NYSE wooed Twitter listing from the start

In the contest for Twitter’s affections, the Big Board isꩵ counting on its✤ long courtship.

The New Yo🧸rk Stock Exchange began wooing the microblogging service nearly two years ago, when the exchange operator became an early adopter of the service’s promoted-tweets progr💖am.

The NYSE has been paying for sponsored tweets in order to build its brand and those of i🅺ts publicly listed clients since November 2011.

“We’ve ▨had a positiv🍸e experience as one of the thousands of companies using Twitter,” said an NYSE spokesman.

Forming inroads with the San Francisco startup may give the NYSE the edg🌃e as it vies with archrival Nasdaq for Twitter’s coveted listing assignment.

While no d🐷ecision has been made, the smart money is betting that the NYSE will get the high-profile assignment as Twitter tries to avoid the fate of Facebook. The Nasdaq took plenty of heat 𒅌over its handling of the glitch-filled Facebook IPO in May 2012.

Nasdaq also has been a Twitter user since ༒2008 and has been leveraging the social-media platform to promote clients and charitable works.

Judging by the number of followers, however, NYSE has another advantage over Nasdaq. It has roughly 370,000 versus 234,000 for Nasdaq, including two ဣ𝔉different accounts.

Interestingly, NYSE gained a whopping 81,000 Twitter followers in the week leading up to Twitter’s announcement it had filed for an IPO, acc⭕ording to tracking agency Sprout Social.