KEY FINDINGS:

Usage:

• In addition to the 60% who are already using social networks for business, 11% more plan on using them in the future.
• Of the 29% with no plans to use social media in the future, 85% of them are prohibited by their firms.
• The average number of social networks employed is 1.8.
• Linkedin is the most popular social network used.

Impact:

• 100% of the respondents believe that social media has a positive or neutral impact on their business’ reputation.
• Over 60% agree that there is business value in adopting social media as it allows them to gather information on the clients without having to meet them face to face.
• 47% have identified one or more referral from their social media activity.
• 36% have acquired new customers through social media.
• 10% stated they identified over 21 new referrals.

Compliance:

• 57% are aware that their company has a policy in place.
• 11% were unsure if a policy existed.
• 40% believe that the firm’s social media policy is a detriment to performing one’s job successfully.

Click here to download the executive summary and key findings

Socialware’s findings are in line with a survey conducted by Ledermark Communications in March of this year which found:

• LinkedIn was the top social networking site used for business and Facebook for personal use; however, both social networks allow them to be more visible, have a platform for questions and answers, and reconnect with old friends, introductions and referrals — all cited as how social media helped bring in business.
• Respondents agreed that social networking will be an important business tool within five years.
• None of the respondents claimed that social media wasn’t worth their time.

Here is presentation that conveys the findings:

One of the big questions that Investor relations officers have about social media is the ROI of using these channels as part of their IR communications strategy.  Both of these studies convey the power in using social networks to make new business connections and build better relationships with customers.  These are two compelling reasons why public companies should consider when pondering using social networks for investor relations.

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Newport is a technology solutions driven company organized to focus on serving five of the fastest-emerging businesses in the technology space – RFID (Radio-Frequency Identification), WiMax, eLearning, and LED Digital Signage and LED Lighting solutions.

Newport has embraced several social channels including Twitter, YouTube, Posterous and FlickR to broaden the company’s audience.  They also have a Facebook account which we highlighted in our recent whitepaper for their exceptional use of the channel.  For example, the information is current and up-to-date with a good balance of material including recent press releases, links to shareholder conference calls and videos that all help to provide a better context about their business.

So based on Newport’s inclusion in our whitepaper and the “formal launch” of their Social Media program, I contacted Isaac Cruz, the company’s Digital Strategy Manager, to gather some more background information about how this all came to be.

1. How long has Newport been using social media? And what tool did you begin using first and why?
The company launched its social media program in October 2009.  Initially, we saw the power of Google and the importance of SEO, so we created profiles which were verified by Google. We then signed up for Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube accounts.

2. What was the original driving force behind the company’s decision to use social media?
In the early stages of the company’s life, our focus was on Research and Development.  As our business progressed and R&D concluded, there was a natural gravitation towards ways to promote the company.  The Board of Directors saw the value of having a presence on the social networks and wanted to leverage those channels to bring the NDT brand to investors, and potential industry partners and  customers.

3. Were you originally hired on as the Digital Strategy Manager?
At a start up, employees have to wear many hats. Originally, I was hired on to manage the office i.e.  assist executives, do payroll and accounts payables for the corporate office as well as our two branch offices.  As our company was progressing, I was asked to be involved with developing the social media program, which was initiated by an external IR firm. Based on my background and passion, this area of marketing and sales is where I really felt that I could use my talents to benefit the company. Eventually, we developed a small, internal team to take over the social media efforts.

4. Were you able to draw on your own experience with social media?
Back in 2003 or 2004, my college football coaches used Facebook to announce practice and workout schedules. After the coaches would dismiss us from practice, they would yell, “Check your Facebooks!” so we all would know what the next meeting would entail.   Twitter was completely new to me. Over time, we developed an understanding of hashtags, searching and how to write effective tweets in 140 characters.  We also wanted to develop an understanding of url shortening services like bit.ly and tiny.url and how to track the clicks on these links.

