Short and long-term goals and objectives can include identifying investors who are interested in your sector and/or known to have invested in your peers to meet with over the course of the year. (Although making sure you also meet with your current investors should also be a priority).

Okay, so you (the IRO) have your targeted list of investors, now what? What follows are some thoughts to help you and your management team make the most out of the one-on-one meeting.  I’d like to thank Rivel Research Group as these ideas are derived from their best practice reports based on topics of interest from members of the Rivel Intelligence Council (comprised of senior level investor communications executives) and assessed by buy-side investment professionals in both the US and Europe.

Adequately preparing the management team is essential. It may seem obvious, but having a discussion about Reg FD is important – as this meeting should not be used to divulge new information.

Another effective way to prepare management is compiling a list of questions and conducting a mock Q&A. As the IRO, you should work with management to come up with a list. It can also be useful to go through transcripts from previous events such as an earnings call to ensure a good sampling.

Be sure to include tough questions and how you will handle them if asked.  It is important that management not get defensive if asked difficult questions and be conscious of not sounding too rehearsed. As a one-on-one may do more harm than good if management comes across as overconfident, hard selling or as setting overly aggressive goals.

You should also take into consideration who you are meeting with and tailor the information accordingly.  For example, if this is a new investor, you may want to give a bit more detail around certain areas than you would for someone you have met with before. That said, don’t get caught up in too many details – stay focused on high-level details such as the ‘how’ behind the strategy.

Insight and transparency into growth drivers and key business goals are preferred over a regurgitation of previously disclosed information shared via press releases and on earnings calls.

A decision should also be made as to whether using a powerpoint presentation to supplement the discussion will be useful.  If you do decide to use a presentation, make sure the slides have minimal text and instead whenever possible, use visuals. Doing so, will help alleviate the temptation to read directly from the slides.

If it’s possible, having an Internet connection will allow management to access the company’s website to show a video or other asset that is housed on there on the fly.

Bear in mind, that whatever additional materials you choose, that they are helpful and relevant to the discussion. Also have a few printed copies and/or a softcopy on a usb key to leave behind – just in case.

Lastly, if there is anything that comes out of the discussion that needs to be followed up on, do so.  For example, providing supplemental material to help address an unanswered question. It also doesn’t hurt to send a follow up note to thank them for the meeting.

The buy-side values one-on-one meetings as it gives them the opportunity to have direct interaction with senior management.  Companies can maximize this experience by considering some of the ideas presented above.

Related posts:

1. New Rivel Research: Buy-side Perspectives on Best Practice IR Websites Rivel Research is well-known for their ability to gather, analyze...
2. Rivel Research: Transparency Key Factor in Buy-side Definition of Superb IR Earlier this year, I wrote a blog post that recounted...
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Every year, we, at Q4 look forward to networking and the amazing show put on by @irmagazine.

We’d like to take this opportunity to congratulate our clients who have been nominated:

Grand prix for best overall investor relations – large cap (C$10 bn and over)

Goldcorp

Best investor relations officer – large cap

Goldcorp

Best IR by a CEO – large-cap

Goldcorp

Best IR by a CEO – mid-cap

Intact Financial

Best financial reporting

Goldcorp

Best investment community meetings

Goldcorp

Best use of technology

Agnico-Eagle

Best Practice of corporate social responsibility

Barrick Gold

Best Crisis Management

Agnico-Eagle

Best IR by a Canadian company in the US Market

First Quantum Minerals

SECTOR AWARDS

Materials
Agnico-Eagle
Barrick Gold
Goldcorp

Real Estate
Riocan

Congratulations and good luck!

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All of the aforementioned are important considerations. A recent article I read posed 6 questions for companies to think about before getting into social media: http://smallbiztrends.com/2012/01/social-media-ready.html.

The article was not necessarily public company specific, but I thought the ideas presented would be valuable to share with IROs. That said, I’m going to reiterate the ideas the author presents as I feel it applies to IR. As well as some further thoughts to ponder from an IR standpoint. Please note all of the text in bold is verbatim.

1. Do you have a clear reason for being in social media? Before you spend time in social media, ask yourself:

• What are you hoping to get from your participation?
• What business goals do you want to achieve through social media?

It is not uncommon for marketing or advertising departments to start using social media first. If another department is using social media, ask them what their experience has been and dovetail off of the objectives and goals they have put in place to formulate IR-specific ones.

2. Do you have any reasons for not using social media to improve communications with your shareholder base and improve awareness for your company? (as recommended by one of our many good friends and IR pros @TrevorHeisler).

I think this is a good addition to the checklist.  As it will foster a balanced conversation and help bring issues to the surface. This would be a good thing to discuss with management and legal to table everyone’s opinions and openly address all concerns.

3. Do you know which social media sites are for you? For your specific purpose?

Again, if another department in your company is using social media, have a discussion with them. You may very well find out that just because your marketing department has had success with a particular channel, doesn’t mean it’s the right channel to share investor-related information.

