LinkedIn for IR: How to Leverage the Platform to Get (and Keep) Investors

LinkedIn is one of the most powerful—and most often overlooked—social media tools for IROs. 

The ability to meet investors in the digital spaces where they live and work is essential for any investor relations professional, and LinkedIn is a hub of investor activity. According to a report from LinkedIn, 48% of all institutional investors use LinkedIn, and 61% of those users say they turn to it frequently. 66% of investors with assets over $100,000 say they use LinkedIn at least monthly.

But as powerful as LinkedIn can be, it can also be intimidating for IROs less well-versed in using social media for investor outreach. Here, we’ll give you a few easy strategies to implement LinkedIn into your IR strategy.

1

Start with simple, informational posts

The best way to get investors engaged with your company on LinkedIn is by being useful to them, and the best way to be useful to investors is by updating them with information on your company.

Posts don’t need to be elaborate, detailed affairs. As long as they provide a tidbit of data that might be interesting or valuable to a user, they’re worth posting. It’s even a good idea to post your latest news releases to your page, perhaps with added context or commentary from your team.

Here are a few good post ideas for LinkedIn:

  • Introductions to key members of your team
  • News releases + commentary
  • Public appearances from members of your team
  • Announcements of upcoming conferences you’ll be attending
  • Macro-level analysis of your current market
  • Reposts of other key information sources or pundits that comment on your industry

The more regular your posts, the better engagement will be. Just ensure that every post has some substance to it—investors can smell fluff pieces from a mile away.

The next level: LinkedIn Newsletter

Once you’ve got a base level of posts coming out, it’s time to elevate your engagement on LinkedIn to the next level with a LinkedIn newsletter.

LinkedIn makes it easy to create an ongoing newsletter, establishing your company as an authority in the space, keeping investors informed on your company’s activities, and keeping your company top-of-mind. It’s a free, built-in feature within LinkedIn, so there’s no real reason not to do it other than time constraints—and it doesn’t take much time.

Follow these simple steps to start a LinkedIn newsletter. Once you do, your subscribers will receive in-app and email notifications whenever you publish, sending your latest posts straight to their inbox. This is incredibly powerful, giving subscribers everything they need to know from your company as it arrives. The articles also show up on your page, making sure subscribers don’t miss anything.

2

Make sure your profiles are up to snuff

It may seem obvious, but it’s also essential that every profile for a member of your C-Suite, and your company page, are strong and convincing. Members of your team should have professional images and clear writing about what they’ve accomplished in their careers, and how they’re currently serving your company. Your company page should use professional copy (you can draw this directly from your IR site) and eye-catching imagery to build investor trust.

Your LinkedIn page may be an investor’s first interaction with your company, so it’s important that it looks professional and well-thought-out. Nothing diminishes confidence in a public company like sloppy execution, and that includes social media.

LinkedIn is easy, with a little time investment

Once you have your LinkedIn processes in place, it’s a simple matter to keep it up-to-date. You don’t have to be posting every day, but make it useful to investors, and they’ll engage with it. It’s that simple.

In essence, while the initial setup and integration of LinkedIn into investor relations may require some time investment, the platform’s user-friendly features make it a manageable task. Consistency, relevance, and professionalism are key pillars that, when prioritized, can transform LinkedIn into a dynamic and effective tool for investor engagement. As the digital landscape continues to evolve, embracing LinkedIn as a central component of your investor relations strategy is a strategic move that aligns with the preferences and habits of today’s investors.

How to be an expert at live-tweeting for investor relations

So retro. We gave you a cheat sheet over two years ago to help you live-tweet IR events, but we’re coming back bright-eyed and bushy-tailed to talk about IR tweeting 2.0. Twitter has absolutely taken off in the past two years, especially when it comes to investor relations practices and how IR professionals and public companies alike are using social media to circulate news and get people listening. What’s new in the world of live-tweeting, and how can some new practices help more people clue in to an annual meeting or an earnings call?

Here’s what’s new and need-t0-know (as well as some golden oldies) when you’re preparing to live-tweet at an IR event

*Disclaimer:* since we’re IR specific, some of these tips may be a bit different than if you were live-tweeting any big convention or event, especially since the world of investor relations comes with a lot more rules and regulations. We’ve tweaked a few of the best pointers out there so they fit better in the IR world, but some pointers remain true for all parties (everyone, I repeat EVERYONE, loves images).

