The Changing State of the Conversation

For years, IR professionals have focused on delivering information to shareholders – through reports, at meetings or online. Increasingly though such one-way communications risk being out of step with the times.

As more and more companies use social media to interact and engage with their customers, investors, particularly retail investors, are questioning why the companies they hold stakes in can’t communicate with them in the same ways.

In future issues:

The rise & rise of social media. You can run, but you cannot hide
Starting the dialogue: Investor blogs and their cousins
Rules for IR social media
The megatrend of CSR

Previous issues:

Investors are looking for two-way dialogue now.

After all, they reason, if companies can use social media to build loyalty and trust with customers, why shouldn’t they use the same media to build loyalty and trust with their shareholders?

Opt-in too is driving a change in thinking. With investors now declining written reports in significant numbers, companies need to be exploring other options if they want to keep their stakeholders engaged and in conversation with them.

Where are the international trends heading?

No surprises then that we’re seeing the most forward-thinking companies grasping the nettle and changing how and where they interact with investors. Increasingly, open and transparent dialogue is proving to reinforce perceptions of honesty, integrity and approachability. The numbers suggest that much of this activity will soon be mainstream, if it isn’t already:

79% of the Fortune 100 are using at least one of the most popular social media platforms: Twitter, Facebook, You Tube or corporate blog;

77% of the largest international companies have active accounts on Twitter;
61% have a Facebook fan page;
57% have a YouTube channel;
36% have corporate blogs; and
25% - that’s right 25 of the top 100 - are using all of the above.

Asia is showing the greatest growth. For example, use of Twitter grew from 40% last year to 67% this year. The southern drift is happening, and is now on our doorstep.

(Source: Burson-Marsteller Fortune Global 100 Social Media Study)

Further, a recently released in-depth study of 629 public companies across North America and Europe revealed that:

67% use Twitter for investor-related material;
45% use Facebook for investor-related material;
44% use Slideshare for investor-related material (up 400% from the previous year!);
34% use YouTube for investor-related material;
19% use their corporate blog for investor-related material; and
87% have a company page on Linked in.

(Source: Q4 Whitepaper: Public Company Use of Social Media for Investor Relations)

The figures above, and particularly the year-on-year growth evident, suggest that our adoption of dialogue with our investors is about to become an inevitability.

In the next few issues, we’ll look at how you can make in-roads socially with your investment community, and provide more evidence that stakeholders have already raised their own expectations of you in this space.

Time’s up.

Mike Tisdall
Investor Communications specialist and Managing Director – Insight Communications

Next Issue: The rise & rise of Social Media. You can run, but you cannot hide . . .

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