Experts at Quinnipiac University's G.A.M.E. II Forum Say Social Media is Dramatically Changing How Financial News is Communicated

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Mar 30, 2012, 08:41 ET

NEW YORK, March 30, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Social media is dramatically changing the way financial information is being communicated.

That was the consensus of financial communications experts who addressed the Quinnipiac University School of Business' Global Asset Management Education (G.A.M.E.) II Forum Friday at the Sheraton New York Hotel and Towers.

"Social media is so powerful," said Scott Peterson, co-founder of Relay Station Social Media of Washington, D.C. "It's now. It's happening and it's only going to get bigger."

Peterson was one of five experts on the panel, "Social Media in Financial Markets," at the G.A.M.E. Forum, a three-day event that attracted more than 1,000 business students from 115 universities and 38 countries.

Peterson was joined by Josh Brown, vice president of investments, Fusion Analytics of New York, Dorothy Friedman, vice president of marketing, Americas, at Fidessa of New York, and Ray Pellecchia, vice president of corporate communications for the New York Stock Exchange Euronext of New York. Jim Binder, director of public relations for The Options Industry Council and Options Clearing Corporation of Chicago, moderated.

The experts explained how they use various social media platforms including Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, Facebook and blogs to communicate. Friedman said she uses Twitter to connect with journalists and analysts; Facebook to recruit; and LinkedIn to stay in touch with existing clients.

"I started blogging in 2008 when Wall Street started to crumble," said Brown, author of The Reformed Broker blog. "I wrote about things that I didn't read in the papers. When people started to read it, I had to keep writing."

Brown said, "Twitter is going to be more valuable to business than Facebook. Twitter is a global information utility. If you use Twitter, you don't have to pay for newsfeeds and databases."

The speakers encouraged the audience to follow people they want to learn from on Twitter and to maximize their LinkedIn profiles. "When I meet a person, the first thing I do is go to their LinkedIn page to learn more about them," Peterson said. "It's the new background check."

In addition to the panel on social media, the second day of the conference featured presentations on a wide variety of topics, including asset allocation and investment strategy, portfolio management, forensic accounting, hedge funds, risk mitigation and electronic bond trading.

Forty Quinnipiac students worked with David Sauer, the founder and chair of the forum, to organize the event which included 122 speakers from 93 companies. Sauer, a finance professor at Quinnipiac, said, the third annual G.A.M.E. Forum will take place April 4-6, 2013 in New York City.

SOURCE Quinnipiac University