We started out with a corporate Twitter account and one main Facebook account. Each Digital Strategist had their own Twitter and Facebook accounts.   As we became more familiar with friends on the company’s Facebook account and what they were interested in, we decided to break out the various segments of our business. In order to be Facebook SEO, we developed fanpages specific to technologies we specialize in, such as RFID and digital signage. Whether it is on Facebook, or Google, we want to provide quality content and be easily found by those interested in the industries we are involved with.

5. Are there any channels that are strictly dedicated to investor relations?
The original strategy was to help increase awareness of our overall business.  We wanted to broaden our message and increase awareness about our company to all key audiences which includes potential partners, investors and customers.  As stated in our release by our CEO, Don Danks “Leveraging digital media and implementing this strategic communication program provides shareholders and clients access to NPDT’s most recent developments, technology solutions, and a roadmap for revenue growth.  Digital and Social media are becoming powerful tools for branding and supporting sales efforts.  We intend to make a consistent and serious commitment to utilizing the power of the medium, benefiting our shareholders.”

Our corporate Facebook page is a great forum to connect with a Digital Strategist who is one degree away from the decision makers of the company. We are committed to providing our investors with whatever information we can release about the business.

6. Is there any interaction on any of the social networks with retail or institutional shareholders?
We have shareholder inquiries mainly on Facebook.  We also have a few who DM me on Twitter. They normally always follow up with a phone call, as it is hard to address questions in 140 characters.

7. What prompted you to formally press release your digital strategy and social media program now?
There are several reasons why we issued a press release regarding our digital strategy and social media program now:

The company has really ramped up over the course of the year. We have transitioned from a R&D company to one with tangible products and are now in full sales mode.  As we have press released our progress, we now have sufficient content to share over social channels by providing links from our website which has increased visitors.

We also wanted to make sure we understood our company’s technological capabilities, our audience and the channels we are using first. In the beginning we did a lot of listening in the social communities and wanted to balance the company voice to ensure we were conveying the right messages.

Further, since launching the program in October of last year, we have put together a Digital Strategy Team. Each team member specializes in areas of social media that best suits their backgrounds and skills. We are solely concerned with ROI which we dub “Return on Interaction” with increased awareness of the company. You never know what relationships could be cultivated in the social business networks.

Lastly, we have a unique business that is not yet two years old. For a technology company, we are progressing very fast.  As such, I posted the following YouTube video that explains the functions of the strategtically located offices around the globe: 

Of note, we do all of our videos in-house like the one above. It takes relatively little time and is very cost-effective!

8. What other channels have you adopted over the course of the year?
We recently added a Posterous account where we post press releases and provide news about the business and background information on our products:

We don’t have a lot of comments on there yet, but we have had 6,913 views since adding the account in May of this year.

9. Any advice for other public companies of the value of using social media?
I can’t speak for all public companies because each company is in a specific industry and has their own specific vision and goals, but I do know this. Followers of social networks really appreciate the personal connection they have with a public company when a representative personally addresses a question, or concern they have. We feel that it is important to accurately, and promptly respond to all inquiries that pertain to the business and employees of NDT. We are actively asking for NDT followers to voice their questions and ideas about the business, or technology on our networks so we provide them with what they want to see. We want our audience to know that we are working not only for NDT, but also for our shareholders.

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A review of how Polycom uses each channel revealed consistent messaging and current and up-to date information.  Some of the senior management team also regularly tweet and are active bloggers providing additional commentary on an industry-related topic or company specific news. With it increasingly difficult to attract and retain investors in this economy, this sends a very clear message in terms of their transparency and their personal interest in listening to their stakeholders.

The fact that the senior management is seemingly committed to the company’s social media strategy and that the company in general was doing such a great job over several social channels, I thought I’d contact them to see how they became to use the social networks they are; which department(s) is responsible for the strategy and who ultimately is in charge of the content.

