public company use of social media for investor relations part 2

A Q4 Whitepaper | Sheryl Joyce

Q4 Whitepaper: Public Company Use of Social Media for Investor Relations – Part 2 Facebook September 2011 2

Introduction ................................................................................................... 3 Facebook ........................................................................................................ 5

Facebook Use by Sector .......................................................................... 5 Facebook Use by Region .......................................................................... 5 Facebook Use by Market Capitalization .................................................. 6 Emulating the look and feel of the corporate website homepage via a welcome page ....................................................................................... 14 Pulling in RSS feeds from their IR website or blog to populate Facebook pages ..................................................................................................... 16 Using notes and CSR pages to provide additional information around company assets, highlight important events and underscore sustainability initiatives ......................................................................... 20 Precise commenting guidelines and terms of use ................................. 25 Directing visitors to other social channels they are using and linking to financial blogs ........................................................................................ 27 Expanded use of multimedia to highlight particular aspects of the business ................................................................................................. 30

Facebook Engagement .............................................................................. 34 Conclusion .................................................................................................... 45 Methodology ................................................................................................ 46 References ................................................................................................... 47 About Q4 Web Systems ............................................................................... 48


Introduction Over the past three years we have been analyzing and reporting on the use of social media channels such as Twitter, Facebook, blogs, YouTube, SlideShare and LinkedIn by public companies. Since issuing our first report in 2009 our sample size has grown from 80 to 629 companies and (with the exception of LinkedIn) our findings show increased adoption across all channels:

• 67% use Twitter for investor-‐related material (compared to 65% last year) • 45% use Facebook for investor-‐related material (compared to 37% last year) • 44% use SlideShare for investor-‐related material (compared to 10% last year) • 34% use YouTube for investor-‐related material (compared to 29% last year) • 19% use their corporate blog for investor-‐related material (compared to 10% last year) • 87% have a company page on LinkedIn (compared to 93% last year)

There is a general view is that Facebook is not a viable channel for public companies. This sentiment is mainly due to the perception that the channel is used by a younger demographic. However, a recent study shows that half of all American adults (or 65% of the online adult population) are using social networking sites such as Facebook, MySpace and LinkedIn1. In this second part in our series of whitepapers concerning public company use of social media for investor relations (the first addressed Twitter) we found that Facebook has quickly become a popular channel used by public companies. As such, this whitepaper will focus on how public companies are using Facebook for investor relations.

1 Pew Internet: Half of American adults use Facebook, other social networks http://www.pewinternet.org/Reports/2011/Social-‐Networking-‐Sites.aspx


A complete list of companies included in the study can be found here: http://bit.ly/Q4Whitepaper-‐TwitterData, grouped by sector. A pie chart of the sectors represented in this whitepaper is shown below.

We invite you follow these companies on Twitter, look them up on Facebook, YouTube, SlideShare and LinkedIn in addition to visiting their corporate/IR website and where applicable, their blog. If your company is beginning to or currently using a social network for IR and we have not included you in this report, please follow us on Twitter http://twitter.com/q4websystems, join the IR 2.0 Group on LinkedIn, become a Fan of Q4 on Facebook or email us at [email protected] to be added to the list.

Airline, 13 Automotive, 7

Consumer Goods, 84 Exchanges, 4

Financial Services, 36

Industrial goods/Basic materials, 43

Media, 3 Natural Resources, 122

Pharma/Healthcare/Biotech, 31

Real Estate, 9

Services, 101

Technology, 127

Telecommunications, 24

Utilities, 25

Companies Included in Study by Sector


Facebook Of the 629 companies in this report 476, or 76%, have a Facebook account. After a careful analysis of the content, we found that 45%, or 216 companies, are using it to provide investor-‐related material, compared to the 37% we cited in our report ‘How Public Companies are Using Social Media for Investor Relations’ issued in July 2010.

Facebook Use by Sector Compared to our report issued in July 2010, the Technology sector continues to have the highest percentage of adopters who use Facebook to share investor-‐related material. The Natural Resources sector also remains positioned in second. As the chart below illustrates, after Technology and Natural Resources, Industrial Goods/Basic Materials and Services come in third and fourth respectively.

