Merging Social Media and Investor Rela3ons in 4 Steps
Investor rela3ons has entered a new era where forms of communica3on that were previously taboo are both permissible and accepted. In the past, investor rela3ons departments were responsible for issuing bland earnings reports once per quarter and planning an investor conference once per year. Today, informa3on about companies is more plen3ful than ever, and the compe33on for investor’s 3me has reached incredible heights. Furthermore, informa3on is constant, plen3ful and delivered in a variety of forms. Big investors are constantly bombarded with emails, texts, phone calls and adver3sements. For this reason, investor rela3ons professionals must now u3lize social media to get their message across.
There are four simple steps for integra3ng social media and investor rela3ons. Firstly, make sure to conduct sufficient research. That means finding out what defines the big picture and the needs or concerns of your investors. Are your investors looking to see customer growth or profitability? Are they interested in short-‐term profits or long-‐term product development? Finding the answers to these ques3ons will help to craL your communica3on strategy. Secondly, keep your message short and sweet. Posts must be short, sweet, relevant, and informa3ve to the investors. Try keeping most posts to the 140 character limit on TwiPer with funny, clever and 3mely posts. Some3mes the most effec3ve posts provide liPle informa3on but include an interes3ng image or quote that will remain in the investor’s mind.
Thirdly, be sure to integrate messages across mul3ple plaRorms. Integra3ng all of your plaRorms is actually easier than ever with special soLware to send out the same post at the same 3me. Make sure that all of your outlets (Facebook, Instagram, TwiPer, Website, Google+, etc.) are working towards the same goals and speaking with one another. Align the message on the plaRorms or bePer yet, send the same message out on all the plaRorms.
Fourth, use a scien3fic methodology to improve your results. ALer each message, analyze, refine and repeat your message to understand what gets the best results. Find what works and what doesn’t. Con3nue to modify your effort accordingly in order to maximize the effec3veness of each post. There are several companies that can provide this service or you can hire an internal analyst for this func3on. Overall, it is important to be process driven when conduc3ng investor rela3ons. Merging social media is an important part of an investor rela3ons strategy to keep the public interested and well informed.
This post was reformaPed for distribu3on. To read more content from Jeff Ramson, please visit hPp://jefframson.com