tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3651010135173678358.post8231956645679717763..comments2023-10-28T03:38:48.289-05:00Comments on Investor Relations Musings: Investor Relations and Social MediaJohn Palizzahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10899935474780095424noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3651010135173678358.post-71459513919303845852010-10-11T10:43:01.818-05:002010-10-11T10:43:01.818-05:00Should i post a comment of a new site on a old blo...Should i post a comment of a new site on a old blog????<br />"http://www.marketontwitr.com/"Mikehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17435050615139253432noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3651010135173678358.post-50656195074574410952009-09-14T08:01:04.290-05:002009-09-14T08:01:04.290-05:00I just did an interview for IT Business Edge with ...I just did an interview for IT Business Edge with Craig Carpenter at Recommind about the risk that Twitter users pose for their companies. You can read his remarks here:<br /><br />http://www.itbusinessedge.com/cm/community/features/interviews/blog/dont-overlook-risk-in-cost-of-business-use-of-twitter/?cs=35583Unknownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07836550514644139738noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3651010135173678358.post-85658079342532853702009-09-03T13:58:15.508-05:002009-09-03T13:58:15.508-05:00John,
Lots of people in investor relations share ...John,<br /><br />Lots of people in investor relations share your concerns about social media. Every new technology has issues to work through. In my opinion, however,the benefits of social media are compelling enough that social media will soon become part of mainstream IR best practices. As some previous comments have suggested, one reason for this is that the public is rapidly adopting social media. Facebook has more than 200 million users. It is going to be increasingly difficult for IROs to ignore social media. <br /><br />As I travel with my company, it seems analysts and institutional investors are getting younger all the time. They are part of a generation for which text messaging and social networking come naturally. Social media fits their highly mobile, technology-rich lifestyles well. <br /><br />As used by many public companies, Twitter is not so different from e-mail alerts. It is another tool to draw attention to previously disclosed news and to drive traffic back to the company's IR Web site. <br /><br />Before adopting any new social media initiatives, the key is for the investor relations team to have clearly defined strategies and objectives. The company also needs to develop a written policy to guide social media usage and offer instruction to employees. All of this should be done with cooperation and input from legal counsel, corporate communications and the IT team. <br /><br />All new technology has its risks. Social media is here to stay, however, so it makes sense for IROs to find ways to use it to their best advantage.Dave Hogan, Internship program directorhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03412266610758232122noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3651010135173678358.post-3325956104090220462009-09-03T11:46:22.927-05:002009-09-03T11:46:22.927-05:00Thanks for the post John. You raise a number of in...Thanks for the post John. You raise a number of interesting points. Over the last while I've had a number of discussions with people that share your point of view.<br /><br />Here are a couple of points to consider: <br /><br />The channel we are having this discussion on is social media. Blogs, feeds, comments, etc. are a major component of the web today and are the baseline of social media. From an IR perspective and to @serena's point, using a blog and comments can allow you to be much more efficient rather than having to speak one on one with each investor. Using blogs (aka social media) in this way makes your life simpler and enables you to focus that valuable phone time with the investors that matter the most. There are a number of examples of this (Microvision, Dell, Google) <br /><br />Similar to @TJ The Food Dude I also learned of this post through Twitter. In fact, I learned of it through the search filters for "investor relations". The reason this is important is because I do not need to be following the right people to learn of content that I'm interested in, the content finds me (so to speak).<br /><br />Regarding how this can make your life simpler. There are now something like 20,000 press releases a day issued in the US. Add to this, the hundreds of thousands of articles (online and in print), blog posts, tweets and social network updates. It is impossible for anyone to be informed about everything. However using social media, following people with the same interests, using Google alerts, twitter filters, etc. I am able to have a steady stream of relevant content delivered to me. Without social media it would take up several hours of my day if I had to pour through this content manually.