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Q4 Whitepaper: Public Company Use of Social Media for IR
Part 4: Corporate Blogs - Summary Slides
Why Social Media Matters For Investor Relations
• Social media has become one of the key methods for companies to
engage in discussion, share information, and connect with their
audiences.
• The number of users communicating on social media platforms is
compelling. Over 900 million on Facebook, 555 million users of
Twitter and over 150 million people on LinkedIn1.
• Research shows that:
– 49% of professional investors are reading blogs and 27% use YouTube2
– 3 out of 5 financial bloggers use Twitter as their primary news source3
– 63% of institutional investors believe social media will become
increasingly important to them4
Sources: 1. All Twitter Blog (Mediabistro), 2012 | 2. Rivel Research, 2010 | 3. Financial Media Conference, 2011 | 4. Brunswick Group, 2009
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Q4 Whitepaper: Public Company Use of Social Media for IR
Part 4: Corporate Blogs - Summary Slides
Overall Social Media Findings
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• Q4 performs year over year reviews of social media is used for
Investor Relations by the companies in our sample. Our findings in
2012 reveal:
– slight increases in Twitter and Facebook use
– significant increases in use of SlideShare and corporate blogs
• Our study includes some new measurements for 2012:
– 64% of companies are listed on StockTwits
– 65% of companies have their social media links on their corporate
website
– 32% of companies have a social media summary page to help users
find the appropriate feed or page
Q4 Whitepaper: Public Company Use of Social Media for IR
Part 4: Corporate Blogs - Summary Slides
2012 Research Sample
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• Q4 research sample size for social media research has grown from
80 public companies in 2009 to a total of 807 in 2012.
Airline, 16
Automotive, 12
Consumer Goods, 114 Exchanges, 4
Financial Services, 67
Industrial goods/Basic materials, 67
Media, 8
Natural Resources, 134
Pharma/Healthcare/Biotech, 43
Real Estate, 13
Services, 120
Technology, 139
Telecommunications, 30
Utilities, 40
Companies Included in Study by Sector
Q4 Whitepaper: Public Company Use of Social Media for IR
Part 4: Corporate Blogs - Summary Slides
Corporate Blogs
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• While both Twitter and Facebook have higher usage for IR,
corporate blog use is growing at a rapid pace.
– According to a 2012 study by the University of Massachusetts
(Dartmouth) Center for Marketing Research, blog use by the
2012 Fortune 500 is up 5% over the previous year – to 28%.
– eMarketer estimates that by the end of 2012, a staggering 43%
of all companies will have a corporate blog.
Q4 Whitepaper: Public Company Use of Social Media for IR
Part 4: Corporate Blogs - Summary Slides
Corporate Blogs For Investor Relations
• Q4’s 2012 sample shows that 33% of companies have a corporate
blog. Of these, 18% use them for Investor Relations, up from 10% in
2010.
– By Sector – The three sectors with the highest adoption of corporate
blogs for Investor Relations are Natural Resources, Real Estate and
Automotive.
– By Region - North American companies in our sample significantly
outpaced the rest of the world in corporate blog adoption, with Germany
and Japan coming in next.
– By Market Capitalization - Large cap companies lead in use of
corporate blogs for IR, followed by Small cap and then Medium cap.
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Q4 Whitepaper: Public Company Use of Social Media for IR
Part 4: Corporate Blogs - Summary Slides
Corporate Blog Usage and Content
• Companies use corporate blogs to share visual materials, providing
consumers and investors with information about their organization,
their industry and their markets.
• Blogs have lower usage rates than other social media tools, often
due to a need for a sustained effort (content generation, etc.) on the
part of the company, and because they are sometimes viewed to be
higher risk in terms of disclosure.
• Despite lower usage rates, corporate blogs fill a unique niche in the
social media landscape, and are perceived to have a the highest
value of any platform for driving site traffic, brand awareness and
lead generation.
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Q4 Whitepaper: Public Company Use of Social Media for IR
Part 4: Corporate Blogs - Summary Slides
Best Practices
1. Provide insight into news, industry developments and the
company
2. Use the blog to solicit questions from shareholders in advance
of a company event such as a quarterly earnings call or annual
meeting
3. Post videos and photographs to provide commentary and
context around company events and meetings
4. Provide a “Discussions Policy” and the company’s disclaimer
5. Add a bio and avatar of the main contributor(s) to the blog
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Q4 Whitepaper: Public Company Use of Social Media for IR
Part 4: Corporate Blogs - Summary Slides
Best Practices
1. Provide insight into news, industry developments and the company
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Companies can use blogs to
provide insight and commentary
on sector-related news, such as
scientific publications that impact
or pertain to the company’s
work.
