Darrell Heaps, Co-founder and CEO of Q4 discusses the current trends in social media and investor relations in the following presentation and video versions of our webinar held on Thursday, July 16, 2009.
Presentation on SlideShare:
Social Media & Investor Relations Trends
View more presentations from Darrell Heaps.
Video posted on Vimeo (approx. 1 hour long) – our apologies for the echo (only for first 5 mins.) – we had some technical difficulties 

Social Media & Investor Relations Trends from Darrell Heaps on Vimeo.
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In a recent edition of IR Alert, Jeffrey D. Morgan, CAE, President and CEO, National Investor Relations Institute cites “the top challenge facing IR now is regulation including moves to have companies become more transparent, governance changes and generally looking at corporate practices. Regulation is one of the key challenges right now. It’s evolving rapidly and where we’ll end up is not quite known.” 
What follows is some of his advice to IR professionals for keeping pace in this rapidly changing regulatory environment.  He also discusses current challenges and opportunities and …

NIRI recently held a Webinar entitled “Trends in Technology and Disclosure.” Three IRO’s from Microvision, BGC Partners Inc., and Sun Microsystems each discussed how they have integrated social media tools such as corporate blogs, implemented notice and access releases and enriched investor communication portals to enhance and increase interaction with shareholders.
Microvision – Corporate blogging
The first speaker was Tiffany Bradford, IRO of Microvision who was at the forefront of implementing the company’s corporate blog initiative.  As she is the only person in the IR department, she (along with other key members …

On Feb 23, 2009 BGC Partners became one of the first widely known companies to utilize a ‘Notice-and-Access’ release for their quarterly earnings. This approach was based on the SEC’s guidance regarding using websites for disclosure under Reg. FD.Leading up to and following the announcement, a lot of online discussion took place about potential pitfalls. The day after the event, Dominic Jones of IR Web Report provided detailed commentary as to how the event unfolded.
As a follow up to this, I …

Since the SEC released new guidance permitting public companies to (forgo using newswire services and) disclose material information on corporate web sites and blogs, it has been a wait and see period. Many of the issuers I spoke with across the US (as well as inter-listed Canadian companies) are intrigued at the prospect of reducing newswire costs, but do not want to pioneer the web disclosure model.
Instead some are taking steps to transition and ensure that they can meet the SEC’ s criteria (which contrary to what some people would …

I received a “Reg FD” Google alert the other day about a new study entitled: “News Dissemination and the Impact of the Business Press” by Phd student, Eugene Soltes. Shortly after this I came across responses to the study by Michael Becker/Business Wire who posted a response that positions the study as endorsement of their services and Anna Snider/IR Magazine who used the study to write another post on her opinion that web disclosure won’t work (it would be nice to see you write about the positive’s now and again …

General Electric, parent of NBC Universal, has gained attention in the blogosphere over the last few weeks since the October 22 launch of its corporate blog, ‘GE reports – Your source for what’s happening at GE.’
The response has been both positive and negative. Criticism has primarily focused on the accessibility of information disclosed in this way – although anyone can receive automatic updates through RSS feeds, which take all of 2 minutes to set up. And North America enjoys the highest penetration of internet usage in the world.
What’s important to …

When the SEC announced the new Reg. FD guidance, a flow of blog posts followed – many speculating on the net result of these new changes. More than one purported that the announcement would spell the death of the press release.
I’ve been following numerous bloggers and Social Media Release (SMR) folks on Twitter for several months now and I don’t think the new Reg. FD guidance will kill the press release.  If anything, press releases will evolve and take advantage of new media technologies such …

As many of you know, over the past several weeks I have been speaking with issuers of all sizes across North America – both U.S. and Canadian inter-listed companies – regarding their transition to a web disclosure model.
Most of the companies I’ve spoken with are intrigued by the potential cost savings of disseminating their disclosure without the expense of newswires. Some of the companies I’ve spoken with are busy putting plans in place to meet the new SEC criteria. Others have been made to fear that adopting this method of …

I’m pleased to announce that we have closed our latest round of funding, bringing the total raised to $3M (CDN) since the fall of 2006. Investors include a mix of institutional funders and angels.  You can access the full press release on our web site:
Q4 Web Systems Closes $1.2M in Funding for Web Disclosure
Here are a couple of my quotes from the release:

I’m very pleased to close this latest round of funding in this current market climate. We continue to receive validation for our business model from the addition of new …