Facebook Use by Region The companies who use Facebook for investor-‐related material come from all over the world. The breakdown is provided in the chart below (on the next page).

0 50 100 150 200

Airline Automotive

Consumer Goods Exchanges

Financial Services Industrial goods/Basic materials

Media Natural Resources

Pharma/Healthcare/Biotech Real Estate Services

Technology Telecommunications

Utilities

Use of Facebook for IR

Facebook for IR

Facebook


As the chart above shows, as with Twitter, the U.S. and then Canada use Facebook more than any other regions to share investor-‐related material. Of the remaining regions, Germany, Other (that includes companies such as in China and Japan) and Switzerland have the next highest percentage of companies who use Facebook for investor-‐related material. In our July 2010 report, the U.S. also had the most companies who used Facebook for investor-‐related material, although Europe was ahead of Canada.

Facebook Use by Market Capitalization Market Cap was calculated using the close price and current shares outstanding as posted on Google Finance at the time we conducted the research (period from March 1-‐May 15). For simplicity, we categorized each company as small ($0-‐2 billion); medium ($2-‐10 billion); and large ($10+ billion).

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Social Media use by Region

SlideShare

YouTube

Facebook

Blog

Twitter


In our July 2010 report, we indicated that large cap companies, followed by small and medium cap companies used Facebook the most for investor-‐related material. Our analysis this time (as shown in the chart below) has revealed that small caps now use Facebook the most to share investor-‐related material, followed by large cap then mid cap companies.

Our report issued in July 2010 found that after Twitter, Facebook has quickly become a popular social channel used by public companies and found 77% with a Facebook account. We also found that 37% use Facebook to provide context about the company and their industry by sharing investor-‐related material such as press releases, industry-‐related news articles, media coverage and information on conferences. In addition, our July 2010 report found companies are also repurposing video content by aggregating the same footage used on their IR website, such as an interview with the CEO/CFO discussing the latest quarterly results. While others pull in RSS feeds from their IR website or blog to populate their Facebook pages. Our current research supports the research we conducted in 2010 – as we found that companies are consistently using Facebook to provide a greater context to the company and its markets by sharing press releases, industry-‐related news and media coverage, as well as continuing to use video as a means to provide greater context around quarterly results and showcasing company assets.

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100

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200

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350

400

450

Large Mid Small

Social Media Use by Market Cap

SlideShare

YouTube

Facebook

Blog

Twitter


For example, Akamai Technologies shared some industry-‐related news and provided a link to the ‘State of the Internet Report’:

They then held a conference call a few days later to discuss the report:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Akamai-‐Technologies/6918186981

Sharing industry-‐related news and subsequently having a conference call helps position the company as a credible source of information and also establishes them as an authority in their industry.


Goldbank Mining uses Facebook to share media coverage and even has a ‘Goldbank in the News’ page:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Goldbank-‐Mining-‐Corporation/154212237955278?sk=app_10442206389 Having a standalone page dedicated to news, helps the company highlight the media coverage and allows visitors to easily find this information.


Other good examples of information being shared on Facebook include BMC Software, who shared a link to a press release announcing their acquisition of Aeroprise. A few days later, the company provided a link to a blog post from Aeroprises’s CEO of his thoughts on being acquired by BMC:

http://www.facebook.com/bmcsoftware Of note, BMC provided the link in the comments of the initial press release post on their wall. Doing so kept all of the relevant information in one place, thereby making it easier for people to be able to read all of the information together instead of scrolling back through the company’s wall feed to access the press release again. Our earlier research also found some companies with dedicated Twitter and YouTube/Video pages – this time around we see this practice continued. For example, Zimtu, Timken and Towers Watson (as shown in the image on the next page) all have a separate Twitter page:


http://www.facebook.com/towerswatson Having a separate Twitter page gives people quick access to this content and immediately communicates these companies are also on Twitter. As you can see from the image above, Towers Watson also had a dedicated YouTube page.


