As we have said in the past, there is limited concrete research on companies with blogs strictly dedicated to IR, but it seems to be far less than those who are using Twitter for the same purpose. After analyzing the 350 + companies in our current study, we continue to see this trend with few companies using their blog strictly for IR.
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.
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Yesterday I attended a panel discussion that primarily focused on social media and the opportunity it provides to communicate with shareholders and potential investors. The panel included: Serena Ehrlich, Director of Social Media, Startup Army/BLAZE; Laura Graves, Senior IR Manager, Cisco Systems, Inc; Dick Johnson, President Johnson Strategic Communications Inc.& editor of IR Cafe, and Robert Williams, Director Investor Relations, Dell Inc.
Robert said that Dell uses social media primarily to reach out connect with people who are interested in their company and want to access their information in different ways. He said that it was important to socialize SM internally with legal, finance and other executive positions, who may be concerned about risk, in order to help them understand the importance of being involved and the fact that you just can’t vet everything through the same DC&Ps. “The IRO is in a perfect position to handle social media because they understand the risks, they understand the story. And it’s not like they’re monitoring every phone call I make or every conversation I have with an analyst.” Read more…