 

Before You Go

1. Schedule tweets ahead of time and use templates

One thing’s for sure: during the event you probably won’t even have much time to pee, let alone compose all your tweets with appropriate event hashtags, individual tags, and eye-catching images. Believe it or not, a lot of live-tweeting prep work can be done before you’re actually live. Create tweet-optimized images of those people speaking, whether it’s the CEO, CFO, or other. Leave white space, and during their actual presentation you can quickly fill in the template and tweet away.

2. Cross promote on other social media accounts

Even though live-tweeting is for Twitter, who says Facebook can’t get in on the fun? You don’t have to simultaneously tweet with one account and post to Facebook at the same time (that’s sweaty work) but at least let your Facebook community know that you’ll be live-tweeting the upcoming event. Share the hashtag on Facebook, say WHEN the live-tweeting will begin, and add a link where they can follow you on Twitter.

3. Make them save the date (like a wedding)

Your event is the most important thing that will happen that day, and make sure people know it. Our client NOVAGOLD tweeted out their Q3 conference call date three weeks before go-time. Now that’s prepared.

httpss://twitter.com/NOVAGOLD/status/646435459480989697

4. Know the correct hashtag and cashtag

Those people following your event are like sheep. And you–and your Twitter hashtag prowess–are their shepherd. Create an official event hashtag (or find the official hashtag if you’re not putting on the event) and tweet out to your community days beforehand what the hashtag will be. Since it’s an IR event, cashtags are also key. Each live-tweet needs to include the company’s cashtag so investors will easily find all the tweets when searching.

 

It's Go Time

 

5. Give people some “insider secrets”

The whole reason many people may be following your live-tweet session is because they aren’t there! Sounds obvious, but think about it. Use your special ‘insider status’ to tweet pictures of what’s going on inside the room, speakers as they’re presenting, and any important presentation slides. Just make sure everything you’re tweeting is IR-okayed and public company approved.

6. Walk people through the itinerary 

Since the majority of your audience isn’t there unless they’re also live-tweeting, make sure you’re very clear about who’s speaking at all times and where the conversation is at. Even if you feel like you’re over-clarifying, that’s ok. We like Ebay’s example below. They tweet to their audience right before the event begins and clearly announce who is speaking first.

httpss://twitter.com/eBayNewsroom/status/461250188024102912?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

7. Tweet out influencer speeches

We talk about ‘quotebiting’ a lot when it comes to Twitter for investor relations purposes, but it’s especially crucial if you’re live-tweeting an IR event. If you need a refresher, when we refer to ‘quote-biting’ we mean tweeting out a crucial quote from the CEO, CFO, etc. during the presentation. The Social Media Examiner also recommends “creat[ing] blank-quote Twitter templates with your logo to capture important points from speakers”.

httpss://twitter.com/hpnews/status/601493855628832768?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

8. Check your tone

Tweeting for IR is a bit different than live-tweeting for any other big event (so forget those sweaty, Apple enthusiasts tweeting up a storm), as your #1 goal is to clearly share the information that’s being presented. However, make sure the tone of your tweets also matches the tone and personality of the company and leadership you’re representing. Live-tweeting is all about being accessible, so your tone doesn’t have to be full of corporate language. Be informal, but be informative.

 

The "After" Party

9. Connect with any new followers

This could be as simple as a ‘Thanks for connecting at [event]’ tweet, and reminding people where they can go to ask any further investor relations questions they may have.

10. #ICYMI

In the days following, tweet out a visual representation of the most important numbers from the event in case people missed your live-tweet. Also remind people of the hashtag associated with the live-tweeting, so they can go back and filter out all the IR information after the event.

httpss://twitter.com/Nestle/status/632824137241751552

Extra Credit: (a few extra tid-bits to get you started) 

11. Don’t forget to let your followers know exactly when your live-tweet session is beginning and, more importantly, when ‘that’s all folks!’

12. Remember to use a ‘.’ at the beginning of a tweet where you’re tweeting about someone using their @handle first, if you want your network to see the tweet, and not just that one person.

13. This could easily be a two person job. Consider having one person doing all the live-tweeting, while another is checking the engagement, following back relevant new followers, and responding to your community right away. That way there’s both a steady stream of information going out as well as someone engaging with others.

14. Over prepare. Especially if it’s your first live-tweeting rodeo. Come to the event with templates, take pictures before that you can tweet out during the event, and schedule all the tweets you can (like event reminders, presenter bios, and when the live-tweeting will begin and end).

Good luck!

