Q4 Blog

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% with no plans to use social media in the future, 85% of them are prohibited by their firms.
• The average number of social networks employed is 1.8.
• Linkedin is the most popular social network used.

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Polycom has whole-heartedly jumped into the social media pool.  They incorporate Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Blogs and LinkedIn into their communications strategy and have several accounts for each channel.  The company prominently displays this information on their website via a dedicated “Connect with Polycom using Social Media” in the newsroom section.

A review of how Polycom uses each channel revealed consistent messaging and current and up-to date information.  Some of the senior management team also regularly tweet and are active bloggers providing additional commentary on an industry-related topic or company specific news. With it increasingly difficult to attract and retain investors in this economy, this sends a very clear message in terms of their transparency and their personal interest in listening to their stakeholders.

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Our latest whitepaper has revealed that Twitter is the most widely used channel for investor-related material. Although in spite of this, the channel is not being used for direct dialogue between investors and companies but rather more like an efficient channel to disseminate information and to provide context to investors interested in their market and business.

This may change in the future, as more investors begin to engage companies through Twitter. So in anticipation of this, there are some effective ways that companies can use hashtags to help get the attention of potential investors on Twitter.

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The following infographic contains most of the charts from the latest whitepaper. Public Company Use of Social Media for IR. This research is based on 362 public companies that have Twitter accounts and how they use Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Blogs, YouTube and SlideShare for investor relations.

We hope you enjoy it!

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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?

This is such an excellent presentation from Paul Adams a User Experience Researcher at Google, that we have decided to share it on our blog.

It is quite long but gives some great insights into lessons learned from increased adoption of social networking.  The presentation is grouped into the following six ideas:

1. The shift from the web to the social web.
2. The real life social network. How people are connected offline, and what that behavior means for their behavior online.
3. Relationships. We all have very different relationships with the people in our life and designing for them is very different.
4. Influence. How people influence each other, and how that is driven by the structure of our social network.
5. Identity. Why identity is a cornerstone of the web.
6. Privacy. Why it’s critical to give people control over their data.

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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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 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.

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We’re excited to announce the release of a number of feature upgrades now available on Q4. We’ve been listening to our clients and are happy to provide this set of improved features focused on the real-time integration of social media both in terms of publishing updates to Twitter and Facebook and integrating content into the site from social media content sites  like YouTube.

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

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It’s that time of the year again!  The Q4 team is off to the NIRI National Conference in San Diego June 6-9.  For those who are attending stop by booth #621 and learn how we can help your company increase awareness, reduce risk and build better relationships with investors and stakeholders.

There is a great lineup of sessions, but you won’t want to miss “Integrating Social Media into Your IR Program” on Monday, June 7th at 4:15 p.m.  Q4’s Co-Founder & CEO Darrell Heaps along with Laura Graves, Director Global IR, Cisco Systems and Robert Williams, Director IR, Dell – both seasoned IROs with extensive experience using social media as part of their IR programs, will provide insights to help IROs understand the role social media can play in their organizations, maneuver around potential pitfalls and learn the tips and tricks to create a solid, easy-to-manage online investor program.

For those of you who can’t make it, we will be providing regular updates on Twitter, Facebook and posting on our blog.

Register for a demo and win an iPod Nano or iPad!

Whether you are attending or not, if you register for a demo you’ll automatically be entered in a draw for a chance to win an iPad or 1 of 3 iPod nanos!