After doing a scan of all of their social media accounts, I reached out to Caroline Japic (@CarolineJapic), Vice President, Corporate Communications and Customer Marketing as she was listed as the contact on Facebook.  As it turns out, the Corporate Communications team was instrumental in implementing Polycom’s social media strategy.  Here’s what we talked about:

1.    How long has Polycom been using social media? And what tool did you begin using first and why? Polycom employees began blogging several years ago, but we launched the official Polycom Social Media Program in January 2009. We created Twitter, LinkedIn Groups, Facebook Fan pages, and a YouTube Channel at that time. Yammer was already being used inside the company.

2.    Who was responsible for implementing social media? The Corporate Communications team defined and implemented the program, but we recruited the entire employee base (nearly 3000 strong) to participate in the program.

3.    How did the Corporate Communications team get buy-in? The Corporate Communications team researched social media options and brought the recommendations to our Chief Marketing Officer Heidi Melin. Heidi was our executive champion, helping to gain support and buy in from the Executive team.

4.    Any resistance from legal counsel? Not at all—Polycom legal is very progressive. We worked with our legal team to revise our “Blogging Policy” to become a “Social Media Policy”. Once we agreed on guidelines they were in full support of the Social Media program.

5.    Are there any channels that are strictly dedicated to investor relations? Not yet. We use our main “All About Polycom” Twitter account the most at this point, but are expanding our IR activities using other social media channels for our next earnings call in October. We do host archived video streams from our quarterly earnings calls on Polycom.com/investors.

6.    If no, what would be the determining factor(s) to do so? While we considered a direct channel for IR, we found that those interested in IR are also interested in the other events happening at Polycom such as new product launches and customer win announcements. So, we made the decision to use our existing channels to communicate the IR message.

7.    Is there any interaction on any of the social networks with retail or institutional shareholders? If so, do you have a procedure in place to defer to the IR dept? If we receive any IR requests, they go directly to our CFO Mike Kourey who manages the IR program.

8.    Some of the senior management team has Twitter accounts and actively blog.  How did this come to be?
As part of the initial plan, we had a training session with the Executive Staff and helped them set up their Twitter accounts and Facebook pages. Other execs, such as our Co-Founder Jeff Rodman, have been active bloggers for years and were early adopters of social media. We encouraged participation by all Polycom employees and continue to do so in quarterly all-company meetings, using employee contests, and through ongoing training.

9.    The content seems synergized amongst all of the channels, is this driven by one person who informs the others of the information they should share on the channel?
The Corporate Communications team shares our main channels so that the burden doesn’t fall on only one person. We discuss social media efforts during our regular meetings and encourage team members to post relevant content on their respective channels.

10.    Do you monitor your social media efforts? Yes, we use Radian 6 to monitor and measure our efforts. We have daily reports that are routed to the appropriate departments for action where needed.

11.    Is it important to measure the success of your social media efforts?  If so, how is success measured? Absolutely.  At Polycom, we measure all of our Corporate Communications programs. For our social media efforts, we measure trends, mentions, share of voice, tone of voice, activity spikes, and we watch our conversation cloud very carefully. Success is measured by analyzing a combination of all of these factors.

12.    Do you have a social media policy? Yes, we do. It covers all employees and their social media efforts.

13.    Anything notable you’d like to share i.e. increased website traffic or other less tangible things such as better consumer relations etc., you have seen from using social networks? We compare the social media results with the results from our Customer Experience program to identify trends. We’ve also improved our customer service efforts–anyone who has a challenge with a Polycom product and Tweets about it will be contacted by our customer service team.

14.    Now that you have been using social media for two years, have you changed your strategy for its use? We haven’t changed our strategy, but we’ve evolved it. A good example is that we are adding more IR activities, but not changing our overall strategy.

15.    Any advice for other public companies of the value of using social media? Don’t be surprised if there are many nay-sayers when you start the program. However, progressive companies need to stay abreast of how their various audiences (media, customers, partners, etc.)  are receiving information, and social media is an important information source for many. Social media creates a unique opportunity for conversation, and that conversation is happening with or without you. As the traditional role of the media continues shifts to social media, those who are listening and participating in the conversation via social media will be the ones who win.