 

How to use Twitter for investor relations

  • Basic Twitter keywords to help with investor relations strategy
  • The pros and cons of creating a dedicated investor account
  • Twitter lists –what they are and how to use them
  • Real examples of public companies successfully using Twitter for IR
  • How to integrate Twitter directly onto your investor website
  • Tools and Resources

Highlights from guide:

  • Ways to integrate Twitter directly onto your investor website.
  • Real examples of public companies successfully using Twitter for IR.

Improve your social media visibility with 15 minutes a day

Introduction:

You don’t need to be a big-time social media strategist to implement a little social media strategy. Succeeding in social media and growing your network of followers is about listening and learning from posts from the day or month before. You should be tracking monthly analytics for social media, such as your follower growth and the top three most popular posts from the month before. This post, however, is all about quick things you can do each morning to be more present.

First off: why should you do this in the morning? 

1. News isn’t news after 4pm. If you’re a public company publishing a big company update, it’s important to immediately see the reactions of your network on social media, and make sure the news is circulating. Though your email list will be informed appropriately, social media is another outlet for more instantaneous feedback.

2. You want to hit people when they’re fresh and most likely perusing the internet. Lots of tweets are read and digested along with that morning coffee.

3. You’re going to get busy later in the work day, and listening to social media conversation will probably be the last thing on your mind. Unless your title is social media strategist. Then how fun for you!

*Disclaimer from Father Time*: Don’t forget about timezones! Publishing a post at 9AM for you could be either 6AM or noon for someone else. Utilize Hootsuite’s timezone scheduling tool or MailChimp’s ‘timewarp’ for email newsletters.

 

 Here are four things to do each morning to increase your social media visibility:

1. Review yesterday’s posts and see what’s working

Take five or so minutes and check how your network reacted to what you said the day before. Your followers show you what they connected with by the number of likes, shares, and mentions on your posts. Once you see which post did the best, don’t just leave it at that, but ask yourself why? Did you include a high-quality image that people connected with? Were you sharing great news? Did you unveil a new project? If your post was something worth sharing again, maybe consider re-posting sometime down the road with fresh copy or an image. Most social media platforms have built-in analytics tools that give a brief overview of how you’re doing. For example, LinkedIn’s analytics tab tracks engagement, while Twitter tracks things like profile visits and daily mentions.

2. Engage with your network

Follow back relevant new followers

If you’ve gained new followers since the last time you checked in with your social media accounts, take a few moments to see who’s showing interest in you. Consider following back those who would add value to your company or network (and no weird spambots).

Respond to mentions/messages/favourites

Use your discretion with this one. Start by deleting any spam messages (hey! I made $450 an hour with one simple trick!) and respond to the ones showing genuine interest. Responses on social media can be light and friendly! There’s no need to spend all morning concocting the perfect paragraph to write in response to someone’s mention of you. A simple, ‘Thanks for the shoutout, you guys are doing awesome work!’ works great.

Direct people to your website

If someone has sent you a lengthier question about your company or investment opportunity through social media, give a friendly response and direct them to other places they can find information. Link your investor page, your FAQ section, or to a specific contact who would be happy to help them.

3. Listen to the industry conversation

Sometimes overused expressions can ring the truest: social media helps you take the pulse of your industry. Before you start your day, know what your industry is currently talking about. Are there any trends on Twitter that apply to your area of expertise? An example from Blender: one morning we saw that the topic ‘Mobilegeddon’ was blowing up on Twitter after Google released their new mobile-friendly website algorithm. We saw this as an opportunity to promote our mobile marketing guide on social media.

4. Schedule the day’s posts before you get too busy

Before you dive into the work day, schedule at least 2-3 posts for the rest of the day across all channels. Share a relevant article and give some love to the writers, Also ensure your community knows you’re listening. Big companies like Starbucks, T-Mobile, and Whole Foods rock customer service on Twitter and respond almost instantly. Set up notifications when someone responds to you on social media, so you can interact with them. Don’t let someone’s important words go unnoticed for too long.

 

How to use Twitter to promote your website

Introduction:

The term ‘Twitter ad’ is pretty ambiguous, as it can refer to any post to Twitter with a paid boost. There are different types of ads including promoted tweets, promoted trends, and promoted accounts. For this post, we’re talking about creating a Twitter website card to specifically promote your website. This tactic can be used to promote your main corporate site, your investor relations site, or a site you’ve created for a special campaign. Whatever your goal is, read below for some tips on how to create the perfect website card.

First thing’s first: what in the world is a website card?