Similarly, Prophecy Coal has a separate page where they house their YouTube videos:

http://www.facebook.com/prophecycoal?sk=app_158587972131 Prophecy uses YouTube for a wide variety of things including an overview of their assets and an interview with the company’s CEO about one of their projects. This time around we also found several companies who continue to use their Facebook account to advertise available career opportunities. For example, VMware: http://www.facebook.com/vmware; progress energy: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Progress-‐Energy-‐Carolinas/348143653096 and Barrick Gold: http://www.facebook.com/barrick.gold.corporation have a dedicated ‘Jobs’ page.


Some companies start out using Facebook as an HR-‐focused area. They then gradually add additional company content such as industry-‐related articles and videos. Taking the time to explore how social channels like Facebook can be used for one particular area of your business and expanding its use for other areas of your business is important, as the market consumes all types of company content, such as HR/IR, and pieces it together to form part of their impression of your company. In our July 2010 report, we also provided some commentary on how companies are engaging with investors on Facebook. At the time, we highlighted TVI Pacific for their exemplary use of the channel and who eventually recognized the discussion board on the company’s Facebook page as its ‘Official Corporate Discussion Forum.’ For this report, we took an in-‐depth look at the engagement practices of the companies who use Facebook for investor-‐related material, that is, how they are using Facebook to interact and engage in conversation with their visitors. As such, we found increased engagement with investors via direct responses and/or referrals to the IR department from a handful of the companies – a section will be dedicated to investor engagement later in this document. This time around, we also found some emerging trends and other interesting new uses of Facebook amongst the companies we reviewed such as:

• Emulating the look and feel of their corporate website homepage (and linking to their

website) via a ‘welcome page’.

• Pulling in RSS feeds from their IR website or blog to populate their Facebook pages.

• Using notes and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) pages to provide additional

information around company assets, highlight important events and underscore

sustainability initiatives.

• Precise commenting guidelines and terms of use.

• Directing visitors to other social channels they are using and linking to financial blogs.

• Expanded use of multimedia such as video and photos to highlight particular aspects of

their business.

Each of the aforementioned will be discussed in a section of their own next.


Emulating the look and feel of the corporate website homepage via a welcome page An emerging trend we are seeing is the use of a stand-‐alone welcome page – with several companies emulating the look and feel of the homepage of their corporate website. For example, Compuware uses the same imagery as on their corporate homepage. When you hover over the imagery it links to the company’s homepage url. They also have a ‘learn more’ feature that also links to all the same sections that reside on their website: http://www.facebook.com/compuware. Similarly, Zion’s welcome page has the same look and feel as their website as they repurposed the banner image from the homepage of their corporate website: http://www.facebook.com/zionoil?sk=app_174236709278965. We also like how they have ‘Home’ and ‘Investors’ tabs that both link to the corresponding sections on their website. Linking back to their website makes it easy for visitors to learn more about the company, while increasing traffic to the website at the same time. A particularly good example of a welcome page is Chesapeake Energy. The main feature of the company’s welcome page is a YouTube video of the CEO where he literally welcomes visitors to their Facebook page and states that they encourage questions about their company and its operations on their Facebook wall:

http://www.facebook.com/Chesapeake?sk=app_206670162678585


We also like how the company has a ‘Chesapeake in your Community’ section. Having a section like this can help the company showcase the underlying drivers of their business. Also, as stated above, having sections link back to your website makes it easy for visitors to learn more about the company, while increasing traffic.

Lastly, we also thought SAP’s welcome page was exemplary as they have a ‘Stay Connected to SAP’ section that lets visitors know they can ‘get the newest updates and exclusive content’. They also include a video of the company’s community manager who is ready to help with any questions or direct visitors to the appropriate department:

http://www.facebook.com/SAPSoftware?sk=app_140810705994704 Another feature we like on SAP’s welcome page is that they provide links to the other social channels the company is using.


You may also want to check out SAIC: http://www.facebook.com/SAICinc and Fiat Group: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Fiatgroup/104787749065?ref=ts who also have good welcome pages.