You should also check out whether your peers are using social media, paying particular attention to their preferred channels and the information they are sharing on these channels. It is also important to see if the company is engaging with their followers/friends as it will help you get a sense of the kind of conversations (if any) that are taking place.

The author goes on to advise to ‘check your analytics to see which social media sites are already sending you traffic.’ Monitoring is an important aspect of a successful communications plan. So if you aren’t listening to what is being said about your company, you should be. Of course if you (or another department) are already monitoring discussions about your company, you should make sure that the online ones are included.

4. Do you have resources to continue the investment? Social media is an ongoing process. If you’re not going to stick with it, don’t waste time starting it.

Once you decide to sign up for a particular channel – there is no ‘set it and forget’ aspect, so make sure you have an internal discussion of who is going to be the key content person. (It’s also important to have another person trained on using the channel, in the event the main person is unable to do so.)

In addition to populating the channel, the key content person would also be in charge of monitoring the channel and answering any questions. Regular monitoring will also help the company correct any misinformation being shared.

5. Have you carved out a social pipeline? What are you going to do with the information gleaned from social media? If someone approaches you about a customer service issue or makes a recommendation for a new product or feature, do you have a process for how you’ll quickly get that information to the right person on your team so it can be used? Before you enter social media, create that workflow or pipeline for how you’ll disseminate social media information internally. It will help ensure that you’re getting the most value possible from your social media investment.

When it comes to IR, you need to be aptly prepared to deal with questions. If another department in your company uses social media, then it is wise to have a procedure in place where any investor-related questions get re-routed to the IR point of contact in a timely manner.

6. Is there a social media plan on record? When jumping in the water, make sure you grab the life vest known as your social media policy! Your social media policy is an internal document that helps a business to navigate the social media waters. It breaks down rules for engagement, how to handle common occurrences, what you’ll do when negative mentions appear, how to start conversations, how to use the different networks, etc. It’s vital to the success of any campaign and I wouldn’t recommend any business enter social media without it.

We often get asked for examples of companies who have social media policies. Here are a few links you may find useful:

Compliance Building website: http://www.compliancebuilding.com/about/publications/social-media-policies/

socialmediatoday website: http://socialmediatoday.com/ralphpaglia/141903/social-media-employee-policy-examples-over-100-companies-and-organizations

Social Media Governance website: http://socialmediagovernance.com/policies.php#axzz1jM4WAdnK

7. Can you measure it? Remember, social media is a tool, it’s not a destination. You want to measure your use of social media just like you would measure anything else you’re doing as part of your communications efforts. Based on your initial goal for social media the metrics you use to judge success may differ from others, and that’s okay. You may choose to track Facebook Likes, ReTweets, change in sentiment, number of mentions, engagement, etc. What’s important is that you’ve decided which metrics are important to your business and that you’re using social media tools to help measure them.

Is there anything missing from this checklist? Let me know in the comments.

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Facebook Said to Plan Record IPO at $100 Billion Valuation: http://goo.gl/sif3F

Beyond Facebook: 5 Questions to Ask Before Jumping into a New Social Network: http://bit.ly/uN3A5p

6 easy steps to better investor relations: http://bit.ly/rwpXkR

WHAT can you do with Social Media? More than you might think: http://t.co/UNjLteuR

Social media success doesn’t come cheap: http://bit.ly/uB8MFJ

UPDATE: Facebook denies disputed page to both Merck companies: http://bit.ly/v3Lh2R

Foreign Hackers targeted Canadian firms: http://bit.ly/sVO32m

It’s game on for Zynga initial public offering: http://stks.co/1Kdz

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8 ways to humanize your business on social media: http://wind.mn/rpubIC

Why Americans Use Social Media: http://6sen.se/vHeyH2

Online Annual Meetings Begin to Click: http://ow.ly/7uGY6

Companies to integrate social media on Black Friday: http://bit.ly/rM3kJc

Will Facebook Go Public?: http://bit.ly/tClEW1

5 Tips: Avoid Being A Social Media Turkey: http://bit.ly/sqe43c

Groupon plunges below IPO price: http://cnnmon.ie/sSRpNy

The importance of managing investors’ expectations: http://post.ly/3zcqF

Fake forum comments are ‘eroding’ trust in web: http://bbc.in/sV5cIO

StockTwits: Why You Should Care: http://bit.ly/twIhku

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Measuring Social Media ROI: 3 Things to Consider

Media companies and Twitter – still mostly doing it wrong: http://bit.ly/srsKZj

Reporters Use Twitter to Promote, Not Report [STUDY]: http://on.mash.to/tBtS1F

Jeff Bezos Owns the Web in More Ways Than You Think: http://stks.co/17ga

Over 48 hours of video is uploaded to YouTube every minute: http://post.ly/3tLJD

Social Readiness: Architecting a Connected Enterprise: web-strategist.com/blog/2011/11/1