A Twitter website card is a type of ‘Twitter card’, or a tweet that contains an image and a call to action button that helps direct a user to where you want them to go. With a website card, the goal is a specific URL. Brendan Zhang, a member of Twitter’s small business team, wrote that “website cards work to turn ordinary tweets into a creative showcase of your website”.

The best part about them is that they’re actually free to use! It’s your choice whether or not to put money behind a card and promote it. That’s where website cards turn into promoted Twitter ads.

Anatomy of a website card

A Twitter website card has four main components: a headline, a 800×320 image, a call-to-action button and the URL of the website you’re driving traffic to. We’re going to break down each element and give you some tips on how to capitalize on every space you’re given.

Here’s an example of a Twitter website card with its main parts (the URL is included with Call To Action button):

Twitter website card

70 character headline

This is where you want to be catchy, catchy, catchy. Or where you directly explain the benefit a user gets when clicking onto your site. Here are some tips when writing a website card headline:

  1. Don’t use all 70 characters if you don’t absolutely have to. Be short and sweet, but still get your message across.
  2. The headline should state exactly what a user gets by clicking that button. Misleading info will just frustrate everyone.
  3. You can choose to accompany the website card with a 140 character tweet. If you do this, don’t repeat information in both the tweet and the card headline. Always give something new.
  4. Seriously. Be concise. Brevity is the soul of wit. And yep, that was a little Shakespeare for you.

 Card image

The image is arguably the most important part of the card. So do your research! Here are some tips in the meantime:

  1. No ambiguous images. Choose one that directly connects with your headline and the website you’re directing people to.
  2. Triple check that the image you chose is high-quality and the right size, or things will get fuzzy and you’ll look unprofessional.
  3. Consider creating an image that has some words included. Take a look at our example above of our winged ‘IR Champ’ logo.
  4. People like to see images of other people interacting with what you’re offering. Example: if you’re a surfboard company, choose a high-quality image of someone overjoyed to be on a surfboard instead of an image of a lonely surfboard lying in the sand.

Call-to-action button

This is where you get them to actually click. Unfortunately with a Twitter card you can’t write your own call to action, but we’d argue that’s the right way to do it. This way you’re forced to be more concise, and as we’ve learned, that’s good. Twitter provides you with almost 20 different options, such as ‘learn more’, ‘visit now,’ ‘register now’, and ‘subscribe’. Time for a few tips!

  1. If you’re promoting your company or investor website, ‘visit now’ is a safe bet. You can also consider creating a Twitter website card for a specific part of your site like a page where users subscribe to your email newsletter.
  2. Again, make sure all parts of the card are connected and make sense. The image needs to relate to the headline which needs to relate to the call-to-action word.

 Website address/URL

This part is straightforward. Make sure you’re including the right URL, especially if it’s for a subsection of your main website.

  1. Triple check your link before you publish the website card. No one likes a broken link, especially if you’re promoting the ad with some dollars.

Final Thoughts:

  1. Try some free website cards first before putting any real money behind them. Test them with your followers to see if the headline makes sense and the image is eye-catching.
  2. Always make sure your Twitter website cards are up-to-date if you’re running them in an ad. Don’t launch a card and forget about it, because as long as you’re paying for it, it will still be out there.
  3. Even if your ad campaign is running for a long time, swap up the images and content. Keep it new and fresh so your audience won’t glaze over the same ad.

8 creative ways to use Instagram for business

It’s 2015, and many companies now have the hang of social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook. Instagram, however, is the newer, slightly trendier cousin who’s shown up to the party late and not everyone knows. Although it’s true that Instagram is a perfect space for fashion brands and their summer catalogues, we’re interested in ways that all companies can benefit from a little Instagram for business. You don’t need to be Starbucks or Lululemon to have a rockin’ account. Here are some ways to have fun with an Instagram account for your company while still sticking with your brand and staying informative.

1. Teach your audience something new

Short Instagram videos are a great way to create product demos or just produce some fun how-to’s.  Buzzfeed Food’s Instagram often publishes food hacks like the infamous bacon taco-shell below to provide their followers with helpful mealtime tips.

httpss://instagram.com/p/4COq0VPksn/?taken-by=buzzfeed

2. Prove you’re experts in the industry

General Electric’s Instagram is out of control (aka they’re one of the most followed companies on Instagram). GE alternates between animations, nicely designed quotes, and short videos to really give their page some spark. In the post below they promote their aviation testing ground with a fun fact about the engines they produce. This is a great idea. Be your followers’ ‘helping hand’ in the industry and share valuable info and fun facts with them, along with a visual they’ll want to share.