Pulling in RSS feeds from their IR website or blog to populate Facebook pages Companies are increasingly configuring an RSS feed to populate their Facebook pages. We are seeing a couple of different things on this front – where some companies have a separate page for an RSS feed from their blog, others are pushing their press releases to a ‘News’ page. Companies are also providing a dropdown menu where visitors can choose other RSS feeds that they want to subscribe to.

RSS/Blog Altera and Lafarge both have an RSS/blog feed page. Altera provides a link where visitors can easily subscribe to their news as well as a dropdown menu where one can choose to subscribe to various feeds or just their news feed only:

http://www.facebook.com/alteracorp?sk=app_23798139265


They also have a ‘visit website’ link right on the page, which is a logical place to do this as after reading a blog post or press release, visitors may want to find out more information about the company. Similarly, Lafarge also provides a link so visitors can easily subscribe to their news. They also have a dropdown menu where visitors have a vast array of RSS feeds to choose from as shown in the image below:

http://www.facebook.com/Lafarge?sk=app_23798139265 While Aruba Networks links to the blog in the ‘Notes’ page: http://www.facebook.com/arubanetworks?sk=notes. Some other good examples of companies that have an RSS/blog feed are RiverBed: http://www.facebook.com/riverbed and NetApp: http://www.facebook.com/NetApp.


Of note, some companies in the study have a dedicated blog page that links directly to their website, like AGCO: http://www.facebook.com/AGCOcorp?sk=app_10339498918. Rackspace has a link to their blog as well via a dedicated ‘Blog’ page – we especially like how they have each blog post listed that links back to their website. They also provide the first few sentences from each one so visitors don’t have to rely on the title alone or click the link to see if they are interested in reading the entire piece:

http://www.facebook.com/rackspacehost?sk=app_9953271133


News Page The Timken Company makes it easy for visitors to access their press releases by using an RSS feed to house the most recent releases in the news page:

http://www.facebook.com/timken?sk=app_56625786785 Timken also drives traffic to their website as visitors are taken to the newsroom section of their website when they click on any of the news release links. Having a separate news page makes it easier for visitors to see and access all of the news in one place. SonicWall: http://www.facebook.com/SonicWALL and Cord Blood America: http://www.facebook.com/cbai.usa?ref=ts2 also both use an RSS feed to populate their news page. Of note, SonicWall and Cord Blood post their press releases on their news page only – i.e. they do not post their press releases on their wall (or even post them in both places). Companies that post their press releases on their wall feed as opposed to posting them all in one place such as a news page put the onus on the reader to scroll through pages of threads to find what they are looking for. In addition, if a company doesn’t make it known to their stakeholders that the company is also using Facebook to share company information such as


news releases, investors wouldn’t know to look there otherwise. So having a separate news page with links to the company’s press releases can help alleviate the frustration that may come from having to potentially go through pages of information. Other companies are also using posting information ad hoc to their news page. Or in Pfizer’s case, they provide a wide array of links (which they point out is ‘Intended for Media Professionals’) such as: press releases, investor presentations, executive speeches and the product pipeline – although all of this information would also be of interest to investors: http://www.facebook.com/Pfizer?sk=app_10339498918. Of note, with the exception of ‘Follow Us on Twitter’, all of the other topics on the news page link back to Pfizer’s website – which is a best practice.

Using notes and CSR pages to provide additional information around company assets, highlight important events and underscore sustainability initiatives Many companies in our study also use a ‘Notes’ page to provide background information about assets, such as a mining site or production facility, or to highlight important events. Companies are also using a ‘CSR’ page to highlight their corporate social responsibility efforts. First, we’ll discuss some interesting things companies are sharing in the notes pages.

