Here is what we’ve been reading and sharing on Twitter for the week of September 19, 2011:
Say-on-pay votes not tied to corporate performance: http://bit.ly/pkJtWe
Four mega trends shaping the future of commerce: http://bit.ly/o2GlAz
5 bad PR practices that will frustrate journalists: http://bit.ly/pR1Gzw
Social media use by Financial Advisors: http://bit.ly/r4kOwt
UBS Bonuses At Risk As $2.3 Billion Trading Loss Erases Profit: http://bit.ly/nMIhDL
Frustrations Rise on Whistleblower Hotlines: http://bit.ly/qFrZ1M
The Future of Websites: http://goo.gl/I2OwK
How Social Should a Newscast be?: http://bit.ly/pAgPW1
Is FINRA Set to Be the Big New Regulator on the Block?: http://bit.ly/nFaMaY
50 tips for a better online newsroom: …

In its second survey on social media use by financial advisors across North America, Socialware sought to gather insight on social media use by financial advisors through answering the following questions:

What percentage of advisors use social media for business purposes?
Are firms taking the necessary steps to support this activity and remain compliant?
Are financial advisors getting value from their investment in social media?
Are the myths around social media true? For example, the sites are only used by the younger generation, it takes too much time, etc.

Based on the executive summary that …

In this second part in our series of whitepapers concerning public company use of social media for investor relations (the first addressed Twitter) we have found that Facebook has quickly become a popular channel used by companies – with 45% using it to provide investor-related material compared to 37% we cited in July 2010.
IRO’s continue to use Facebook to provide greater context to the company and its markets by sharing industry-related information and using multimedia to showcase assets.  We are seeing emerging trends, such as increased engagement with investors and …

Here’s this week’s roundup of what we’ve been reading and sharing here at Q4 on Twitter:
 
A front row seat to Steve Jobs’ career:  http://tnw.co/pC9x4w
Twitter Is #1 social network for financial groups: http://bit.ly/ojpaO6
Investor Relations Atwitter Over New Technologies: http://t.co/08ElEHH
Bank of America Fires Back at Henry Blodget: http://t.co/j2uew0E
Mckinsey report predicts return to basics for investors: http://t.co/MjziXHY
Canadian Investor Relations Institute issues backgrounder on social media: http://t.co/i2q82g1
How baby boomers could depress stocks for decades: http://on-msn.com/rc9YCo
Financial Services Clamor for Social Media Guidance: http://bit.ly/prbkYl
B2B social media: Highlights from new benchmarking research: http://bit.ly/pL7dQ3
How to deal with the …

Social media has made the sharing of ideas and information easy and at lightening speed!  Sometimes you may see a tweet that catches your eye  – but if you’re not fast enough it’s already been replaced with something else.  Add to that, the fact that sometimes there are not enough hours in the day to read everything.
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.  We’ll be doing this on a weekly basis.
NYSE shareholders back D.Boerse deal …

I missed this week’s #irchat.  As I was reading through the transcript (which can be accessed here), I thought I would transcribe the discussion for the benefit of everyone.
Typically, three or four questions are asked.  But this week, the first question dominated the hour-long session. @meetthestreet asked:
Q1: Institutional Investor recently wrote about social media’s role in equity research: http://bit.ly/94w06K. Do you think this has legs?
Here is a snippet from the article:
Bolstered by the low cost of online publishing and the rising popularity of blogs, discussion forums and commenting, a growing …

According to a survey by Socialware, over 60% of financial advisors in North America are using social networks to drive new business and build better relationships with customers. The survey consisted of over 30 questions and was completed by a total of 196 financial advisors; 44% of the respondents have an average account size of $300K and more than 53% of them have over 100 clients.
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% …

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 told us that 35% were using Twitter for IR, in the current report you’ll see this number is now 65%.
However, it’s not all about Twitter. So we expanded our research to include Facebook, Linked, Blogs, YouTube and SlideShare.  Their respective adoption …

We are currently working on our next research report on how public companies are using social media. This research is based on our analysis of over 350 companies and their uses of social media from a corporate and investor relations perspective. We have recently completed the primary research and have decided to share our findings as we go, through a series of blog posts that will highlight various aspects of the report.
To kick things off I thought we’d take a quick look at how companies are promoting their social media …

In her article “Should CEOs lose sleep over analyst recommendations” Clare Harrison, IR Magazine’s Deputy Editor, poses the question “How much attention do investors really pay to analyst recommendations?”
I think she raises some interesting points in answering the question. So much so that I’d like to reinforce and provide my two cents from an IRO perspective on those points here.  I’ll also provide some suggested tactics IROs can use to foster relationships and gain credibility with investors, and ways to help them make informed investment decisions about your company.
Recommend …