httpss://instagram.com/p/1JF-xdxP–/?taken-by=generalelectric

3. Introduce someone from your team

Get personal and share those smiling faces you’re so proud of. Ben and Jerry’s pulls out all the stops with a full video about one of their ‘flavour guru’s. The video is pretty cool, but a team member introduction can also be as simple as a nice picture and a fun writeup. Ask them to introduce themselves, talk a little about their job and day-to-day duties, and end with a little fun!

httpss://instagram.com/p/39m2aMRkLn/?taken-by=benandjerrys

4. Give people a behind-the-scenes glimpse

Lasers to create smoothie labels? Who knew? Even if you think your company’s day-to-day routine might be a bit, well, routine, it’s not that way for anyone else! Your followers will be interested in some BTS glimpses into the life of your company. Capture a boardroom meeting, a day on-site, or some after work Friday bonding and put a filter on that fun.

httpss://instagram.com/p/5EpKfJKcNh/?taken-by=innocentsmoothies

5. Use your followers as your testing ground

Covergalls Workwear is a Canadian (woot woot) company inspired by the female mining experience to design and develop working clothes for women. In their Instagram post below, they shout-out to all their followers and ask for an opinion on a new product. This is a great way to show your audience that you’re listening to their feedback and determined to produce a product that everyone will love.

httpss://instagram.com/p/5PiSpbRtx8/?taken-by=covergalls

6. Send your community some love

Speaking of shoutouts…give your followers and customers some thanks. Instagram is a great platform for getting personal with those you do business with. Tag a company who has been supporting you the whole way, make a fun video for a special individual, or tag those who recently came to an event of yours with a word of thanks. A little really does go a long way.

httpss://instagram.com/p/416vtggzvv/

7. Preview new content you’ve published

If you have a regular newsletter or frequently publish blogs, promote them on Instagram. It’s a little annoying since Instagram won’t let you hyperlink in a post, but tell people the link is your bio and then add a subscribe link to your profile page. Previewing content is a great way to generate some interest around what you’ve been writing. Or reach out to your followers and ask what they’d like to hear about next.

httpss://instagram.com/p/3jhynBD9rs/

8. Tell a continuous story

Turn your Instagram into a series. Verizon Wireless  got really into it with their ‘The Call’ campaign. Conduct an interview with a notable industry professional, have a week-long ‘Instagram takeover’ internally where someone different from your company posts to the page, or promote a series of blog posts with multiple part Instagram posts. Make sure to label each one ‘1 of 5’, ‘2 of 5’ and so on. By connecting different posts, your followers are more likely to come back to check out what’s happening the next day. Instagram also becomes more than just a snapshot of company life, but a more in-depth way to learn about your company’s story.

tell a continuous story

 

Just can’t get enough? Why should you? Now check out 6 tricks for using Twitter for investor relations.

6 tricks to master Twitter for Investor Relations

Introduction: How to use Twitter for investor relations

You loved our ‘How to use social media for investor relations’ blog back in March, so we thought we’d focus in a little and talk about that little blue bird, and how utilizing Twitter for investor relations can benefit your company. Here are 6 tips to help you navigate through Twitter’s feature to help with day-to-day investor relations communications.

 

1. Embed a Twitter timeline at the bottom of your IR homepage

Allow investors to keep up with you socially without leaving your site by embedding your Twitter timeline at the bottom of the homepage. Many available timeline widgets out there allow users to tweet back to your company, share an individual post, and follow you, all from your IR site. If your company has multiple Twitter accounts–say one main corporate account and a separate one for IR–an embedded timeline for your IR account can serve as a quick at-a-glance of your most recently tweeted investor news.

 

 

2. Tweet the numbers out with an infographic

Using Twitter for investor relations doesn’t have to be boring. Here are some great and colourful examples from GE and T-Mobile IR. Infographics get you around that 140 character barrier, they’re easily shareable, and make those numbers more engaging to your followers. Pick one highlight from the infographic to share in the actual tweet underneath the pic.

httpss://twitter.com/generalelectric/status/589067314374533120

httpss://twitter.com/TMobileIR/status/593054468578545665

 

3. Use Twitter for earnings call Q&As 

The immediacy of Twitter is what makes the social networking platform really stand out. Use the real-time aspect to have shareholders and interested parties alike tweet your company questions during your most recent earnings call. Multiple companies are already trying this out, such as T-Mobile and Twitter themselves. Let your community of followers know the appropriate hashtag to tweet with a day or two before the call (T-Mobile asked their followers to tweet their questions to #TMUSearnings, and Twitter used #TWTRearnings).  During their first quarter earnings call of 2015, T-Mobile’s CEO John Legere was proud of the company’s third “open Twitter conference” and announced that the company would be taking questions “via text, and Twitter, as well as the normal dial-in questions”.

