1

Investor Relations

and

Social Media

Jeff Corbin

CEO, KCSA Strategic Communications

Founder, theIRapp

Jeff brings more than 15 years of integrated IR, PR and marketing experience to help

clients grow their businesses. He has lectured in the U.S. and internationally on building

relationships with Wall Street and is the author of the book, Investor Relations: The Art of

Communicating Value (Aspatore Books; May 2004 and February 2011). He has just

released the second edition of this book (February 2012) and has included a chapter

dedicated to social media and investor relations.

Most notably, Jeff has developed financial communications programs for the American

Stock Exchange and dozens of companies who have their primary listings on the NYSE

and NASDAQ.

Prior to joining KCSA, Jeff was a securities and corporate attorney in New York City,

specializing in corporate reorganizations, bankruptcy proceedings, transactional matters

and commercial litigation.

Jeff has a bachelor's degree in government from Cornell University and a law degree

from the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law. He is very involved in many philanthropic

and communal organizations and presently serves as Chairman of the Board of the BJE

of Greater New York as well as the Board of Directors of UJA-Federation of New York

43 YEARS

OLD

Independent corporate

communications firm

specializing in the

integration of public

relations, investor relations

and marketing services

INDEPENDENT AGENCY

OFFICES New York | Boston | Chicago | Tel Aviv

35+ EMPLOYEES

TOP IR/FINANCIAL COMMUNICATIONS FIRM

AWARD WINNING CREATIVE & MARKETING GROUP

TOP 25 INDEPENDENT PR FIRM IN THE COUNTRY

5

EXPERTISE IN corporate image, brand building and product/service marketing

KCSA Strategic Communications

#smwIR

Agenda

1. Investor Relations

2. Steps to successful IR programs

3. Evolution of the Internet, IR and social media

4. IR challenges

5. Social media channels and best practices

6. Discussion of best practices for incorporating social media into an IR

program

Investor Relations

Four Steps to Successful IR Programs

Determine the investment proposition

Target the appropriate investor audience

Develop the communications platform

Build relationships with investors

1

2

3

4

2010 2008 2007 2004 2002 2001 2000 1998 1997 1995 1991 1989 1971 1966

Evolution of the Internet, IR and Disclosure

8

IR and social media

87% of Fortune 100 on LinkedIn

3 of 5 financial

bloggers use Twitter as

news source

57% Fortune 100 on

YouTube

1/3 IR pros use social media for

info

61% Fortune 100 on

Facebook

Blogs read by 49% of investors

77% of Fortune 100 on Twitter

StockTwits saw 300%

rise in traffic from 2011 to

Q3

IR and Social

IR Challenges

Social Media as a Solution

• Amplify your message

• Correct misinformation, rumors, guilt by association

• Target the investor that’s impossible to reach

• Reach more retail investors

• Share news that you would not issue in a press release

• Attract media attention

Social Media Channels

Twitter

• Opportunity: Build a following of relevant financial media, traders, analysts and

industry influencers

• IR ROI: Increase the investment community’s conversation about your stock

Best Practices

• Use the $[Ticker] tag and cross link to Stocktwits

• Tweet about analyst/investor days and annual meetings

• Enhance quarterly reporting

• Live tweet earnings and ask shareholders to submit questions for Q&A

• Manage compliance statements and archiving (arkovi, cmp.ly, socialware, etc.)

LinkedIn

• Opportunity: Build your reputation as an industry expert

• IR ROI: Improve positioning and expand your investor network

Best Practices

• Create groups, events and polls around IR activity

• Lead discussion in groups and through Answers

• Organize contacts into downloadable investor database

• Incorporate keywords to improve SEO

• Promote with detailed products, services and banners

• Use modules to cross-promote social content

• Create a targeted investor page

SlideShare

• Opportunity: Disseminate content to a highly professional audience

• IR ROI: Increase brand exposure and understanding of the Company story

Best Practices

• Branded channel with corporate

and investor presentations

• Regularly share presentations

for analyst days, conferences

calls, etc.

• Host investor calls with Zipcast

meetings

• Create webinars with Slidecast

• Embed YouTube videos in

presentations

Facebook

• Opportunity: Showcase investor and corporate information in a multimedia format

• IR ROI: Improve your relationship with potential investors and brand advocates

Best Practices

• Custom channel with website branding elements

• Daily engagement with original industry content, polls, contests, etc.

• Post guidelines for social media usage and compliance

• Unique investor relations tab with feeds to earnings releases, stock charts, etc.

YouTube

• Opportunity: Expand your digital footprint

• IR ROI: Improve your SEO to reach a higher search engine ranking and be more

easily found by investors

Best Practices

• Take advantage of SEO opportunities by tagging all videos with keywords – consider

adding CC transcripts

• Cross-link to and promote across other social channels

• Shorten videos and add annotations for higher engagement

Blog

• Opportunity: Build your position as a thought leader in the industry

• IR ROI: Increase coverage of the company and build your leadership position in the

minds of investors

Best Practices

• Pitch company content and experts to financial and industry bloggers

• Develop a focused bi-monthly corporate blog with clear messaging

• Optimize with blogrolls and keyword tags

Everything’s Connected

The Future of IR and Social Media

• Companies will start to write IR social media policies

• The SEC will issue new regulation

• More companies using social media for IR = recognition as a

communications vehicle

• Companies will build investor networks

• Example: DellShares community

• IR will go mobile

• Investors want direct access to customized real-time company

information

Social Media Policy

1. Define a clear social communication hierarchy within the company to establish who

is responsible for handling each aspect of a company’s social media effort.

2. Make recommendations on how employees should and should not use their personal

social media accounts for talking about their company.

3. Create a system for approving content. This can include content review by IR, legal,

PR, and marketing team members, as needed.

4. Outline expectations for the nature and frequency of posts. Content and consistency

are critical to success in social media.

5. Create guiding principles for acceptable content and conduct.

6. Set clear guidelines for tone. Any content that is predictive or that fails to remain

objective may be in violation of financial compliance.

7. Build in rules for archiving. Access to previous content is critical if compliance

questions or concerns are raised.

8. Implement a plan to provide disclaimers.

9. Establish rules for links to third-party content. A link is an unofficial endorsement of

that content.

10. Outline the response and consequences if the social media policy is violated.