NASDAQ has long had a great brand and reputation within the investor community. But the company realized last year that it was missing an opportunity to engage its constituents in new ways and help them network with one another. NASDAQ asked Ironworks to research their users' needs, craft a social media strategy, and build an innovative investor community (community.nasdaq.com) on the new Version 8 of Ektron CMS400.net.
I recently asked Bruce Hashim, Associate VP and General Manager for Nasdaq.com, about their experience:
Bruce, what were the business objectives that drove you to create a community site for NASDAQ?
Bruce Hashim: Engagement. We want our audience to engage around our brand, engage with one another and engage with us. We didn’t want our audience to come to our site, get a quote and leave, we want the audience to see the depth of our site and increase loyalty.
Bruce Hashim: How much the audience trusts us (NASDAQ.com). The audience really wants to engage with other investors to learn about what NASDAQ stocks people were investing in. We discovered their desire to have a two way conversation.
What’s been the investor response since your launch of NASDAQ community in October?
Bruce Hashim: First of all, the launch was not an event. We’ve rolled out about a third of the functionality in content that we want to roll out on our community. It’s an ongoing process. We learn from our audience and we add new things. So far about 5,500 users have registered for the community and we have about a dozen or so of what we call “super users” who are there every day commenting and adding their thoughts to the site. We are pleased that the average time spent on the site by those community users is greater than the typical user.
What do you think is required of a company to nurture an online community once it is launched?
Bruce Hashim: A community is sort of like throwing a party. When you have a party you get great food, great drink, and entertainment. Creating a community is sort of like that. The user generated content is the food and the drink. With a party you have to have someone there to take charge of the party, in a community that’s the moderator. Third, you have to invite people to the party. That is what we have to do as far as pay per click, advertising, email list, promoting, and marketing our community. Of those three things, the most important thing by far is the user generated content. That’s why people are there.
What’s been the biggest surprise since the launch of the community site on NASDAQ.com?
Bruce Hashim: At first, we didn’t expect as many users to sign up in the 2 months since its gone live, so we are very gratified by the number of registered users. Another surprise was we expected users to write a little bit more in detail than they have been. We haven’t seen quite as in depth conversations as we’d like, but we are working to improve that.
Is there anything you’d like to add about the NASDAQ community?
Bruce Hashim: I think we are really excited about the community. I think it is something unique as far as a stock market. I don’t believe any other stock market has a community. There are financial communities available. I think ours is also one that focuses on our companies and investing in NASDAQ communities. We think it’s something unique and something that our users and our audience really like and that’s what we’re about. We’re about giving our users a superior experience and letting them contribute is one way to do that.
Thank you, Bruce for taking the time to talk with me about the NASDAQ online community. Congratulations and best wishes for continued success.
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