According to a Canadian study, only one in three retail investors looks to social media for investment-related information – and of those that do, not many trust it.
Some 33 percent of investors watch Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn for information, compared with 57 percent who rely on traditional media such as television news, newspapers and magazines, according to the survey of 1,020 Canadian investors conducted between July 26 and July 30 by BMO InvestorLine, the Bank of Montreal investment service.
Among social media sources, Facebook is the most popular, cited by 9 percent of all investors for investment-related information. Blogs come next, at 7 percent, followed by mobile applications at 5 percent, Twitter at 4 percent, and LinkedIn at 3 percent.
Overall, television news is the most popular source, providing investment-related information to 36 percent of investors. Print editions of newspapers and magazines come next, with 30 percent, easily surpassing the 24 percent rating of online editions of those same newspapers and magazines. This illustrates a general preference for more traditional media.
Online investment service providers and online financial communities each furnish news to 22 percent of investors. Radio news comes in with 12 percent, still comfortably ahead of Facebook.
The study also shows that 61 percent of investors trust traditional media sources while only 24 percent trust social media as a source of investment-related information.
Among social media, blogs are the most trusted source, with 21 percent of investors finding them trustworthy. LinkedIn, despite its lower popularity that Facebook, is trusted by 20 percent of investors, compared with the 13 percent who trust the world’s largest social media site. Among the major social media sources, Twitter is the least trusted, at 12 percent.
Some 67 percent of investors trust television news, while 55 percent trust print editions of newspapers and magazines and 48 percent find radio a trustworthy source of information about investments.
