enable relevant interaction between a customer and the people within the organization who have value to offer to that customer.