<br /><br />From an IR perspective using social media is imperative to understanding what is happening in your market and what is being said about your company. Being informed of these online conversations is critical to being able to do a good job. The risk of sticking your head in the sand is a major problem happen on the web (and spread like wild fire through social media) and you having to answer the question from your CEO "how on earth did you miss this?? – Obviously not good for your company or your career!<br /><br />Of further relevance is the importance for companies and their IROs to establish a "voice of authority" in the primary social networks. RSS feeds make it easy to begin populating social networks with content that is already being created. This approach does not leverage the conversation aspect of social media, but it does start the process and establishes your company in the key networks like Twitter, Facebook and soon StockTwits Desktop.<br /><br />Should you need to address inaccurate rumors (like in the case of AMD and battery life) you have a channel that you can communicate with. You can't wait until a problem arises to start using social networks, as you will be behind the eight ball.<br /><br />For IR, social media is like raising money. The best time to raise is when you don't need the money, if you wait till you're out of cash you either won't get the money or run the risk of unfavorable terms. Social media is the same, if you wait until you need to use it to try and figure it out, you're going to be in a lot of trouble.<br /><br />As of March 09, 67% of the global online population uses blogs and social networks daily. This is up from 54% the year previous. The reason why every company and everyone in IR needs to embrace social media is simply because that’s where the market is.<br /><br />(sorry for the length of the comment - if I had more time it'd be shorter :)Darrell Heapshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15065667862073881509noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3651010135173678358.post-86927943286183508792009-09-01T17:28:07.867-05:002009-09-01T17:28:07.867-05:00A key characteristic of Twitter is that the practi...A key characteristic of Twitter is that the practice of Tweeting creates a social context to information exchange and thus humanizes what might otherwise be a ‘cold, heartless’ process. This ‘humanizing’ effect is great for the social gibberish and Business-to-Consumer tweets (often nothing more than thinly disguised marketing tactics) that are increasingly clogging our inboxes. From a disclosure perspective, the key value of using 140 character tweets is to insert links (Tiny URL goes straight to the Web 2.0 Hall of Fame) that revert to publicly available information, and in this respect, Twitter can be a very valuable tool. It is when the IR practitioner gets “too human, or too social” that emotions and opinions get in the way, and that is when one approaches the danger zone.<br /><br />Twitter can be helpful in letting constituents know that the company ‘cares.’ I suggest that from an IR perspective, Twitter is best used as a socially-friendly portal to the company’s website or to other information broadly available to the public. In this respect, Twitter can be used as an adjunct to reach the financial “Mod Squad” and other folks fixated on gadgetry. Don’t even think of using ‘unregulated’ Twitter as a platform to talk about anything traditionally verboten from discussion in private meetings.Jeffluthhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18090450959685936222noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3651010135173678358.post-17427587465407066932009-09-01T17:02:51.613-05:002009-09-01T17:02:51.613-05:00Exibit A for Twitter...I found out about your blog...Exibit A for Twitter...I found out about your blog through a tweet. I never would have heard of you and your blog without it. Thanks to twitter, in my world, you are no longer an unknown.TJ The Food Dudehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08243625284093544871noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3651010135173678358.post-18969421415870603372009-09-01T15:52:05.423-05:002009-09-01T15:52:05.423-05:00John,
Great post! I would say that there is one ...John,<br /><br />Great post! I would say that there is one greatly overlooked point in your post, the amount of time platforms like Twitter and Facebook can save a person or a company.<br /><br />Twitter is a fast way to share information with an info-hungry audience. When a company issues their earnings release, they could post the headline on Twitter with a link to their website.<br /><br />It is easy to do. In fact, you can use a tool like Futuretweets.com to pre-schedule the tweet as a time saver.<br /><br />Every company gets the same questions every - why not put the answers out on twitter and reduce the number of calls you receive on those topics?<br /><br />Lastly, I would absolutely recommend setting up an RSS feed so you can see on a daily basis what is being said about your company on Twitter. This is an excellent and easy way to see emerging rumors that may affect your stock and allow you to get ahead of this curve instead of being reactive later on.<br /><br />Thanks again, John!Serenahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08117787411295045044noreply@blogger.com