by Ibrey Woodall, VP Web Communications Services, Business Wire
Ibrey Woodall, VP, Web Communication Services
Last week, Business Wire CEO Cathy Baron Tamraz was interviewed on CNBC’s “Closing Bell” by Maria Bartiromo and Bill Griffeth. Business Wire Senior Vice President of Global Media Neil Hershberg relayed the finer points of that discussion in a blog post titled Social Media in the Spotlight: Business Wire CEO Cathy Baron Tamraz Talks About the SEC’s Guidance on CNBC. As noted, the SEC now allows social media channels – once formally announced – to be utilized for Regulation Fair Disclosure communication, along with press releases, investor relations web sites, webcasts and filings.
Any communications professional worth their salt knows that communications tools are tactics, and that tactics are much more productive when exercised in unison. The fitting strategy is to coordinate these tools to work together automatically so that they are not only effective, but also efficient and timely.
Superior practices performed by multiple investor relations officers (IROs) begin with a safeguarded earnings release broadly distributed and tweeted by an established, trusted wire service. The next step is to make sure that the earnings press release posts directly and simultaneously from the wire service onto the company’s investor center, and into the correct category. If a third-party aggregator is used, there may be a delay in that press release being accessible and organized correctly on the IR site. If the IR site is solely used as a means of disclosure, there is the potential security concern that the information may be found before it is officially made available to all parties. Sadly, this has been experienced by some companies.
The IR communications professional is also responsible for determining that the IR site accepts registration for select email alert and
IR site visitors should be able to share posted content either by emailing, tweeting or posting onto social networks.
text message or Short Message Service (SMS) delivery. Investors, analysts, financial media, executives, and others who have expressed a desire to be notified when an earnings release is posted must immediately receive either the chosen email alert or mobile alert delivery method, or both. It is imperative that the message be identified as being delivered from the company’s official investor center, and should always contain a link to the full text version of the press release located on the IR site.
There are ways to successfully implement social media tools into the IR communications mix – in a useful and harmless manner. This can be done by integrating authorized social networks and a sharing module. Once a material news release is automatically posted onto the IR site, the IRO should then, if desired, be able to distribute an official tweet, as well as post onto Facebook or LinkedIn from the IR site administration dashboard. This creates a much more efficient workflow than logging into individual company social networks and preparing messages to tweet or post.
At the minimum, social media badges should be visible on the Home Page of the IR site, but if there is a company Twitter stream, it should also be integrated and displayed. Site visitors can then quickly see the most recent tweets made by the company, including the earnings release announcement, the scheduled webcast event, and the video interview of the Chief Executive Officer or Chief Financial Officer discussing the latest earnings release. The Twitter stream should contain only tweets made by the company, and not include tweets by followers.
The addition of a sharing module within an IR site expands the distribution potential of vital content. Once the earning press release is officially public and available on the IR site, site visitors can share their interest in that news by electing to tweet or post the content onto their social networks or send it by email.
There are many helpful ways to utilize social media in IR communications; however, when it comes to full and fair disclosure, these communications tools should be used as part of an overall strategy in conjunction with tried and true, secure communications techniques.
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Ibrey Woodall is the VP Web Communications Services for Business Wire. She actively writes and speaks about online public relations including web services such online newsrooms, and IR web sites. She can be reached at Ibrey.Woodall@BusinessWire.com, LinkedIn: Ibrey Woodall or via Twitter @IbreyWoodall.
Posted by Phil Dennison, Senior Marketing Specialist, Business Wire 