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Each week, we tackle three-four questions that address IR-related issues, trends and to generally exchange ideas. The session has garnered quite the following and has become a popular hashtag on Twitter.

Recently, @IR_practice one of the regulars and a great IR resource in general put out an open call to #irchat asking if anyone could share a link on best practices for organizing an investor day.  With experience as both an in-house IRO and IR consultant, I began to look through my files to see if I had anything to offer.  I also put in a few requests to friends and ex-colleagues in the IR profession and was surprised that no one had anything written down.

So in an effort to generate some concrete best practices, I posed this question on #irchat this week.  The question generated a lot of great ideas so I thought it would be useful to compile the output (all I have to say is thank goodness for whatthehashtag).  If you have something to add, please do – as it’ll help all IROs and IR professionals around the globe.

I have gone through the transcript and have broken the conversation down into key areas:

Making the Decision

There are many reasons to host an investor day.  It can be as simple as providing a general corporate update to providing details around a recent event such as an FDA approval or a merger or acquisition.  To be simplistic they can help get the broader story out.  They can also help investors get familiar with the management team (and help them gain confidence in them). Similarly, they can give the management team the opportunity to gain experience speaking in front of investors.

Sometimes, companies may also combine an investor day in conjunction with an industry meeting which is a good time to do so as some key investors may be in town already.

Time of year, Location and Time of Day

The consensus on the best time to host an investor day was to avoid earnings season.  Investors typically cover more than one company so they will have more than company they are following reporting at the same time and will be busy putting out their reports.  Further, an investor day should be held when you have something new to share and if you just reported earnings, it is likely that you won’t have much more to say to them for the time being.

Once you decide when you are going to have your investor day, careful thought should be put into the location.  You should consider where the majority of your investors reside and have it in a location that is central and easily accessible.

In addition to location, the time is also crucial and it was determined that the best day to have an investor event is a Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday in the morning or lunch time, with breakfast or lunch served.  Although an interesting point was made in support of having the event on a Friday: there may be incentive for an investor to go (especially if it is out of town) as they could make a weekend out of the trip.

Company Participants

Hosting an investor day can give a company the opportunity to provide access to other members of the management team. For example, having senior managers talk about their division will help generate a better understanding of the business.  It can also help the managers get first exposure to the capital markets.  In general, think about your sector and who internally could help investors gain a better understanding of your business.

In addition to internal members of the company, consider a presentation by an industry expert such as an analyst or economist who can provide a macro perspective.

Preparation

Adequately preparing the team is essential particularly for those who have never or are not exposed to this audience that often.  So a conversation about Reg FD is critical.  Also doing a dry-run of the presentation and having a mock Q&A will help everyone get comfortable and trained in what can/cannot be said.

At this stage of planning, you should post the information on your website.  A great suggestion was made to have a dedicated landing page that will go live on the day of the event.  You should provide where the event is being held and also provide bios of who will be speaking – especially if you decide to have external guest speakers.

You can also broaden your audience by webcasting and recording the presentation. Applied Materials ($AMAT) was referenced as an example of a good investor day as they did a video webcast from New York.  So you should also let visitors know it will be webcast and that a presentation will be made available after the event is over.

You may also consider an interactive discussion whereby investors can call in and ask live questions.  So you will have to consult a webcast service provider to help with the logistics. Note: video webcasts can be costly, so if it’s not in your budget, bare minimum is to webcast and record.  There is great value in doing this, as you can post the links on your website, embed them on SlideShare, YouTube or Vimeo so they can be easily shared by others.

Once you get the website details set up, you should also determine what materials will be made available to participants.  Someone made the point that attendees are leaving their laptops at home and instead using their smartphones.  So if you are using powerpoint, having a printed color copy with three slides to a page with lines to make notes (handout version) will allow them to jot stuff done if they want.