 

 

4. Know how your cashtag can work for you

We told you about cashtags last time, but want to talk about them again since no Twitter for IR list would be complete without them. A ‘cashtag’ is your comapny’s ticker symbol with a ‘$’ in front that creates its own feed. Think of it like a clickable stock symbol. Exactly like a hashtag, searching a cashtag symbol (lets say $TWTR for Twitter) will pull up a separate Twitter feed of all the market conversations going on about that company. Searching your company’s cashtag every once and a while is a great way to keep up with the conversation. Sidebar: there are other great ways to use your ticker symbol for further IR site exposure. Check out how GoDaddy used their symbol in a way barely any of the Fortune 500 have figured out.

 

 

5. ‘Quotebite’ your annual meeting or earnings call 

We’re not sure if ‘quotebite’ is a real word, but it made sense for what we wanted to talk about next, so we’re making it one. Exactly how a news broadcast uses a ‘soundbite’ from an important televised event, some companies are beginning to use Twitter during their annual meetings to tweet meeting highlights and memorable quotes from the CEO. Check out how General Electric and Hewlett-Packard used Twitter in their annual meeting and earnings call. Quotebites can help make the meeting more accessible and more shareable.

httpss://twitter.com/GE_Reports/status/590905316688191489

httpss://twitter.com/GE_Reports/status/590902467153555456

httpss://twitter.com/hpnews/status/601493855628832768

 

6. Get familiar with Twitter lists

Many people still don’t know what the mysterious ‘Lists’ selection is at the top of their Twitter profile page of how they can greatly benefit your Twitter for investor relations strategy. Twitter lists are a curated group of Twitter users. You can create lists for yourself or subscribe to be a part of someone else’s list. You don’t have to be following someone to add them to your list. Twitter lists are great because they allow you to break the vast social network down into more manageable groups that you care about. Find influencers in your industry or lists you want your company to be a part of and subscribe to them. Being a member of various Twitter lists is a really simple but great way to get your company more exposure.

using Twitter for investor relations

 

 

how to use Twitter for investor relations

 





9 tips to improve investor communication with your website



How to use social media for investor relations

Introduction: If it’s just social not-working for you 

Social media’s wide influence on the world of investor relations is fairly new. Suddenly, there’s more than one place you can post new releases, investor presentations, and company updates, and there’s also a set of rules. The sheer overwhelm when it comes to social media can cause many public companies, IRO’s, and professionals to shy away from it all together. But what’s important to remember is that social media is just another form of communication. It’s a way to reach out to those in your network or those investors you’re hoping to get to know. Even though it may sometimes feel like a steep uphill climb, here’s some easy tips to help get you thinking and get you started when it comes to social media for investor relations.

Social media is just one part of your online presence. Download our eBook on 9 tips to improving investor communication with your website.

 

Using social media for investor relations

Tip 1: Know your cashtag

using social media for investor relations tip 1

No, we didn’t make a typo while trying to write the word hashtag. A ‘cashtag’ is a real thing, and although many people might be familiar with seeing them on Twitter, you may not really understand what they’re about. A cashtag is your ticker symbol with a $ in front of it and, just like your ticker symbol, your cashtag is completely unique to you. (Examples: $SBUX for Starbucks, $TWTR for Twitter). Search your unique cashtag on Twitter to see all the conversations going on specifically about your company in the IR world. To get even more specific, try checking out StockTwits. PR Newswire writes “StockTwits and Twitter are different. Keep that in mind as you review your cashtag streams. Think of StockTwits as a monitored sub-culture of stock-nerds from Twitter”. While Twitter includes every cashtag, StockTwits “automatically filters out pennystocks from the discussion stream and…members have identified themselves as ‘market participants'”.

 

 

Tip 2: Imagery and links go together like peanut butter and chocolate 

using social media for investor relations tip 2

Sometimes the key for effectively using social media for investor relations and getting more engagement is about adding a little something to catch someone’s eye. When posting content to platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn, add an image to the post to give it a little more umpf. Sometimes the platform will generate an image for you from the link you’re posting, but if a preview image isn’t automatically supplied, consider uploading one yourself. Here’s a great example from our friends at NIRI. The Facebook post announcing their next IPO Focus Group is enhanced with a separate image also highlighting the event.