Another method is to add blog
posts that provide analysis of the
industry by a third party. For
example, Nissan Corporate
(right) added video of an
interview with a Deutsche Bank
analyst, Kurt Sanger, an expert
on the automotive industry.
http://blog.nissan-global.com/EN/?p=4465
Q4 Whitepaper: Public Company Use of Social Media for IR
Part 4: Corporate Blogs - Summary Slides
Best Practices
2. Use the blog to solicit questions from shareholders in advance of a
company event such as a quarterly earnings call or annual meeting
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Microvision has a great corporate
blog and uses clear categories to
make it easy for investors to find
the posts related to Investor
Relations material and engage
with the company.
Microvision asked that questions
be submitted to their blog in
advance of a quarterly call. They
then posted a video on their blog
of an interview with their CEO
responding to a variety of
questions. Investors then began
posting comments in response to
the video, giving the company
some valuable feedback – both
positive and negative.
http://www.microvision.com/displayground/investor-relations/interview-with-microvision-ceo-alex-tokman/
Q4 Whitepaper: Public Company Use of Social Media for IR
Part 4: Corporate Blogs - Summary Slides
Best Practices
3. Post videos and photographs to provide commentary and context
around company events and meetings
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In another blog entry, this time focused on the
company’s strategic goals, Iberdrola includes an
image of their CEO touring a plant in Scotland and
speaking to workers (left).
Iberdrola includes videos and images in their blog posts.
In an entry on the difficulties facing the Spanish energy
sector, they have included a video of the CEO Ignacio
Galán talking about changing the energy model to hybrid
solar-gas plants (right).
http://www.blog.iberdrola.com/en/blog/change-the-energy-model/ http://www.blog.iberdrola.com/en/blog/a-better-society-for-future-generations/
Q4 Whitepaper: Public Company Use of Social Media for IR
Part 4: Corporate Blogs - Summary Slides
Best Practices
4. Provide a “Discussions Policy” and the company’s disclaimer
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Social Media is a conversation
with consumers, investors and
other interested parties, and it
is important to clearly set out
the policies and rules your
company uses to govern those
conversations.
The best way to do this is to
post policies on the corporate
website, and on all social
media platforms.
The Johnson and Johnson
corporate blog (right) provides
several policies, including a
Blogroll Policy and a
Comments Policy.
http://www.jnjbtw.com/posting-policy/
Q4 Whitepaper: Public Company Use of Social Media for IR
Part 4: Corporate Blogs - Summary Slides
Best Practices
5. Add a bio and avatar of the main contributor(s) to the blog
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A growing trend for corporate
blogs is to post a bio for the
blog’s main contributor(s),
giving shareholders a more
personal touch. It also adds
some credibility to the content.
Kimco Realty provides
informative bios for contributing
writers. Along the left side of
the site, they list the blogger
names, each one a link to the
bio page for that writer. Each
individual blog entry has a small
picture and a clickable link to
the bio page.
This bio (left) gives a short
professional intro for the author,
a picture and their most recent
three posts.
http://blog.kimcorealty.com/author/will-teichman/
Q4 Whitepaper: Public Company Use of Social Media for IR
Part 4: Corporate Blogs - Summary Slides
Compelling Reasons To Use Corporate Blogs for IR
• Half of professional investors read corporate blogs.
• Consumers, analysts and investors are increasingly using blogs to
learn more about companies and their industry, keep up to date on
developments, and share information.
• Evidence continues to show that many public companies see value
in using social media to increase awareness and engage with key
constituents.
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Q4 Whitepaper: Public Company Use of Social Media for IR
Part 4: Corporate Blogs - Summary Slides
• Download and learn how to:
– How your peers are using corporate blogs to interact and engage with
investors, provide news, information and insight
– What sectors, geographic regions and size of companies are leading
the way in adoption
– Innovative ways to use video and images to provide investors more
context around your company and industry
– Best practices on corporate blog use for IR, including the posting of a
Discussion or Comments Policy, and providing bios of the main
contributor(s)
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Q4 Whitepaper: Public Company Use of Social Media for IR
Part 4: Corporate Blogs - Summary Slides
About Q4 Web Systems
• Q4 is the fastest growing IR website provider in North America
• Hundreds of public companies choose Q4 for their IR website and online communications because our web based platform is easy to use and helps them achieve results
• Everything contained in this paper is achievable if you choose Q4 for your IR website
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Q4 Whitepaper: Public Company Use of Social Media for IR
Part 4: Corporate Blogs - Summary Slides
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