Also more companies have adopted social media so if you use Twitter you should consider live-tweeting the event.  If you do live-tweet, send out a couple of tweets a few days before the event, announcing the details as well as the hashtag that you’ll be using.  Hashtags enable people to follow a conversation about a certain topic in real-time.  Their increased popularity on Twitter has also led to a number of services (like whatthehashtag) which compiles a particular hashtag feed and archives it, so anyone can read the transcript at a later time.

Showtime

You should arrive early the day of the event – you want to ensure that any equipment such as projectors, screen etc. have been set up.  You may also want to do a quick spin through of the presentation to ensure it loads correctly and test the webcast feed to minimize any potential technical difficulties during the event.

If you are live-tweeting the event, you should remind attendees of the hashtag and of your twitter handle or of the person doing the live-tweets.  You should also encourage questions to come over the channel and reiterate that they must include the designated hashtag to ensure it is seen and can be addressed. Lastly, you may also want to set up a separate screen with a laptop so everyone can see the tweetstreeam.

In order to prepare for follow up, it is a good idea to have a table where attendees can sign in.  Someone should be sitting there to greet the arrivals, direct them to sign in and collect business cards.

The IRO should be the host and do the welcome and introductions of the panel.  This helps the IRO gain some visibility as it is more than likely that they have never met any of these investors in person before.

During the introductions, the IRO should establish whether questions will be taken during or left until the end.  In my experience I have seen it done both ways, but IMO I think it is more effective left until the end especially if there are several speakers.

During the Q&A it is always a good idea to get people to use a microphone and have the panel repeat the questions as you want to ensure it can be heard over the webcast.

After the main Q&A is over, sometimes attendees linger around to ask management questions. This is a good opportunity for the IRO to get introduced and let them know they can be contacted directly for any follow up.  It is also good for the IRO to put their face to their name as it will make it easier to contact the investor in the future.

Also if a tough question is being asked of management, by being there, the IRO can ensure that nothing is being disclosed that shouldn’t be.  They can also make a note of the question as it may reveal an issue that should be addressed in the company’s messaging. It should also be noted if an investor wants a softcopy of the presentation sent to them or want a follow up meeting with management.

A Few Things to Ponder

There are a couple of ideas that were touched on during the discussion that I tried to weave into the categories, but I wanted to highlight them to gauge your feedback:

Giveaways

An example was given of a telephone company who offered participants at their investor day good deals on their products/services.   This could be a good way to enable investors to experience your business first hand. By doing so, they can intelligently provide feedback and ask informed questions.

Of note, this company is located in Europe so this may be an acceptable practice there.  I have been to investor days where companies have provided food samples etc.

What are your thoughts on giveaways? Is giving away a service like the phone company or a product acceptable?

Archive

How long should a company archive an investor day on their website? Three months?  Six months?  A year?  Further, if your company has more than one investor day during the year, should all of the archives be kept or should the first one be replaced with the most recent?

I look forward to your feedback!

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This may change in the future, as more investors begin to engage companies through Twitter. So in anticipation of this, there are some effective ways that companies can use hashtags to help get the attention of potential investors on Twitter.

Hashtags are essentially a simple way to catalogue and connect tweets about a specific topic. They make it easier for users to find additional tweets on a particular subject, while filtering out the incidental tweets that may just coincidentally contain the same keyword.

For example, hashtags can be used by companies to increase the discoverability of a certain message by affiliating keywords that are relevant to their business.  Such as New Gold who appends a lot of their tweets with #gold, #miners and #engineers:

Hashtags can also be used to contribute to a specific event, for example a company’s annual meeting, analyst day or to live-tweet their earnings call such as eBay. Using one hashtag that is clearly related to an event, such as a specific quarterly, like eBay does, helps increase the likelihood that people will discover that event:

Ebay also makes it easy for followers to find the tweets surrounding their earnings as they use a similar hashtag from one quarter to the next i.e.  eBayQ209 for the first quarter of 2009 and for their second quarter of this year: eBayQ210.  Using a consistent hashtag around a recurring event like an earnings call helps the company monitor the conversation and creates a public dialogue around the business.

