E*Trade Invites Friends to Share

Bank Technology News | December, 2009

Much like the popular Facebook “top five movies” or “top five books lists,” E*Trade has introduced a widget for participants in the social media site to share their favorite stock picks.

“Those [the ‘top’ lists] are proven applications that have a lot of viral pass-along benefits,” says Alison Mittelstadt, a vp at E*Trade, who says the broker’s expanded Facebook page picked up nearly 18,000 “fans” within a few days of its recent launch (though those fans are not necessarily using the “top five” application). E*Trade’s newly revamped Facebook page also includes webinars, commentary and video.

Accessible on the E*Trade Facebook page, users are invited to select their top five stocks with the picks posted on their Facebook wall and shared with friends. Each time a stock pick is updated, a new status update will appear on user Facebook profiles viewable by friends.

Mittelstadt says E*Trade developed the site because there are more than 10 million Facebook users over the age of 30 in educated “higher income” brackets, which the online broker considers to be its core demographic (Facebook has about 85 million total users). “There’s a popular misconception that Facebook is a playground for college students. But 10 million users from our core demographic was a great fit for us.”