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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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.

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Over the last couple of years we’ve been successful in working with our clients to create a customized approach that drives IR website traffic, expands content distribution and increase investor engagement. Over this time the Q4 platform has evolved and now can provide a true competitive advantage to public companies by expanding their reach, attracting investors and building better relationships.

These new features provide even greater capability for our clients to benefit from the web and the integration of social media into their investor relations efforts AND with the rise of web disclosure coming, our platform provides all of the tools required to be successful in the new world of online investor relations.

The list of upgrades is below, you can also check out our new website at http://www.q4websystems.com to learn more.

We hope you like them!

Darrell Heaps

UPGRADES NOW AVAILABLE

Simultaneous Web Publishing
Direct integration with Twitter,  Facebook and Bit.ly APIs allows for real-time simultaneous publishing to both of these platforms along with email alerts and RSS feeds. Real-time simultaneous web publishing alleviates compliance issues relating to selective disclosure so information can be accessed on all channels at the same time. Using RSS feeds to publish your content to Twitter and Facebook can result in various delays due to how RSS works and the reliance on third party services.

Real-time integration of social media content
Q4’s social media integration enhances client websites by automatically including content from YouTube, Vimeo, Slideshare and Flickr. Once content is published to any of the aforementioned sites, it is automatically pulled into your website and organized by tags.

Real-time Alert Filters
As press releases, presentations, events or reports are published through Q4, real-time alert filters read the content and distribute it automatically to email, Twitter and Facebook. For example, press releases can now be searched as they cross the wire in real-time and depending on the content, be sent to different email lists, your Twitter account and company Facebook page.

Tagging
Tags are like keywords that you can add to any content to make it easier to find later.  For example, during earnings as you add content such as events, presentations and reports you include a tag associated with that event such as Q110. This will then auto assemble the content into a Q1 earnings page, and any content you add to the site with the Q110 tag will automatically be added to this page.  Similarly, you can tag content with “Briefcase” and it will be automatically added to an investor briefcase page on the site. Tagging your content allows pages and lists throughout the site to be easily generated at any time.

Social Media Optimization
Using our software along with the web’s most popular social networks and communities we work with our clients to create a customized social media strategy.  We also provide ongoing support on the execution, ongoing management and monitoring of social channels. Working with our clients we have been able to drive IR website traffic, expand content distribution and increase investor engagement.

Approve Press Release via Email
As a press release crosses the wire, an email alert will be sent to specified individuals within your company for approval.  Once they view the title and confirm the release is correct they click on a link in the email which automatically sends it out to your email subscribers. This feature gives you an improved balance of automation and control over your content.

SEC filings
All of your SEC filings are now available in various formats such as Word, Excel, PDF, HTML, XBRL.  This allows current or potential shareholders the ability to download and analyze the information in their preferred format.

Online event Reminders
Visitors to your IR website can now easily subscribe to event reminders and also click to add to their outlook calendar with one click (iCal).

Interactive Analyst Center
Five years of financial information updated automatically from filings, plus ratios, customizable, interactive charts and company/industry specific Operational Drivers – all accessed from your IR website.

If you’re interested in learning more contact us today and we’ll setup a live product demo.

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Last year Slideshare launched a new category called ‘Investor Relations’.  Since the launch, public companies began posting a wide range of investor focused presentations, including quarterly reports, analyst presentations and operational updates.

Many of our clients publish their investor slides on SlideShare and embed them on their websites.  The benefit for these companies has been two fold, the first being roughly a 10X increase in the amount of views on these presentations vs. simply posting a PDF to their website.   Secondly, bloggers embed these presentations into their posts, which has helped our clients influence the downstream publishing of their news.

A very interesting trend has emerged with companies using Slideshare to announce acquisitions.  Most recently, HP’s acquisition of Palm and Symantec’s PGP and GuardianEdge.  In each of these examples the slides have been shared many times from the Slideshare site and embedded on numerous blogs.  Symantic tweeted about their acquisition slides on April 29th and currently has over 1200 views and has been embedded on three sites. Similarly, HP tweeted about their slides on April 28th and the presentation now has over 9000 views and has been embedded on 28 sites.

When a public company announces an acquisition it’s critical to provide context as to why the deal is a positive one. In both the HP and Symantec examples they have done a very good job at using Slideshare to support their other efforts.

In each case, they include a disclaimer slide at the beginning (compliance requirement) and then go into detail explaining the virtues of the deal using a combination of text slides and visual explanations of the benefits of the acquisition.