Additionally, companies who use hashtags to live-tweet an earnings call allows other people on Twitter to ask questions by simply appending the same tag to their tweet. This way everyone who is following that hashtag will see the question.  This may help increase awareness for a company who live-tweets, as a person (who may not be following the company on Twitter at the moment), could happen to see a particular hashtag feed of someone they are following and become interested in the live-tweet stream (and subsequently begin following the company).

The increased popularity of hashtags on Twitter has also led to a number of services which allow people to easily follow conversations around hashtags, one such service is whatthehashtag which enables tweeters to do a search on trending hashtags.  The value of this service is enormous, as it compiles the feed and archives it, so anyone who was not able to follow along or participate in the “live” chat can read the transcript at their convenience.

No one can predict whether Twitter will become a forum where investors and companies engage in dialogue.  But companies can increase the chance that the company will be discovered by potential investors, particularly if they consistently use the same hashtag surrounding a recurring company event like a quarterly call or annual meeting or affiliate their tweets with keywords that are relevant to their business.

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We hope you enjoy it!

Register on the landing page and we’ll email you the full whitepaper right away.

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Download the latest Q4 Whitepaper on social media for public companies.

We’re thrilled to announce our latest report on the use of social media by public companies for investor relations.  If you’d like to get right to the report you can download it here.

Last year we released two research reports on Twitter for investor relations.  At that point, our sample of 350 companies told us that 35% were using Twitter for IR, in the current report you’ll see this adoption is now at 65%.

However, it’s not all about Twitter. So we expanded our research to include Facebook, LinkedIn, Blogs, YouTube and SlideShare.  Their respective adoption rates for IR came in at:

• 37% Facebook
• 29% YouTube
• 10% Corporate blog
• 10% SlideShare
• 93% LinkedIn

Social Media Used by Public Companies for IR

We included LinkedIn because company pages are created automatically and now anyone can “Follow” any company.

What impresses me the most about the state of the market is just how many companies are using social media . We’ve included hundreds of examples in this report and we’ve literally just scratched the surface.

The complete report is 96 pages and has tons of stats, charts and web links.

Register on the landing page and we’ll email you the whitepaper right away.

We hope you enjoy it.

Let us know what you think in the comments below! Is social media for IR reaching a tipping point?

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It is quite long but gives some great insights into lessons learned from increased adoption of social networking.  The presentation is grouped into the following six ideas:

1. The shift from the web to the social web.
2. The real life social network. How people are connected offline, and what that behavior means for their behavior online.
3. Relationships. We all have very different relationships with the people in our life and designing for them is very different.
4. Influence. How people influence each other, and how that is driven by the structure of our social network.
5. Identity. Why identity is a cornerstone of the web.
6. Privacy. Why it’s critical to give people control over their data.

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Instead we are seeing quite a few companies who have one company blog where marketing, product or research staff comment on new products and provide their viewpoint on industry developments and some IR-related material, such as a significant milestone or event that has happened in the company. Specifically, companies are providing insight and commentary on peer/sector related news such as scientific publications that impact or pertain to the company’s work, a discussion of project developments (oftentimes with an accompanying presentation or graphics to help tell the story), and material company news such as a merger or financing.

We also have a few examples of technology companies that have several blogs, with each dedicated to a specific department.  For example a Marketing blog that is geared towards customers and partners and a R&D blog that is populated by engineers and “techies” who build and test products.

Technology companies also seem to have a higher number of CEO dedicated blogs, but we are seeing a few consumer goods and natural resource companies who also have a blog where their CEO comments on company/industry news.

