Random Articles

"Twitter's user ranks grew more than 1,000% last year, according to Nielsen Online. And Facebook, despite its size, grew more than 200% (source)"


"Many professionals have bought into the belief that anyone who can use a Flip camera, build a Facebook page or make a few Twitter updates a day can now do PR. (source)"
This article I found interesting because it shoots down the concept that Public Relations is obsolete and social media is killing it, but rather PR is even more important with the growth of social media.

Kellogg Increases 2010 Ad Spend, Triples Social Media
Kellogg is planning to spend more money on ads in 2010 and triple its investment in social media efforts. They have seen success from investing in these sites already, especially their Pop-Tarts and Special K pages on Facebook.


21st Century Investor Relations Introduces Online Marketing Service
This service is called Investor Relations 2.0 which includes Internet and Web 2.0 platforms for Investors to use for their publicly traded companies for not just "outbound" strategies, but "inbound" tasks. Investors and stakeholders can use this online marketing service for content rich websites, social media marketing, and search engine optimization. IR 2.0 will deliver direct and effective messages to the target audiences. This takes advantage of the internet's speed and outreach to improve stock price reliability and raise site traffic. This site was based off of social media and includes blogs, social networks, videos, and other web applications.

Twitter and Facebook part of Costa Rica election
Not only did a woman become leader of the country, but social networks were used during the election process. Users of these sites posted thier comments and opinions about the issues and candidates, polling atmosphere, and pictures. #votocr was the most used Spanish word on Twitter on election day. Around 1,000 tweets were posted every hour relating to the election. On Facebook, La Nacion's profile received 250 comments and candidates' profiles received comments. When the polls closed, Costa Rica's electoral authority "Tribunal Supremo de Elecciones" tweeted their voting count updates. Residents of Costa Rica used the popular sites to discuss important issues and express their views. I found this interesting because I don't remember hearing anything like this about the recent Presidential election, but I have noticed a greater presence of politicians on Facebook. The article ended with Costa Rica has the highest internet penetration in Central America of more than 1/3rd the population. Finding that interesting, I looked up the US's internet penetration which is close to 4 times of Costa Rica's.

TradeStream Your Way to Profits: Building a Killer Portfolio in the Age of Social Media
Zack Miller wrote this book about the changes and opportunities for investors, financial advisors, and IR professionals on the world wide web. His book shows how to make use of social media and profit. There are how-to's on investing for long term through streaming info, tips, and other tools available on internet financial social media; tips from experts; and new tools to sort through data and how it applies to you. The Internet has evolved regarding researching investments which the book goes into and how you can use these changes to benefit.

Changes on Facebook

After watching the Webinar in class, I learned the importance of businesses staying current with the latest social networking websites. I did not know that companies had software or programs to help them monitor what people are saying about them to keep effective 2 way communication. It was interesting that they recommended searching your company's name followed by sucks or hates.

In the social media world - Facebook took away advertisement from Microsoft. Bing is the search provider. Facebook gets more page views than Microsoft or Yahoo now. AIM is also integrated with Facebook Chat. There have been several changes to the popular social networking site as of recently!

The most interesting article from this week is about a Yale University graduate and Warren Buffett. She was unknown and young, but received an invitation to dinner and receive more exposure because of it. She posted a picture of them together on her Facebook.

Facebook is NOT face to face - relationships can be formed or reunited, but some messages may be lost in translation over the world wide web. It is important to focus other IR campaigns on other non-electronic outlets, and not solely the internet to reach consumers or investors. However, Facebook has a huge potential to reach members of the online audience and should be used by businesses.

Need for Speed - This blogger, IRWebReport, is tracking over 600 companies via Twitter and noticed that these companies do not integrate their tweets with website postings. One media outlet can be neglected for minutes or hours. By doing so, they are not being effective or consistent in reaching their followers or fans. This was an interesting blog post to me because I had not thought of consistently and simultaneously releasing information across all outlets to keep investors and IR professionals in the loop.

To sum it up, social media will not be going away anytime soon. It will keep becoming more popular and expanding around the world as greater technology is developed. Companies not taking advantage of these outlets and missing reaching potential consumers and investors. When integrating your company on a Facebook page it is important to keep the information fresh and fun to keep those interested informed including links to your website, articles, and resources. Especially with older generations joining the Facebook bandwagon.