 

Tip 3: Formatting is fun

using social media for investor relations tip 3

Here’s another simple tip that you can take advantage of as soon as you finish reading this article. Stay looking clean and professional on your social media channels by having the appropriate formatting when it comes to company logos/banners/cover photos on your profile pages. Without the right sizing, your logo could come across blurry, stretched, or even partly cut off. The guys over at Constant Contact made a handy social media formatting guide. Effective social media for investor relations strategy means coming across as clean and professional on all social channels.
2015-social-media-cheatsheet-one-page

 

 

Tip 4: Take advantage of the real-time aspect

using social media for investor relations tip 4

Social media conversations are a million a minute, and if someone’s not liking something you’re putting out there, you’ll certainly hear about it on social media first. The growing presence of social media for investor relations is prompting public companies to always be on top of their game and to stay transparent. It’s no longer an excuse to not be updated. The social media consulting company TalkWalker writes that social media can be a good place to “take the opportunity to react in real time to user comments about you key events, such as the publication of your annual reports, or other corporate actions…this will give you the chance to reduce any message misalignments and the opportunity to encourage brand endorsement”. Now this doesn’t mean responding to every Negative Nelly. This tip is more about keeping a finger on the pulse of your industry’s conversation. Having a spontaneous flow of information can be spun to a company’s advantage. Use it to always be informed of what’s being said, and if any sort of crisis communications becomes necessary, having an understanding of the chatter of the masses really goes a long way. For a good example of how this worked for Starbucks, check this out.

 

 

Tip 5: DOESN’T THIS LOOK ANNOYING?

using social media for investor relations tip 5

This tip is going to be short and sweet. Do not capitalize an entire news release announcement when posting it to social media. Trust us, you’ll turn some people off if EVERYTHING IS ANNOUNCED like you’re screaming . If you really want to add some capitalization when announcing important company info, try it this way:

NEWS RELEASE: This just in, capitalization of entire news releases can lead to major frustration.

 

 

Tip 6: Make use of Twitter lists 

using social media for investor relations tip 6

Twitter lists are a great tool to organize your followers (or potentials) into public or private lists. Hootsuite writes about why you should make Twitter lists: “the beauty of Twitter is that it is very transparent. You can create lists of people you find influential in your industry or thought leaders within your own company. These lists can be a way to show off your employees or network of awesome followers”.

When you add someone new to a list, say you’ve called it ‘Industry Influencers,’ they will get a notification that you have added them. This is a great, transparent way to get a conversation going with potential clients, investors, or just people you’d like to get to know. Hootsuite writes, “this is a great way to increase your visibility with Twitter users who you do not follow”. The ‘private list’ option can also be useful, as it’s a great way to monitor clients and competitors.

Want more Twitter specific tips? We’ve done lots of research. Read our blog post about how to use Twitter for IR. Have some more time? We’ve also written an eBook on the subject.

 

 

Tip 7: Publish original content: If blogs are too scary, start with LinkedIn publisher 

using social media for investor relations tip 7

If you haven’t heard much about LinkedIn publisher by now, you should get on it. Yes, a blog is the most obvious way to share content to people in your community, but blog upkeep takes a lot of work. If you’re not there yet, think about LinkedIn publisher. Most all the people you’re trying to reach in the investment community or otherwise are probably on LinkedIn. With LinkedIn publisher, any member can write and circulate their own content. This is a great way to start establishing your company as industry influencers. Forbes writes that LinkedIn publisher gives members an opportunity “to showcase their expertise…and distribute quality content to their networks”.

LinkedIn publisher means you get to start off with a more specific audience. Blog posts tend to get lost in the hazy stratosphere of content creation, but publishing content to LinkedIn guarantees more targeted eyes. Forbes says “many professionals have no control over where their content is published or which audience it reaches. With LinkedIn, your content will at least reach your network and could reach other distribution channels”.

 

 

Using social media for investor relations: takeaway list

Get all that? It’s okay if you skimmed, just make sure to remember this:

1. Know your company $cashtag and make use of it (StockTwits is different, but handy).

2. Add images to your links.

3. Make sure all social media posts and images are properly formatted.

4. Use the real-time aspect of social media to keep a finger on the pulse of your industry.

5. Do NOT capitalize everything.

6. Look into Twitter lists of influencers, competitors, and investors, and make your own lists.

7. Start publishing your own content.




9 tips to improve investor communication with your website

The Inner-workings of Hyperlapse by Instagram

Last week, Instagram came out with their newest app called “Hyperlapse,” a tool allowing anyone to create and share time lapse videos with their iPhone or iPad. The app is already at the top of the iTunes app store charts, and it’s easy to see why. With a single click of a button, Hyperlapse users can shoot footage that, before, was thought only possible through professional-and expensive-photography equipment. Hyperlapse has released time lapse technology to the masses. People are taking it to the cities, the skies, and down lonely country roads.