Here are a few examples (all of the screenshots below link to the blog being discussed):

Accelyrs Software

Accelyrs’ blog is geared towards customers with contributions by product managers, developers and research staff. However, in spite of being mainly used to discuss product and industry information, the company did post the details of their recent merger with Symyx Technologies.

The post was written by the “Accelrys Team” which is made up of the contributors I previously outlined and consisted of a brief overview of the merger (which was not simply verbatim from the press release), although they did provide a link to the full press release that explains more about the merger.

The company obviously felt the merger was important enough as they highlighted the event on the blog.  I’d also like to point out that the company created a new area in their Accelrys Online Community called The Headquarters , with a link to a Customer FAQ sheet to answer specific questions about the merger as shown below:

Having a dedicated area like “The Headquarters” related to a specific company event like a merger is a proactive way to engage and gather feedback and concerns that customers, partners and employees of Accelrys and Symx may have.  Hosting their comments in an open forum also helps everyone to be a part of the conversation to share and gain knowledge.

Axion International

Axion designs, develops and manufactures eco-friendly structural building materials.  As a result they provide links to industry relevant publications such as “GreenTechMedia” – an online magazine that keeps tabs on “Green” companies such as Axion.  Additionally, their co-founder and CEO Marc Green also has quite a few posts whereby he gives insight into articles he deems interesting and of course relevant to Axiom’s core business.

Of interest, in January of this year, they extended their blog onto Seeking Alpha:

Being on Seeking Alpha is a good tactic to drive people to their blog as it helps increase awareness about the company and reaches more audiences.

China Wind Power

In January 2010, China Wind Power launched their IR Blog.  For a small–cap Canadian company, China Wind does a great job of keeping their stakeholders apprised of their business strategy and company developments.

For example, the image below provides an overview of one of their development projects:

Which as we have said many times, companies should maximize their opportunities to provide context about the company whenever they can – as providing information around all areas of the business helps investors to gather comprehensive, credible information to piece together a complete picture of the company.

Emulex

Emulex has four blogs that cover off all aspects of their business including marketing, R&D and the technology industry in general.  For our purposes, I am going to highlight the last one – their “CEO Blog” which is authored by Jim McCluney, the company’s president and ceo.  McCluney uses the blog to convey his expertise of the company’s business through detailed commentary on company news:

Having the CEO give his two cents on company developments such as a partnership or merger is advantageous for both the company and shareholders.  The CEO is able to provide more color on why an event is beneficial to the company and shareholders are gaining valuable insight directly from the CEO.

Rackspace

Rackspace has a corporate blog that covers a diverse range of topics including corporate strategy, company news and industry events.  They also do a great job of incorporating investor centric information.  For example, a few recent posts pertained to an overview of a strategic partnership, with another covering an analyst day at the NYSE.

They have also posted a video whereby Patrick Walravens, on-demand and enterprise software analyst at JMP Securities (who covers the company) interviewed Lew Moorman, President, Cloud and Chief Strategy Officer (n.b. Patrick still covers the company).

In my experience, I haven’t seen a lot of companies with video footage of an analyst who is interviewing a key member of management.  In my opinion, I think this is a good idea as it gives investors (particularly retail) exposure (albeit it virtual) to the sell-side which is rare.

As mentioned, technology companies are leading the way in their use of IR blogs – particularly through a CEO dedicated blog. However, I am going to end the post by providing a snapshot of Whole Foods who also have a CEO Blog, authored by John Mackey.

The archives for the CEO blog date back to September 2005 and has covered a lot of investor relevant issues such as social responsibility and compensation. I particularly liked the way that he addressed some management changes within the company that has him sharing the title of Co-CEO:

John’s posts are written in a very conversational way and as he posts so often, he seems dedicated to keeping shareholders informed and up-to-date on the company’s strategy and direction.

Not surprisingly, few companies are using blogs strictly dedicated for IR.  Instead, of the examples we have provided here, the companies have chosen to incorporate certain IR-related events such as a merger or partnership amongst other posts from the Marketing or R&D departments.

