As the use of Twitter in investor relations is picking up, we’ve implemented a small experiment to display real-time searches of IR related tweets.
Visit site: http://twitter.8iris.com
Top 30 IR Websites 0
IR Global Rankings (http://www.irglobalrankings.com) has just released their 2009 IRGR Magazine. Take a peek to see the
- Top 30 Investor Relations websites
- Top 30 Online Annual Reports websites
- Top 30 Financial Disclosure Procedures websites
- Top 30 Corporate Governance websites
- Current industry trends
- What’s hot and what’s not!
- Published:
- August 23, 2009 – 8:56 pm
Communicating IR through social networks 0
There is much buzz in the public relations and advertising community about the rapid growth in use of social networking websites like Twitter, Facebook and Myspace. According to a recent survey by Universal McCann, reportedly the most extensive social media study ever undertaken, these media are already the number one stage for content dissemination online.
The lure of these sites is that they are popular with a wide range of users, and they are timely and cost effective. My main issue has to do with accountability and accidental disclosure.
Investor relations practitioners, bloggers and other voices are actively debating whether IR departments should take advantage of these media to communicate with their investors, and they seem to be pretty much split down the middle.
Those acting in an IR capacity are accountable for the material they release in rather a different way many other marketplace communicators. A seemingly insignificant detail on a CEO’s blog or a company’s Myspace page can have a material effect on investors, so caution is wise.
I echo my earlier advice using bulletin boards and chat rooms: Take advantage of the reach and timeliness of social networking sites, but retain the integrity of your official channels: until you’re absolutely comfortable with the workings of these sites, use them primarily to link to material on your website.
- Published:
- August 17, 2009 – 2:26 pm
Challenge to IROs: Speak Up — Don’t Let the Boss Fall Victim to Ten Common Earnings-Call Mistakes 0
Here’s 10 great tips from Virgil Scudder, Founder, Virgil Scudder & Associates (posted on the IR Alert) on Top 10 common earnings-call mistakes.
View them here.
- Published:
- August 16, 2009 – 12:16 pm
XBRL – no substitute for in-depth company knowledge 1
Faster, more accurate, and standardized information – XBRL promises to transform the way companies keep their stakeholders up to date. Still, it is no substitute for intimate company knowledge.
XBRL (eXtensible Business Reporting Language) is a standardized format for sharing financial information. Similar to how the USB plug has made it easier to connect computers to peripherals, XBRL aims at making financial figures easier to access and manipulate. For the end user, this brings a lot of benefits:
- Figures can be imported directly into the user’s preferred investment software
- Figures can be easily converted to different formats, making it simpler to compare figures across formats, accounting standards and other obstacles
- Figures will be more accurate, as the human error caused by manually typing figures across formats is minimized
In short, XBRL makes it easier for investors to play around with your figures. This again should mean a greater reliance on timely, accurate data. This implies two opportunities for IR:
- An increased need for timely, accurate and extensive financials. As users come to rely more on financial figures in XBRL format, expect even mom-and-pop investors to grow increasingly sophisticated. They’ll expect you to provide them with data both early and often.
- An increased need to highlight important metrics. As automated models become more common, it becomes even more important for IR to help investors understand the value of the company by pointing out figures that are important for making an investment decision about your company. For example, your annual report can make investors aware of KPIs that are particularly relevant to your company’s success.
The modern IR professional needs to work with XBRL. Ignoring it will move investors toward companies that do fulfill their need. Even more importantly, there is no substitute for intimate knowledge of the importance of certain figures and the qualitative aspects of your company. The winners will be companies that are good at conveying both.
- Published:
- August 10, 2009 – 8:00 am
IR press releases do matter 0
A 20% increase in press coverage reduces the average cost of a trade by $1.07. This was one of the fascinating conclusions in a recent study by Dr. Eugene Soltes.
The study, entitled “News Dissemination and the Impact of the Business Press” carries great interest for IR practitioners who challenge the often held attitude that investors are merely machines who are convinced exclusively by numbers, not swayed by something as PR-like as a press release.
Those of us who work on the frontlines of investor relations, practical experience tells us that this is simply not true. To be sure, we need to be acutely aware that we are communicating with a knowledgeable audience not readily swayed by buzz-words and other typical marketing tools. We take this into account by writing fair and accurate IR products designed to inform the reader. On the other hand, they are people, and as such they do form an image of your company based on what you communicate with them, beyond the impact of the financial figures.
There are two conclusions to be reached here:
- When you have something of interest to investors, communicate it. This keeps investors informed, and shows that your company has an active IR department that investors can depend on to always keep them up to date.
- Add non-financial information to your press releases. Investors want to know your take on news and developments. Relate facts and figures to your investment case, and take great care to include it in the boiler plate statement at the end.
- Published:
- August 5, 2009 – 9:00 am
Investor Relations and Twitter in action 0
Here’s an example of Investor Relations and Twitter in action.
Sun Microsystems uses a combination of technologies to disseminate their IR news. The news items on the SunIR News on Twitter is made possible by using a RSS feed and a service called twitterfeed.com.
- Published:
- August 4, 2009 – 1:30 am