Notes Page A handful of companies have a dedicated notes page – with some using the page to highlight information that is also housed on their wall feed. For example, Unisys Corp uses their notes page mainly to share new product announcements and company-‐sponsored webinars: http://www.facebook.com/UnisysCorp. While Ford Motor Company uses their notes page to mostly address specific technical and safety questions that are answered by employees in various roles such as Engineering and Safety: http://www.facebook.com/ford. We found some particularly interesting uses of notes pages – for example, Open Text provides a weekly recap that includes press releases that were issued during the week. They also breakout weekly events that they attended or webinars they held:


http://www.facebook.com/opentext?sk=notes We thought this was a very creative way to let visitors know what is new. Where applicable, the company provides links so visitors can read more about the event – and all of the information links to their website. Expedition Mining uses their notes page to discuss their properties. Of interest, their most recent note provides additional information that supplements a press release they issued in June announcing work on a new property – they provided more highlights and a map to show where the property is located. Lastly, Wipro uses their notes page to proactively bring attention regarding a fraud case where potential job candidates were being asked to pay a fee to apply for jobs at the company: http://www.facebook.com/WiproTechnologies?sk=notes.


Obviously this is an important piece of information for Wipro to share, and visitors commend the company for letting them know about the incident and working with officials to close the matter quickly.

Corporate Social Responsibility/Sustainability Pages Our previous research found that some companies were using Facebook to link to corporate responsibility/sustainability reports like: Centrica: http://bit.ly/a4QNIL, BMW: http://www.facebook.com/bmwgroupview and Cummins Inc. as shown below:

http://www.facebook.com/CumminsPower?v=info

This time around we see a few companies that have pages specifically dedicated to their CSR/Sustainability efforts – especially companies in the resource sector to address the environmental and social impact of their operations, as well as companies in food services to highlight their policies regarding the ethical treatment of animals and employee safety initiatives.


GoldCorp has a ‘Corporate Responsibility’ page that includes a CSR mission statement. They also provide links to their CSR and Human Rights Policies in three languages: English, Spanish and French, and provide concrete examples of what they are doing to support the communities they are working in:

http://www.facebook.com/Goldcorp?sk=app_221460014534454


Smithfield Foods has a comprehensive ‘Responsibility’ Page, as they break out all the relevant areas they are focused on regarding their CSR efforts including: the environment, employees, animal welfare, communities and food safety, and link back to the corresponding section on their website:

http://www.facebook.com/SmithfieldFoods?sk=app_4949752878 They seem to invest a lot of time into their sustainability efforts which is evidenced by the amount of information on their website.


Precise commenting guidelines and terms of use We are seeing companies from many different sectors provide commenting guidelines and terms of use, such as Standard Bank (who has a dedicated ‘Terms and Conditions’ page): http://www.facebook.com/standardbankgrp and Intel, who has a ‘Moderation Guidelines’ page:

http://www.facebook.com/Intel?sk=app_4949752878


Other companies have their commenting guidelines posted in another place, such as their info page, like American Electric Power: http://www.facebook.com/americanelectricpower?sk=info, in an ‘Important Info About’ page, and like AstraZeneca: http://www.facebook.com/AstraZenecaUSCommunityConnections and in a ‘More Information’ page, like Accenture:

http://www.facebook.com/accenture?sk=app_4949752878 Accenture has a good explanation of why they joined Facebook – “The page provides information about our company in a way that is up-‐to-‐date and valuable. By becoming a Fan, you can stay up-‐to-‐date on our latest news, thought-‐leadership and upcoming events.”


Directing visitors to other social channels they are using and linking to financial blogs In our June 2011 report: Public Company Use of Social Media for IR – Part 1: Twitter and StockTwits, we pointed out an emerging trend where companies link from Twitter to their blogs or other social channels, such as Facebook, YouTube and SlideShare. We are also seeing a similar practice of how companies are using Facebook for IR – such as Allscripts who reminds visitors that they can also follow the company on Twitter:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Allscripts/56138480422 Similarly, CenturyLink: http://www.facebook.com/CenturyLink?v=info, Epicor: http://www.facebook.com/epicor and Expedition Mining: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Expedition-‐Mining-‐Inc/146002638785318 all also let visitors know that the company is also available on Twitter to answer questions. Our current report also found that some of the companies aren’t providing links to just one social channel in their wall feed. Instead, these companies have dedicated pages such as a ‘Social Networking’ page, like Omnicell that links to additional social channels they are using, including LinkedIn and Twitter: http://www.facebook.com/pages/OmnicellInc/59194422781?sk=app_7146470109.


