This article first appeared in the September 2010 issue of MyMediaNotes.
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According to Wikipedia, Financial Innovation, in general, refers to ‘the creating and marketing of new types of securities’. 
This may take the form of establishment of new types of financial intermediaries, or changes in the legal and supervisory framework. It also includes process innovations that lead to increased efficiency, market expansion etc. Apart from this, we have product innovations like new credit, deposit, insurance, leasing, hire purchase and other financial products. These types are as enumerated by The Global Development Research Center. This topic is of high importance now, as recent government policies and strategies, of late, have become a matter of deep interest to the financial community.
In this month’s installment of the MyMediaInfo’s Top 10s Contest,
we bring you Top 10 Tweeps in Financial Innovation.
A little info on the MyMediaInfo Top 10s list: MyMediaInfo brings you a list of the top 10 active twitter users on a topic of your choice.** We have come up with the list through a unique rating method that takes into consideration the number of followers, tweets, overall popularity (retweets, lists etc.), relevance to the topic etc. Using these parameters and more, MyMediaInfo assigns a Score. An MMI Score of 1 is the highest possible. Furthermore, based on the MMI Score, a rating engine based on a 5 Star Rating System awards each Twitter handle a certain number of stars. Twitter handles with 5 stars are considered the most active, most influential in social media, and most relevant to their topics, in the MyMediaInfo database.
1. @pkedrosky: Dr.Paul Kedrosky is an investor, speaker, writer, and entrepreneur. He is also an analyst for CNBC television, and the editor of Infectious Greed, one of the most popular financial blogs. His twitter feed consists of his observations on the financial situation in the country, financial innovations, and his short pithy reviews on the latest technological and financial products. Dr.Kedrosky’s twitter account is ranked 34th on the MMI score, and has 5 stars. He has 62,169 followers and, as of date, has tweeted 29,522 times.
2. @CNNMoney: CNNMoney.com is the world’s largest business website. It is also the online home of Fortune Magazine and MONEY Magazine. Needless to say, this website and twitter feed could be your ‘go-to’ place to find news on all things financial. This twitter feed has 225,952 followers who closely follow its updates. So far, CNNMoney has made 18,981 updates, and is ranked 96th on the MMI score, and has 5 stars.
3. @ShannonPaul: Shannon Paul is the Social Media Manager at Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan. She has worked in this capacity in both professional sports and the finance industries. Blogging at the ‘Very Official Blog‘, she shares with her readers, the best social media strategies that one can invest in, to ensure that the medium yields the maximum benefits for the business organization. Her twitter feed, though reflecting solely her personal opinion, also falls along the same lines. Her twitter feed, with an MMI score of 142 and 5 stars, has 21,526 tweets and 15,929 followers.
4. @TheStreet_News: A website that claims to be a “primary and independent source of reliable and actionable investing ideas, news and analysis, financial date and analytical tools for a growing audience of self-directing investors”, The Street.com provides readers with the latest scoop on the financial front. Its twitter feed does the same in 140 characters. @TheStreet_News has an MMI rank of 200 and 5 stars. It has 30,925 updates and 7,370 followers.
5. @SuzeOrmanShow: Suze Orman has been called a “”one-woman financial advice powerhouse” by USA Today. She is an Emmy-award-winning television host of financial advice shows, a best-selling author, magazine and online columnist, writer-cum-producer, and a well-renowned motivational speaker. She is seen by many as an expert on finance. Through her twitter feed, she offers advice on financial matters, interacts with followers and fans, shares useful links on finance, and initiates debates on various topics. Suze Orman’s twitter account has an MMI score of 282, and 5 stars. She has updated 13,734 times, and has 1,058,191 followers.
6. @FoxBusiness: Fox Business Network’s official twitter page gives you the most recent updates on all financial and business stories. This twitter feed has 40,478 updates, and 4,938 followers. This gives it an MMI score of 372, and 5 stars.
7. @financialtimes: This is the twitter feed of the Financial Times, a daily newspaper. It brings you world business, finance and political news from the Financial Times. This highly reliable source of financial news has an MMI score of 404, and 5 stars. It has made 12,272 updates so far, and has 194,691 followers.
8. @MoneyHacker: This is the twitter feed of Sherin Dev, blogger at the popular Money Hacker blog. He brings the simplicity of the common man, and the insight of a finance expert to his blog posts and his twitter feed. @MoneyHacker has an MMI score of 583 and 5 stars. It has 15,716 updates, and 8,209 followers.
9. @NYTimesDealBook: This official twitter feed of The NYTImes DealBook, which is the financial newspaper of the popular newspaper. The twitter feed has an MMI rank of 586 and 5 stars, with 17,525 updates and 6,978 followers.
10. @jessefelder: Jesse Felder is an investor, entrepreneur, and founder of Felder & Company, among many other things. He is also the author of the blog ‘My Backpages‘ on which he provides updates on the stock market and the world finance. He is also the editor of the company newsletter The Felder Report. His twitter feed has an MMI rank of 728 with 5 stars. With 11,630 updates and 10,447 followers, this is another reliable financial twitter feed on the twittersphere.
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* All number of tweets and followers are based on facts collected while the article was written.
**To recreate this list: If you are a customer of MyMediaInfo, and have access to the social media module of the database, then you can recreate this list using some easy steps.
1. Click on the Social Media Module, and then select ‘Twitter’ from the categories below the search field.
2. Now enter the keyword search “financial innovation”, and you will get the entire list of Twitter handles related with this search term.
3. Now, double click on the column called “MMI Score”, and the list will rearrange in ascending order. Remember, the smaller the MMI score number, the more influential the Twitter handle.
4. All twitter feeds that provide general news have been weeded out before publishing this list.
