From uprisings in the Middle East to the antics of errant celebrities, social networking has added a further dimension to the way people communicate. Now, intrepid traders and investment managers are using social networking data to drive their trading strategies, but success remains unproven.

Nevertheless, some are experimenting with messages on micro-blogging site Twitter, which allows users to push out messages or "tweets" of 140 characters or fewer to a base of subscribers - "followers" - who are then able to respond through their own Twitter account.