Similarly, NetApp lets their visitors know of the additional channels that they can be followed via a ‘Follow NetApp’ page:

http://www.facebook.com/NetApp?sk=app_6009294086 We particularly like how they make this page aesthetically appealing by providing the logos with embedded links to all of the social channels. They also have more than one account for certain social networks, and where applicable, list and provide links to them. Northrop has a ‘Follow Us’ in their ‘Unmanned Systems’ page – which is also visually appealing: http://www.facebook.com/NorthropGrumman.


Lastly, in addition to dedicated YouTube, Twitter and Flickr pages, BP America lists their social channels and links to them in their ‘Gulf Updates’ page:

http://www.facebook.com/BPAmerica?sk=app_195180677183161

Linking to Financial Blogs As reported in our June 2011 report, companies who use Facebook to share investor-‐related information are also linking to sector-‐related articles from financial blogs. For example, Agnico-‐Eagle shared an article on Seeking Alpha: ‘Agnico Eagle Mines: An Attractive Complement to Gold Exposures’: http://www.facebook.com/AgnicoEagle?sk=wall. Being in tune with what is being said on financial blogs is an important consideration for companies who are using social media. Shareholders (especially retail ones) may not be privy to or otherwise know about financial blogs so it is good practice to share information found on these emerging channels.


Quest Rare Minerals also shared this article on Facebook: ‘Rare Earths Picking Up.’ This article is not just focused on Quest, but rather provides commentary on several other companies in their space:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Quest-‐Rare-‐Minerals-‐Ltd/139328176093827#! Sharing an article that talks about peers in their market, gives Quest’s shareholders a nice overview of the sector. Additionally, an article like this can increase awareness amongst investors in this space who may not have known about Quest. In general, there is a lot of upside to staying in tune with what is being said on financial blogs, whether your company is the focus of the article, like Agnico-‐Eagle, or included as part of a broader segment about your sector, as in Quest’s case. Sharing this kind of information on social networks helps provide more background information about your company and the industry.

Expanded use of multimedia to highlight particular aspects of the business As reported in July 2010, a lot of companies were making good use of videos by repurposing the content and aggregating the same footage in several places, such as their IR website, YouTube and Facebook. A common thing we were seeing was a video interview with the CEO/CFO commenting on the company’s strategy or providing additional context around their quarterly earnings. Companies were also posting photos taken at conferences (industry and company-‐sponsored) as well as company events, like their annual meeting.


We are still seeing companies share photos. For example, Commerce Resources has a good photo gallery that showcases a variety of pictures of their assets and from industry-‐related events:

http://www.facebook.com/commerceresourcesfan?sk=photos

Other examples are Prophecy Coal: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Prophecy-‐Resource-‐Corporation/345929382560, Gartner: http://www.facebook.com/Gartner, Advance Micro Devices: http://www.facebook.com/AMD?sk=app_2392950137 and Atlas Copco: http://www.facebook.com/atlascopco?sk=app_2513891999, who all have comprehensive YouTube/video accounts where they share a wide variety of videos.


This time around, companies are also using video to highlight key happenings such as footage from their annual meeting, like N-‐Viro:

http://www.facebook.com/nviro?ref=search&sid=1400304695.1933266030..1 Exeter Resources Corp. also used video to supplement a press release that announced the completion of pre-‐feasibility results on one of their developments, where the Chairman provides more background around what this means for shareholders:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Vancouver-‐BC/Exeter-‐Resource-‐Corporation/74215596524?ref=ts Video recording a member of the management team talking about a press release can help strengthen relations with shareholders as it shows the company cares enough to take the time to ensure a clear understanding of what this means for them. Additionally, providing additional information around an event can also alleviate potential repetitive questions to the IR department.


