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According to a report by Northwestern.edu social networking sites like Betterment.com, an alternative investing site that pools investment data of users, allows “unsophisticated” investors access to credible information on various portfolios.

Camille Varlet, a 32-year-old marketing manager at L’Oreal in Chicago told Nortwestern.edu that she finds the Web site convenient because of its accessibility and user-friendly features.

Chief Executive Officer Jon Stein said their Web site provides social data that users can share among themselves and at the same time track what other people are doing.

Varlet was quoted as saying “It’s not like you have chat rooms. But I can see what my peers are doing. They are aggregated and [the information] comes from a credible source, so I can still track and see what they’re doing.”

Indeed the Internet is changing the way people invest and social networking sites are now able to penetrate markets that are off-limits in the past. It is also changing the investment landscape, particularly how the public manages their portfolio. But the biggest benefit of these social networking sites to the public is that it gives them some degree of control over their portfolios.

An independent survey by TD Ameritrade Holding Corp., revealed a similar finding when it found that one in three “Generation Y” users has utilized social networking sites for managing their investments. Precy Dumlao