As we can see by the views and the number of embeds, HP and Symantec have provided a useful asset to journalists and bloggers to include the presentation in their posts, which in turn is read by investors.  A couple examples:

http://mashable.com/2010/04/28/hp-palm-analysis-webos/
http://www.palminfocenter.com/news/10037/hp-a-transformational-deal-for-the-mobile-market/
http://www.securityweek.com/content/symantec-acquire-pgp-corporation-and-guardianedge

HP and Symantec are just two of the most recent companies that understand that packaging their announcements in a visual and sharable format (like Slideshare) is an important method in helping shape market and investor perceptions.

I’m sure we’re going to see more of this in the near future.

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Google intends to make future announcements regarding its financial performance exclusively through its investor relations website.

Google is able to do this based on the SEC guidance from Aug 2008 regarding the use of websites for disclosure. This guidance states that under certain circumstances, companies can rely on their websites and blogs to meet public disclosure requirements under Reg FD.

As we all remember all too well, shortly after this regulatory change the market collapsed and this new channel quickly faded into the background, while most companies fought to survive the worst recession many of us have ever seen.

However, with 2009 behind us and the recovery underway, the first quarter of 2010 has seen the most activity on the web disclosure front yet, with a number of companies testing out new tactics. Let’s take a look at some examples.

BGC Partners (Nasdaq: BGCP)

BGC Partners, Inc. (BGCP 6.51, 0.00, 0.00%) , a leading global intermediary to the wholesale financial markets, today announced that it plans to issue an advisory release after the close of market on Wednesday, May 5, 2010, notifying the public that a complete and full-text financial results press release has become accessible at the “Investor Relations” section of http://www.bgcpartners.com.

Expedia (Nasdaq:EXPE)

Expedia, Inc. (Nasdaq: EXPE) today announced fourth quarter and full year 2009 results through a press release that is available now at http://www.expediainc.com/ir.

From Q4 Earnings Call – Seeking Alpha Transcript “You may also have noticed we have changed the way we are distributing our earnings release. Rather than put the release out over the newswire, we are pointing people to our IR site where they can pull down the PDF version. You should expect us to continue this practice going forward.”

Google (Nasdaq:GOOG)

MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA–(Marketwire – April 15, 2010) -   Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) has released its first quarter 2010 financial results. Please visit Google’s investor relations website at http://investor.google.com to view the earnings release. Google intends to make future announcements regarding its financial performance exclusively through its investor relations website.

Marathon Oil (NYSE: MRO)

HOUSTON, April 6, 2010 – Marathon Oil Corporation (NYSE: MRO) announced that the Company will begin issuing advisory news releases notifying investors and other interested parties when new and material information is available on its website, in compliance with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s guidance regarding “notice-and-access” news releases. With this change the issuance of full-text financial news releases via a wire service will be discontinued.

Reis (Nasdaq: REIS)

Reis, Inc. (Nasdaq:REIS), a leading provider of commercial real estate market information and analytical tools, announced that it plans to issue an advisory release before the opening of The Nasdaq Stock Market on Monday, March 15, 2010, notifying the public that a complete and full-text financial results press release has become accessible at the Investor Relations portion of Reis’s website (http://www.reis.com).

Tellabs (Nasdaq: TLAB)

NAPERVILLE, Ill., Jan. 26 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — Tellabs is announcing its fourth-quarter and year-end 2009 results and new quarterly dividend. A complete version of the news release is available at http://www.tellabs.com/news/2010/4q09.pdf.

We are certainly still in the early stages of web disclosure, however it is interesting to note that only Google has announced the intention to use its website exclusively and to no longer use advisory releases (aka “notice and access” press releases) . For the rest, each has moved to a shorter release with a link to their IR website for the details.

As expected we have heard from both sides of this debate, pro web disclosure and pro wire disclosure. Here are two of the popular posts:

Google moves to web disclosure for Reg. FD
http://www.irwebreport.com/daily/2010/04/16/google-moves-to-web-disclosure-for-reg-fd/

Is Google’s Latest Move Evil?
http://www.fool.com/investing/high-growth/2010/04/19/is-googles-latest-move-evil.aspx

In addition to the above posts I’ve been a part of two great discussions on the topic on LinkedIn. Both in the NIRI group (you have to be a member of NIRI to view) and also in the IR 2.0 group.  Each provides a good balance of opinion on the pros and cons of web disclosure.

In general, I think that only large companies with a significant following are a good fit for web disclosure. Companies like Google and other well known brands, have the ability to use their websites as a recognized channel of disclosure and can instruct the market to use their site and all available alert options (email, RSS, social) to keep abreast of news.

For most companies, either continuing to use a full-text press release alongside with posting it on their website or using an advisory/notice and access release are the two remaining options.

