By: Hillel Fuld

It is no secret that 2009 became the year that will forever be known as the year Twitter rose to greatness. Social media in general is on the mouths of people all around the globe, and with the recent IPO of Linkedin, everyone is talking about when and how Twitter will follow suit. Twitter is even responsible for the leak of some news stories before they were meant to be public, including the death of Osama bin Laden.  One can argue, therefore, that if Twitter is one of the best forums for news and updates, it is a natural partner for Forex traders.  

The rise in popularity of Forex trading nearly mimics the rise of Twitter popularity, as both of them have grown in leaps and bounds in the past two years.  Forex trading turnover was 20% higher in 2010 than it was in 2007, and of course, Twitter usage has grown even more since its launch.

So, now that we have established that Twitter is great and Forex is great, why can’t they get along? Why is it that a simple Twitter search for the word Forex produces over 100 tweets a minute, out of which well over 50% are spam accounts?

Let me define that before we go on. Twitter, whether or not you believe there is a right and wrong way to tweet, is about online dialogue. It is about communication, and if throughout the process of connecting, you can also promote your product, then so be it, but that is not the goal.

Yet, somehow the majority of Forex accounts on Twitter are trying to sell something, and they are not doing it subtlety, to say the least.

So, how do we fix this issue? Well, it won’t happen overnight, but pretty soon, the Forex players who have taken the time to sign up for Twitter, and send out these auto tweets will realize it helps them achieve nothing. Not only that, but for the few of us that do actually spend the time sharing quality content and searching for dialogue, it makes that task impossible. I, for one, can say that I can count on one hand the amount of responses I have gotten on the DailyForex Twitter account, which just goes to show that the Forex accounts are not being run by people, but rather by software.

Once it becomes apparent that tweeting this way is ineffective and a waste of time, I am hoping whichever companies are behind these accounts will hire a person to man their Twitter accounts, someone who will understand that people like to follow people. This person will add an avatar, a bio, and a link in the Twitter profile, they will share interesting and relevant Forex and non Forex content, and they will share their opinion on other people’s shared content.

I hope this happens sooner than later, since it will not only bring more results to the various Forex companies on Twitter, but it will also enhance the sometimes questionable reputations that some Forex companies have acquired over the past few years.