The Use of Social Media by European Investment Professionals

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Social Media Survey 2011 (1.7 MB .pdf)
http://ots.de/62o0B
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Frankfurt/Hamburg (ots) -

- Cross-reference: The results of the survey can be downloaded
free of charge at: http://www.presseportal.de/dokumente abrufbar -

European investment professionals are still sceptical about social
media, but they expect the importance of social media for information
distribution and dialogue to increase.

According to the "Social Media Survey 2011" conducted by DVFA and
Deutsche EuroShop only 45% see social media as at least partly
important, while 71% use websites of business media as most important
information sources.

"The majority of the respondents is sceptical about the importance
and reliability of the information on social media platforms, but
nevertheless they expect an increased use of social media for
information distribution and dialogue," said Patrick Kiss, Head of
Investor & Public Relations for Deutsche EuroShop.

Ralf Frank, Managing Director of DVFA, added: "Investment
professionals' favoured social networking sites are Xing and
LinkedIn, especially for the maintenance of business contacts."

The study gauged investment professionals' attitudes toward and
usage of traditional, online and social media such as Twitter,
Facebook, Xing, LinkedIn, YouTube and SlideShare.

In general, only a slim majority (51%) would follow if companies
start to use social media to engage with the investment community,
even if 62% don't expect companies to do so.

Other findings

- Message boards are seen as more important than blogs and social
media

- 31% of the respondents were prompted by blogs to make further
investigations on an issue

- Desktops are the preferred hardware solutions (84%), 56% use
Blackberry as smartphone

- If the respondents don't meet in person, they prefer the
dialogue via email (79%) and phone (21%)

- 74% of the respondents spend more than 2 hours online per day

The results of the survey can be downloaded as PDF file (1.7 MB)
at www.dvfa.de/socialmediasurvey2011

Survey Background

1,587 European investment professionals were invited by email to
take part in an online survey running from 9 March to 11 April 2011.
74 respondents finished the complete survey with 18 questions. This
corresponds with a response rate of 4.7%. Most respondents are
analysts (36%), followed by a group with mixed functions (34%) and
investors (29%).

DVFA - Society of Investment Professionals in Germany

DVFA is the Society of Investment Professionals in Germany.
Currently, DVFA has more than 1,200 individual members representing
over 400 investment firms, banks, asset managers, consultants and
counselling businesses.

Deutsche EuroShop - The Shopping Center Company

Deutsche EuroShop is Germany's only public company, that invests
solely in shopping centers in prime locations. The MDAX-listed
Company currently has equity interests in 18 European shopping
centers in Germany, Austria, Hungary and Poland.

Contact:
Patrick Kiss
Deutsche EuroShop AG
Oderfelder Straße 23
20149 Hamburg
Fon: +49 (0) 40 41 35 79-20
email: kiss@deutsche-euroshop.de
www.deutsche-euroshop.de

Ralf Frank
DVFA GmbH
Mainzer Landstraße 47a
60329 Frankfurt am Main
Fon: +49 (0) 69 26 48 48-0
email: ralf.frank@dvfa.de
www.dvfa.de