A Week of New Websites

3 new websites were released this week: Google Buzz, DearCEO, and U-Swirl.

Google opens new social hub in face-off with Facebook

On Tuesday, Google created "Google Buzz," which contains many of Facebook's features. It was released after Facebook changed their own site around again. This site will be available to Gmail users. Similarities with Facebook include: users can post updates, pictures, videos, and links. When using a cellphone with Google Buzz, users can see others' updates in the same location.

I did not know that Google had previously released a social networking site called "Orkut" 6 years ago before Facebook was started. This site never really reached many people outside of Brazil. Google is certain that Google Buzz will not flop like Orkut did. The site promises to remove the clutter and only have updates that reach each users' interests, which is a current advantage over Facebook. How the site will do this I am interested to know.

Google and Facebook remain direct competition. Facebook may be releasing an email service in the near future. In 2007, Facebook sold a 1.6% stake to Microsoft. And Sheryl Sandberg, a former Google advertising executive became Facebook's chief operating officer.

Along with many others, I am curious to see how Google Buzz will do. Google is the leading search engine, but will people make the switch from Facebook to Google? Google has more power, but among social networks Facebook holds the most popularity. It will be interesting to see the site develop and the people that become users.

Website to make contacting CEOs easier

A website launched last week called DearCEO will allow investors to quiz company representatives, send queries to companies, reply from the company to site users, and provide info to small investors. The site sends questions through email to the company's chief executive and if there is no answer the email is then sent to a generic IR contact.

I think that this site can be useful for all IR professionals because I feel that the site simplifies IR tasks and makes all information available in one place. The site is free which is also an advantage and is set up like a FAQ system. Although it is not directly related to Facebook, I find it similar because it is bringing IR professionals together. On the site's statistics it says there are 2,269 members and 2,210 companies, which is very impressive for a site that is only a week old.

Healthy Fast Food Unveils New Website at U-SWIRL.com
U-Swirl is frozen yogurt and its new site provides details about their tasty treat. It links to their Twitter, Facebook, and Myspace. The site currently provides info about franchising, and key investor, stock market, and corporate governance about Healthy Fast Food. Future plans for the site are to have a stronger IR platform, in-store videos, customer testimonials, franchise case studies, and many more.

This press release emphasizes the importance of staying up to date on current online trends. Just launching a website is not enough anymore, there need to be links to social media outlets. I found it interesting that even a company that is viewed as a dessert needs to stay up-to-date in the online world. I am interested to see the site evolve more in an IR prospective.

Week 2

On my Google Alerts for my last name, I normally receive news about my father (Daniel) who is a politician or my cousin (David) who is a athlete at Tufts University. Professor Laskin had emailed me to inform me that someone had commented about my blog, and I finally received a Google Alert pertaining to me! It's very neat how I had only written one post about my semester long topic and someone already noticed. I never would have guessed anyone in the Investor Relations world would be interested in my blog and am honored.
I also then realized that I am a Facebook business fan page admistrator. My dad put me in charge of updating the family business's fan page (here). Although, I still cannot seem to convince him to advertise to gain more fans, because the fans are mostly the year round locals instead of the summer tourists. I am interested in how much it would cost to get the page more exposure. I will admit it is difficult to update the page while I am away at school, but I try my best to keep the page fun and fresh.

So now to what is happening with Facebook in this week's Google Alerts. Companies mentioned include: HardwareGeeks.com, Aruba Networks, Candidate Debra Medina, Hawk Associates, The Cheese Cake Factory, First Mariner Bancorp, government relations page, Healthy Coffee International, Asana, Zappos, Visa, and California Pizza Kitchen.

Some unrelated interesting articles were also included, one about The Impact of Social Media on Communications Recruiting, one about Facebook and Twitter Causing Students to fail English now, and one about Moms on Facebook.

A FREE Webinar about Social Media & IR is coming up on February 11th.
I also learned that the Kid's/Tween's version of Facebook is kidswirl.com.

After coming across familiar names and new names, I thought of the idea, what if i go to Facebook and search "investor relations." The search results include 3 groups simply titled "investor relations" and three web results including Google, National Investor Relations Institute, and Apple.