Technology companies are leading the way, but we are seeing a few consumer goods and natural resource companies who also incorporate IR-related material into their blog.  We’ll provide more commentary and insight into how companies are using blogs as we continue to compile our research findings .

Related posts:

1. Trends and Best Practices in Online Communications and Social Media in Corporate IR Earlier this month, Dave Hogan, presented his paper “Reaching Shareholders...
2. GE uses corporate blog to disclose information to investors General Electric, parent of NBC Universal, has gained attention in...
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To kick things off I thought we’d take a quick look at how companies are promoting their social media channels on their corporate website.

We are only just beginning to scratch the surface on our new research, but are seeing an increase in the number of companies who are providing links to all of the social networks they have adopted as part of their broader communications strategy via a “Stay Connected”, “Connect With Us”, or “Follow Us” approach.

We are also seeing some companies who have a dedicated social media tab on the main navigation of their corporate homepage.  The social media tab links to a comprehensive listing of all of the social networks with details about the kind of information that can be found on each network.

The companies who have chosen to post the social networks they use on their website come from various sectors but technology leads the way, followed by services, pharma/healthcare/biotech and consumer goods.

What follows are some examples of those companies who we feel are innovators in this category and should be highlighted:

DEDICATED SOCIAL MEDIA PAGE

Ford Motor Company

Ford has a “Ford Social Networks” link on the main navigation which is carried throughout all of the pages on the website. When users click on the link, it has a sub-navigation of all the social networks and what can be found on those particular networks. The company also has a right hand navigation that is also carried throughout all of the pages on the website and includes a link to their Twitter account with the most recent tweets, as well as links to their YouTube and Flickr accounts that each have thumbnails of recent videos and pictures respectively.

Henkel

Henkel has a section on the right-hand navigation entitled “Henkel & Social Media”. Once users click on “Henkel & Social Media”, they are taken to a robust social media section.  Like Ford, Henkel’s social media section has a sub-navigation that lists all of the social networks and what can be found on each.

CONNECT WITH US

Alaska Airlines

Alaska Airlines has a “Connect With Us” link prominently displayed on the “About Company” homepage.  They also have a dedicated “Social Media” tab on the left-hand navigation.  Upon clicking on either of these tabs, users are taken to a listing of all of the social networks with a link and a description of what can be found on each channel.

I’d also like to point out an interesting feature they have called “flyer talk” which is a forum where customers can exchange ideas and interact with employees.  Users can also login to Flyertalk using their Facebook account.  I tried this and there doesn’t seem to be a flyertalk forum on there, but the company does a great job of interacting with people on Facebook as well as using it to post videos and other company information.

FOLLOW US / STAY CONNECTED

We are also seeing some companies that have a “Follow Us on the Web” or “Stay Connected” feature.  For example, Monsanto provides a listing of all the social media links on their homepage only in a featured area “Follow Us on the Web”.

Agnico-Eagle has a “Follow Us” feature that appears on the top of every page – and once users click on this they are taken to a page with various ways to  “follow” the company such as email alerts, RSS feeds, Facebook, Twitter and Vimeo (disclosure Agnico-Eagle is a Q4 client).

While Monsanto and Agnico-Eagle do not have a dedicated social media page on their respective websites, these companies recognize the importance of letting users know of the other places they can interact with the company as well as putting this information on the website where it can be easily found.

We are still in the early stages of analyzing the data and will share more as we uncover the trends.  To state the obvious, we strongly recommend that if your company is using social media, that you let your constituents know by adding a “Connect with Us” or “Follow us” area on your corporate website.  Otherwise you are depriving them of the opportunity to engage with your company as well as limiting your company’s chance to interact with current and potential shareholders on their chosen medium.

Related posts:

1. Trends and Best Practices in Online Communications and Social Media in Corporate IR Earlier this month, Dave Hogan, presented his paper “Reaching Shareholders...
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