Hyperlapse captures the minuscule,

Creating with #hyperlapse is going to be a lot of fun. Well played @instagram #ants

A post shared by Jake Hiller (@jmayerhiller) on

the ‘in motion,’

the remote,

and the heartbeat of a city. 

So, how does it all work? Anyone watching a Hyperlapse video can see that the technology doesn’t just “speed up” the video, but also smooths out the motion.

Instagram released a post on the Instagram Engineering Blog entitled “The Technology behind Hyperlapse from Instagram.” The post explains how, “time lapses are mesmerizing to watch because they reveal patterns and motions in our daily lives that are otherwise invisible.”

Instagram engineers implemented a specific video stabilization algorithm called ‘Cinema’ and combined this algorithm with other design strategies to create a cleaner and more simplified user experience.

“Cinema… uses the phone’s built-in gyroscope to measure and remove unwanted hand shake…we feed gyroscope samples and frames into the stabilizer and obtain a new set of camera orientations as output. These camera orientations correspond to a smooth ‘synthetic’ camera motion with all the unwanted kinks and bumps removed.”

Besides the inner workings of the algorithm, Cinema also achieves fluidity by slightly manipulating the video’s frames to eliminate the most obvious camera shakes. See this strategy demonstrated below:

“The region inside the white outline is the visible area in the output video. Notice that the edges of the warped frames never cross the white outline. That’s because our stabilization algorithm computes the smoothest camera motion possible while also ensuring that a frame is never changed such that regions outside the frame become visible in the final video.”

Read the full blog post here.

 

Cheat sheet to Live Tweeting at IR Events

 

Why live tweet? – Because “there is no time like the present.” It is real-time communication with IR professionals online, and it’s a great opportunity to provide valuable content that is worthwhile to the IR society. Twitter has found that across many different industries, live tweets consistently boost retweets, @mentions and new followers. So do give your point of view in tweets at IR conferences and events, and below are some ways to get started. We’ve also revamped this post to add a few new tips from Twitter’s latest developments. Read the newly refreshed blog post here! 

Find the #Event2013 hashtag
The first step is, of course, finding the specific hashtag for that particular conference, event or webinar.
#CIRI2013, #SMCorpGov, #DMSummit

Get those @Twitter handles!
It’ll be useful to do some research beforehand to create a list of Twitter handles. That would include speakers and attendees as well. It’s probably best to get to know the crowd and exchange Twitter handles? So if you were to quote a certain comment made at this event, you can @mention them to engage.

Preschedule standard tweets
This would be an absolute timesaver. Get those standard tweets ready-to-go before you walk in. For instance:
Now: live tweeting on #topic hosted by @Speaker at #Event2013
Looking forward to @Speaker’s #paneltopic at #Event2013
Getting ready for the #topic webinar today 10AM with @Speaker #WebinarHashtag

Give insider perspectives
Take advantage of your presence at the event and make a tweet that only you can provide. You can quote a big moment and comment on it. You can act as the reporter and share strong opinions that are expressed or the explorer who poses questions. The important thing is to share useful information and give a point of view.

Join the larger conversation
Do have a read through other @attendees’ live tweets by searching the hashtag #Event2013. Retweet if you find the tweet useful or reply to share insights, it’s all about social engagement. You don’t have to worry about flooding your followers’ timelines because unless they also follow the person you’re tweeting to, your conversation won’t show up on their timeline.

Capture moments in photos
See a PowerPoint slide that sums up the panel? Take a photo of it and share it. It’s a great way to deconstruct the content you have at hand, and disseminating it in different mediums. With a photo, you can share it on other social networks that rely heavily on photos, i.e. Instagram.

Or even better, in videos!
Yes! Press record and share real-time information! A 15 second video clip of a certain slide will allow you to give your followers “zoomed-in detail” that they usually don’t get to see. Mobile video is booming and social media platforms are welcoming the use of videos. Why not take advantage of it right?

Happy live tweeting all! And if you have other tips you’d like to share, let us know or tweet @BlenderMedia!