I am not against using press releases. In fact here at Q4, we use press releases when announcing big news.  I can easily say it is not a silver bullet, but used in conjunction with web and social channels, press releases can help increase awareness about your company.

Having said that, I think that the hybrid approach of continuing to use the wire to publish advisory releases that link to the IR website for detail(s) is where the market is headed.  The examples previously mentioned are an early indication that this approach may be the one most widely adopted going forward.

Using advisory releases gives companies the additional reach that a newswire can offer, while keeping costs down, and directing investors to the website for the details.  Linking to the website provides many search engine benefits for the company and gives them an opportunity to build direct relationships through subscription options like email, RSS and social channels.

It’s important to note, if you are going to direct investors to your site, you need to make sure it is ready for them.  IR website best practices, enterprise level hosting and accessibility + mobile access are all important areas to focus on to ensure that you can leverage the increased traffic to your site.

The benefits of using your IR website in this matter include:

• Improved disclosure & transparency – linking to your website allows you to share Excel files and formatted documents, which give investors more context and downloadable assets than reading the news on a third-party website.
• Improved efficiency –  putting the full-text release on the website allows you to manage only one version of the release and related financial tables , no longer will you have to juggle multiple versions with the newswire
• Increased investor traffic – linking to your website as a recognized disclosure channel will increase the number of investors to your website and allow you to provide more context  around your business
• Increased direct subscriptions and followers - with more investors visiting the website, there is an increased opportunity for them to register for email alerts, RSS and social updates –allowing you to build relationships directly.
• Reduced costs over time – moving to advisory releases reduces costs simply because these releases are shorter and commercial wires charge by the word.

We’re going to keep track of this trend and will report back in Q2.  If you know of other companies using these tactics, please include in the comments or share with us on Twitter or LinkedIn.

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The founders of Agoracom are set to appear in front of the OSC at the end of April, where we assume we will all hear more details of the allegations and the defense of Agoracom. I, like many others, await more details before passing judgment on what really happened and to what degree fraud was committed (if at all).

In light of this recent situation, I wanted to take this opportunity to talk about the problems with message boards and the importance of transparency and trust and being successful online.

Similar to Yahoo!Finance message boards, Agoracom uses alias for all members. As you can see from the screenshot below, there no real names listed and there is no further information available on the site on who these people are.

The BIG problem here is the complete lack of transparency. Who are these people? What are their backgrounds, their day jobs, etc? In their current format message boards like this can’t be trusted if anyone can create an alias and “pretend” to be an investor.

The reason why social media works, is because of the trust that is built up over time between real people. This would never work if everyone used an alias and you didn’t know who they were. The best practice across all social media channels is to use your full name in your profile and/or links to further details about yourself.

What would Facebook be like if everyone used an alias? It only works because it’s real people connecting with real people. A great example of this can be seen in some of the Facebook pages used by companies to connect with investors. See TVI’s Facebook page (disclosure: TVI is a Q4 client)

Seeking Alpha is a great example of transparency, a part of their success has come from how transparent the community is, people connecting with people.

On Twitter there are many users that have an alias for the account name, however most people provide their real name within their profile. There are certainly many automated accounts and many fake accounts, however the people with the most influence and benefit to the company are those that are real people being transparent. I know in my own work with social media, being transparent and authentic is absolutely critical to connecting with people online and building trust.

Sure there are Twitter accounts today that are based on aliases and stock promoters are using them to create “fake awareness”. I hope the actions from the OSC sets a precedence that other regulators can use as an example to control this type of fraud.

Social media is about connecting real people. This is true across every line of business using social media, including marketing, public relations and investor relations. Transparency and trust are required to be successful.

I don’t think that these allegations apply to any PR or IR firm tweeting on behalf of a client, as tweeting for a client is very different than pretending to be an investor:

• When posting for a client it is being done under the company account and is being used to assist in the distribution of content and to build a following through engagement with stakeholders. There is nothing underhanded in this approach and this is within regulations and ethics.

• If an IR firm creates an alias account and then pretends to be an investor engaging in discussions with the company and other investors then this is simply lying and is not ethical in any way. Perhaps a case can be made that this is not securities fraud, but it certainly is business fraud and should not be tolerated by companies, regulators or investors.

On a related note, in 2007 Whole Foods’ CEO John Mackey was caught posting messages on Yahoo! Under the name “rahodeb”:

Investigations were launched by the FTC (to block an acquisition) and by the SEC. Ultimately both agencies did not pursue the issue and Mr. Mackey got off. In his own defense Mackey said that he had the right to post under an alias because everyone else did on the message board. Mackey also said that he thought the posts of one man under an alias would never be able to move to the stock and that this was not his intention. However, with posts such as this one posted in Jan 2005, it’s hard to believe his intentions were ethical:

“13 years from now Whole Foods will be an $800+ stock before splits”
John Mackay, CEO of Whole Foods posting as “Rahodeb”.