Paving a way for women in Brazil: http://j.mp/vOxSyG

Investor videos: Success Tips from a Producer: http://bit.ly/tpUzkc

Bringing you insights into LinkedIn Groups with our new statistics dashboard: http://zite.to/sYnFwp

5 Must Read Investor Relations Articles and Blog Posts: http://bit.ly/vJrT5P

We are having a conversation without you (The WHY of Social Media): http://bit.ly/u78rTw

#ShiftNYC shows you Social IR: http://stks.co/18kh

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Win the online discussion by playing nice: http://ow.ly/6NTGA

Dreamforce Video: Building your social strategy: http://bit.ly/mXNvXz

Warren Buffett on online investor relations: http://bit.ly/nViWBH

Companies find the Twitterverse as they turn to social media: http://bit.ly/pCqM6I

New Digital Communications Model – Time to Get on Board: http://j.mp/pLQP9y

The Best Countries for Business: http://j.mp/pnjkH9

Facebook Launches New Metric: “People Talking About”: http://t.co/JGQc70R7

HootSuite Integrates LinkedIn Company Pages & Groups: http://t.co/WfEwLtio

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State of the Media: The Social Media Report:  http://bit.ly/qFvlxM

How has social media changed the way newsrooms work?: http://j.mp/ohGE9A

IPO Backlog Hits Record Despite Market Turmoil: http://stks.co/CU2

Five Reasons Why Websites Still Matter: http://bit.ly/qjBJKV

6 Social Networking Questions IT Should Investigate: http://bit.ly/pidQbN

The best and most complete story on the UBS rogue trader: http://bit.ly/mWrWKA

Robot traders set to oust humans from the trading floor: http://bit.ly/r9M5I4

HP execs misled investors before August stock crash: lawsuit: http://reut.rs/mVXyma

Until next week!

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That’s why we’ve decided to put together a list of some interesting things we’ve been reading and subsequently sharing with our followers for the week of August 8, 2011:

Social Media: Get Out of My Sandbox!: bit.ly/pBgkad

Advisors begin addressing social media: http://bit.ly/pjYymM

10 Cool Social Media Monitoring Tools: http://twb.io/o6Bn1O

Social Media and Search Engine Optimization: Why They Work Together: http://bit.ly/nnke0O

At this rate, there won’t be a tablet market, just an iPad market: http://dlvr.it/fhYCb

How to make Social Media work for Earnings: http://bit.ly/n66EzR

What The Stock Market Usually Does After Big Political Votes: http://read.bi/nEN944

Why this crisis isn’t like ‘08: http://t.co/muOWNqI

About that plane over S&P: http://ir4.me/fX3x8

Groupon drops accounting measure used in SEC filing ahead of IPO: http://bit.ly/pzyYn2

How to use Twitter & StockTwits: http://bit.ly/qT7T7F

UK Govt. to meet Facebook, Twitter and RIM about their responsibility to not fuel riots: http://tnw.co/nu9XnX

Kingfisher takes social approach with new IR app: http://t.co/5gbmBIH

What Makes for a Successful Investor Relations Program?: http://bit.ly/ngIHsr

Happy Reading!

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The audience spanned many countries such as China, Hong Kong, Russia, Germany, UK, Switzerland, The Netherlands, Brazil, South Africa and many more.  Knowing this I made sure that I included relevant information on what countries are using social media for investor relations.  I also thought the audience would appreciate some background on sector use as well.

I also wanted to adequately setup how online communications has evolved over the past few years and been impacted particularly by the increased use of social media to reach and engage with key audiences.  Here are some of the key points:

• Companies are adapting to changes in online communications by integrating their IR website and social media channels.
• Investors are using social media which is evidenced by research that supports this such as Rivel research that found 49% read financial blogs weekly and 63% agree that social media will increase in importance over the next year.
• Further evidence of whether investors are using social media is the emergence and increased use of popular financial blogs such as StockTwits and Seeking Alpha.
• Financial blogs are the ‘New Information FoodChain’ and investors are consuming blog posts being written about companies and sharing corporate assets such as presentations and quarterly releases.

I then walked the group through examples of what channels are being used to share investor-related material and the specific information they are sharing. You can see the examples by viewing the presentation below:

This was the first time I spoke to such a global group and to be honest I expected a lot of questions.  That said, I did provide a lot of information to take in and our research has found slower adoption of social media in countries outside of North America.

However, the group seemed to understand that they needed to stay apprised of what is happening with online communications, as I did get a question or two around the strategy behind using specific channels first such as Twitter.  Another asked if certain channels should be used to target retail or institutional investors.  As opposed to a typical discussion around ‘why’ companies are using social media for investor relations or concerns over regulatory issues.

Please let me know if you have any questions!

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