We also found a few other interesting uses of video this time around, including Chevron, who showcases how one of their refineries recycles millions of gallons of wastewater that frees up freshwater for the community:

http://www.facebook.com/Chevron Shoretel also uses video in an interesting way as they include customer testimonials: http://de-‐de.facebook.com/shoretel, and Nextera shares a video about what landowners who live where they have their wind farms have to say:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/NextEra-‐Energy-‐Resources/323814010133 External testimonials can help the company gain credibility as their operations are being validated from key stakeholders. As we’ve mentioned in previous reports, companies that publish their corporate videos on YouTube and embed them on their website will provide highly visible, quick access to this content on their site and increase readership in both channels.


Additionally, companies that post videos on YouTube make it easy for interested parties – such as the financial media, institutional and retail shareholders – to share their videos as the embed code is easily extracted and can be cut and pasted virtually anywhere.

Facebook Engagement We took an in-‐depth look at the engagement practices of the companies who use Facebook for investor-‐related material, that is, how they are using Facebook to interact and engage in conversation with their visitors. Of the 216 companies who use Facebook for IR, we found that 7% are actively engaging with investors via direct responses and/or referrals to the IR department:

Of the 7% of companies in this study who are actively engaging with investors, the following chart shows that Natural Resources leads the way, followed by Technology, with Utilities and Industrial Goods/Basic Materials tied for third:

7%

93%

Facebook (IR engagement)

Engaged

Not

Airline Consumer Goods Financial Services

Media Pharma/Healthcare/Biotech

Services Telecommunications

0 20 40 60 80 100

Facebook Engagement by Sector

Facebook engagement (likes, comments)

Facebook (IR engagement)


In our July 2010 report, with the exception of TVI Pacific, we found very few investors looking to engage companies directly through Facebook. So while the 7% we found this time around may seem low, we can surmise that companies who are using Facebook for IR are committed to regularly monitoring these channels and answering investor-‐related questions. It is difficult to discern whether a person on Facebook is an investor, so the nature of the question was used to surmise if the visitor was a potential or current investor. Before getting into some concrete examples of IR engagement on Facebook, we’d like to highlight TVI Pacific who were early adopters of Facebook for IR and who continue to do a good job on this channel. TVI Pacific remains dedicated to monitoring and encouraging questions on Facebook. For example, we reported in our Twitter whitepaper that they proactively asked followers to submit questions in advance of their annual meeting. They also posted a similar message on Facebook:

http://www.facebook.com/tvipacific Companies who post consistent messages on all of the social channels they use can help shareholders know that they can get the same information on whatever channel they choose.


There are a wide variety of IR-‐related questions that companies are getting asked on Facebook. For example, general questions like this one to Pearson: ‘How do you see Pearson shares in the future?’:

http://www.facebook.com/BraveImaginativeDecent

This is a difficult question to answer and we feel the company did an exceptional job with the answer. While the answer may seem vague, IR departments often get these type of ‘fishing’ questions – so providing a high level answer as opposed to not acknowledging the question lets investors know that the company is monitoring and available to answer their questions on Facebook.


Like Twitter, NovaGold is very active on Facebook. As such, they are constantly monitoring the conversations happening about their company on both of these channels. For example, while not technically a direct question, the company chooses to respond to a general comment as shown in the image below:

While not every comment warrants a reply, we like how NovaGold addressed the issue in a subtle way – as they obviously cannot comment on market activity.


They also respond to a very difficult direct question and appropriately keep the response high-‐level. They also direct the friend to the FAQ section on their website and include a number for the IR department:

http://www.facebook.com/NovaGold


We are also seeing companies answer questions directly related to their operations. For example, Reed Resources who answers a question regarding a sell-‐off of one of their assets:

http://www.facebook.com/ReedResources


Vena Resources also fielded a few questions related to their projects. The first in January 2011:


and the second one in July 2011:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Vena-‐Resources-‐Inc/160088440668878?sk=wall Vena does a good job of monitoring – as each of the questions were responded to in a timely fashion.