There are other stories about the CEO of overstock.com using aliases on message boards to spread misinformation, attack his critics and even leak information.

Neither the CEO of Whole Foods or Overstock.com was charged by the SEC for these types of postings. However, it seems the SEC wasn’t doing much enforcement during this period (too many stories to mention here) and I have to wonder if these events happened today would the current SEC react in the same way? Their recent increased judgments related to Reg FD seem to suggest they would react differently.

If the OSC needs to set the precedent that companies and by extension IR agencies can’t create fake investor accounts, then I think this is good for all companies and investors.

As I said early in this post, we’ll all know much more about Agoracom and OSC at the end of this month. Until then I reiterate, I am waiting to get all the details before passing judgment.

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During the session participants were provided with an interactive demonstration of how social media is helping other public companies mitigate share value erosion, dramatically increase their website traffic and broaden their reach to potential investors.  As part of his guided tour he also revealed:

• Which social networks are being adopted by companies for IR first and why.
• How these companies are using social networks and deriving value from them.
• Tips to enhance engagement and streamline quarterly reporting.

Darrell’s presentation was loaded with over 50 examples and case studies of how public companies are using social networks like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIN and blogs to enhance their IR program.

If you’re thinking about if, when and how to integrate social media with your investor relations program, you should watch the video version of the presentation.

I’ll also be providing an overview of the session with lots of links in an upcoming blog post…stay tuned!

Sheryl

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Register now if you would like to learn:

1. Which social networks are being adopted by your peers for IR first and why.
2. How these companies are using social networks and deriving value from them.
3. Tips to enhance engagement and streamline quarterly reporting.

Register today for this free webinar and learn how social media is helping other public companies mitigate share value erosion, dramatically increase website traffic and broaden their reach to potential investors.

If you have any questions that you’d like us to address please leave a comment below and we’ll be sure to answer during the webinar.

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IR Website Best Practices

Last week, Catherine Crofton, Q4’s VP, Sales & Marketing hosted a second webinar on IR Website Best Practices.  Interest was high as we had another great turnout with people from around the globe in attendance. I also tweeted the event so if you were unable to join us, you can do a search on Twitter #Q4BP for a feed of the conversation.

This presentation was a follow up to a webinar Catherine conducted on this topic in April of last year in which she discussed five common barriers that block potential investors from understanding a company’s investment story.  Click here to view last year’s presentation and listen to the audio. 

This time, her presentation focused on how to build investor confidence through effective online communications.  In particular she outlined some critical improvements to consider making to the IR website in 2010 including:

1. Providing immediate entry points to all users
2. Providing a company snapshot (industry)
3. Detailing the market opportunity  
4. Communicating a clear strategy
5. Emphasizing why leadership is suited to execute strategy
6. Summarizing ‘Why Invest?’ proposition
7. Using technology to engage & increase accessibility
8. Broadening reach, increasing accessibility & engagement and protecting shareholder value via social media

The presentation included a lot of great case stories and examples of companies using best practices with practical advice on applying them to your own IR website.

Here are some of the highlights:

1. PROVIDING IMMEDIATE ENTRY POINTS TO ALL USERS

• Information on your IR website should be geared to current, potential and long-term investors.  All of these audiences has a different reason for visiting your website.  A good site needs to show users where they are, where they want to go and how to make their way back.  It should also bring key content forward so users are presented with the next logical step in their navigation of your site.  One place this can be addressed is the Index page. 
• Danske Bank has a good investor index page where they present the most frequently sought information, lots of quick links and even asks the question, “Are you a new investor?”. 

2. PROVIDING A COMPANY SNAPSHOT

• Including a top level view of your company will help provide context for your company’s investment proposition.  At the very least, the investor section should have a company page or section that begins with At-A-Glance information.  The type of information offered in At-A-Glance varies by company.
• For example, Bell provides an overview of the company, business units and customer breakdown.  They also breakout their revenue by segment and product and link to additional information in their company section.
• The At-A-Glance section should also be supported by a downloadable fact sheet.  BASF has a great fact sheet that is updated on a quarterly basis.

3. DETAILING THE MARKET OPPORTUNITY

• Companies should put a lot of time and effort in presenting the case for market demand of their product or service and why they are uniquely positioned to capitalize on the opportunity. 
• Potash does a great job of providing in-depth information on all aspects of their business including global trends and statistics so an investor can piece this information together to make an informed investment decision.

4. COMMUNICATING A CLEAR STRATEGY

• The economic meltdown has made communicating a clear strategy that supports corporate objectives more important now than ever.  Investors need to know that your company is moving into a purposeful direction to increase growth and profitability.
• There are several good examples of companies who clearly outline their strategy like Credit Suisse who discusses their strategy for moving forward and gives investors an understanding of how this same strategy helped to lessen their exposure in the recent financial crisis.
• Shell is another good example. They provide updates on their strategy, which indicates that they are continuously monitoring and evaluating their approach within the context of market conditions and adjusting or fine-tuning as required.

5. EMPHASIZING WHY LEADERSHIP IS SUITED TO EXECUTE STRATEGY 

• It is important to convey that the key players in a company are connected to the strategy.  In particular, that they were chosen for specific knowledge and skills that make them ideally suited to execute the corporate strategy. 
• For example, Nexen has an award-winning Corporate Governance section that provides detailed biographies of their Board and highlights specific areas of expertise.  This information is then connected to a matrix that describes how the Board’s combined expertise helps execute the company’s strategy, while ensuring appropriate oversight.

6. SUMMARIZING “WHY INVEST” PROPOSITION

• A lot of issuers miss the opportunity to communicate why a person should invest in their company.  There are several ways this can be resolved….through a robust homepage that integrates investor content such as providing pull downs to provide immediate access to key content; “What’s New” – which features anything recently added to the site such as quarterly earnings results and conference call archive and upcoming events such as annual meeting; and an IR index page that has a section entitled “Why Invest”. 
• We have found several companies who have a “Why Invest” page or section on their site including Agnico-Eagle which includes a video; Aura Minerals; and Aviva. 

7. USING TECHNOLOGY TO ENGAGE & INCREASE ACCESSIBILITY 

• Technology can help to effectively aid communication and engage users.  A few examples of some innovative things that companies are doing:
 o Strategic use of flash to convey important messaging.  For example, on the Potash homepage, three messages cycle through and link to associated content. 
 o Customize IR Index page – For example, ENI offers the ability to customize the investor index page by using a tool to move modules around on the page.  
 o Design your own info. page – Aviva offers this feature and have made it very user-friendly; you just check off the items you want on your page or choose a profile from a pull down menu that offers a preconfigured set of information. 
 o Sorting & Filtering – We are seeing a much greater use of tools that allow users to sort, filter and search information by date, topic and speaker such as News, Events and Webcasts. For example, Adidas lets users search their Events by topic, month and year. 

8. BROADENING REACH, INCREASING ACCESSIBILITY & ENGAGEMENT & PROTECTING SHAREHOLDER VALUE VIA SOCIAL MEDIA

• We are seeing an increase in the number of issuers integrating social media with their website.  For example, Embraer offers a dedicated IR 2.0 page accessible through a panel that’s universal to their investor section.  
• Verizon is another example and they break down their social media channels by business units and information types including corporate and investor relations. 
• Small cap social media ROI case study: TVI Pacific:
 o Initial objective to use social media (with other tactics) to help increase company awareness and engage stakeholders. 
 o Initial strategy began with a website redesign with prominence to social media through a “Connect Us” section. 
 o I recently interviewed Rhonda Bennetto, TVI’s Executive Director Investor Communications on some preliminary findings of integrating social media into their broader communications strategy.  Click here to read the interview.

Today’s challenging economic environment has made building investor confidence a top priority for companies.  The IR website still remains a leading source for the investment community to verify and gather company information.  There are several things to consider for your IR website.

•   First, it is essential that you consider your key audiences and provide entry points for potential, current and long-term investors. 
• Second, if you want me to have confidence in your company as an investor, I need a company snapshot in order to understand your industry and your position within that industry.
• Third, the market opportunity (supported by reliable statistical information), must also be conveyed.
• Fourth, I need to know that your company has defined its objectives for growth and that you have a clear strategy to execute on these objectives. I need to know that you evaluate this strategy on an ongoing basis to keep pace with market conditions.
• Fifth, I need to know that your people are connected to your strategy and that they were chosen for specific knowledge and skills that make them ideally suited to execute the corporate strategy.
• Sixth, add to this a robust “Why Invest” section that shows stable growth as indicated in your financials and when results are lower than expected, I need a sound explanation and to see that there’s a clear strategy to address this moving forward.
• Finally, using technology that is suited to your business needs as well as integrating additional tools such as social networks will increase your audience reach, empower people to engage with your company and give them a better understanding of your investment proposition. 

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