Some other incidences of shareholder engagement include Nortel, who responded to a visitor who took the opportunity to ask, “When Nortel will be back to normal business again” on their wall in response to a recent press release on another matter:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Nortel/68948699417


Apella Resources takes the opportunity to answer a question that was asked around an industry-‐related article they shared on their wall:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Apella-‐Resources-‐Inc/126421967379753?v=wall Sharing industry-‐related articles helps provide context around the business. Being able to also answer any questions like Apella did, and tie it back to their operations helps establish the company as a credible source of information.


Lastly, Alcoa refers a shareholder to their website to help answer a question regarding the aluminum surplus:

http://www.facebook.com/alcoa


Conclusion Based on the shear increase in the number of companies we are currently tracking and the increase in the percentages year-‐over-‐year, it is quite evident that public companies see value in using social media to increase awareness and engage with key constituents. IRO’s continue to use Facebook to provide greater context to the company and its markets by sharing industry-‐related information and using multimedia to showcase assets. We are seeing emerging trends, such as increased engagement with investors and interesting new uses of Facebook, including a notes page to provide a weekly recap of new information and events. In addition, compared to what we have previously reported on how companies are engaging with investors on Facebook, the cited examples in the engagement section indicate an increase on this front. As companies choose to use Facebook as an additional channel to consistently share information and answer questions or direct visitors to where they can find the answers, investors will come to know that they can access company information and interact with the company on this channel. The increased adoption of Facebook points to a changing attitude of the channel, from primary use by a younger demographic to a viable channel to connect with investors. Stay tuned for our next whitepaper that will reveal how public companies are using blogs to share investor-‐related material.


Methodology A company was considered to be using social networks for investor relations if they were providing context about their company and industry, such as providing links to headlines and other content already posted on their corporate or IR websites. For example, press releases, corporate videos showcasing corporate assets and interview footage with the CEO/CFO regarding the latest results. Other information we considered included industry-‐related news, conferences, analyst days and annual meetings. Our original list of companies was compiled from various sources including: The Fortune 500 and Blogging: Slow and steady and farther along than expected2 – a study conducted by Nora Ganim Barnes, Ph.D., and Eric Mattson, CEO of Financial Insite. The list was supplemented with a partial list of companies cited in a blog post by Brian Solis: Corporate Tweets and the SEC: Sometimes It’s Better To Keep Your Mouth Shut3. As well, we also used the IR Web Report public company Twitter list on Listorious4. Part of our analysis included a review of each company to see if they listed and/or provided links on their website to the social networks they were using. If none were found, a search on the company’s site was conducted using keywords such as “Facebook”, “Blog”, “YouTube”, “SlideShare” and “LinkedIn” and results were evaluated using the established criteria. If a link to any of the social networks listed above was not located through a site search, we then searched for the company name on each of the individual social networks. In some instances, multiple accounts were found on each network, in which case we deemed the official account to be the social network listed on their corporate/IR website.


References

1. Pew Internet: Half of American adults use Facebook, other social networks

http://www.pewinternet.org/Reports/2011/Social-‐Networking-‐Sites.aspx

2. The Fortune 500 and Blogging: Slow and steady and farther along than expected

http://www1.umassd.edu/cmr/studiesresearch/fortune500.cfm

3. Corporate Tweets and the SEC: Sometimes It’s Better To Keep Your Mouth Shut

http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/05/03/corporate-‐tweets-‐and-‐the-‐sec-‐sometimes-‐its-‐

better-‐to-‐keep-‐your-‐mouth-‐shut/

4. Listorious

http://listorious.com/irwebreport/public-‐companies


About Q4 Web Systems Q4 Web Systems (Q4) is the leader in online investor relations and social media solutions. Hundreds of IR professionals rely on the Q4 web platform for best practice IR websites and managing social media activities on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Flickr, SlideShare and StockTwits. Q4 integrates with any website and includes market leading best practice modules and investor tools as well as automated website disclosure records and the most comprehensive integration of social media available in the market. Q4 is highly modular and can be scaled to fit any budget or requirement. Q4 provides a wide range of solutions to meet your needs. Learn more at www.q4websystems.com Or contact us toll Free at 1-‐877-‐626-‐7829 or [email protected]

public company use of social media for investor relations part 2

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