Q4 2013 Research: Public Company use of social media and IR - part 1: Twitter

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August 2013

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Q4 Whitepaper: Public Company Use of Social Media for IR

Part 1: Twitter and StockTwits - Summary Slides

Why Social Media Matters For Investor Relations

• The statistics on social media use continue to be very compelling:

– By the end of 2012, 67% of US Internet users were on one or more social

networking sites.

– One in four people worldwide will use social networks in 2013.

– Internet use (especially on mobile devices) is experiencing rapid growth,

with 27% of Internet time in the US being spent on social networking sites.

• Research shows that:

– 49% of professional investors are reading blogs and 27% use YouTube.

– 3 out of 5 financial bloggers use Twitter as their primary news source.

– 52% of institutional investors use social media as part of their research

process, and 63% of institutional investors believe social media will become

increasingly important to them.

Download Complete Whitepaper




Overall Social Media Findings


• Q4 performs year over year reviews of how social media is used for

Investor Relations by the companies in our sample. Our findings in

2013 reveal:

– significant growth in Twitter, YouTube, and corporate blogs for IR.

– increases in use of Facebook, SlideShare and StockTwits.

• Our study includes some new measurements for 2013:

– 50% of companies have a Google+ account.

– 11% of companies have a Pinterest account.

– 10% of companies offer a mobile IR application.

– 10% of companies provide a mobile IR website.




2013 Research Sample


Q4 Web Systems’ research sample size for social media research has

grown from 80 public companies in 2009 to a total of 890 in 2013.

Airline, 16 Automotive, 17

Consumer Goods, 119

Exchanges, 4

Financial Services, 78

Industrial goods/Basic materials, 76

Media, 13

Natural Resources, 144

Pharma/Healthcare/Biotech, 52

Real Estate, 15

Services, 127

Technology, 141

Telecommunications, 39

Utilities, 49

Companies Included in Study by Sector




Twitter


• Twitter has the highest usage rates for IR of all the social media

platforms.

– Twitter has over 550 million registered account users, and 288

million monthly active users.

– 21% of world’s Internet population is using Twitter on a monthly

basis – and is the fastest growing social network.

– The fastest growing demographic on Twitter is users aged 55 to

64, showing a 79% increase in 2012-13.




Twitter For Investor Relations

• Q4’s 2013 sample shows that 96% of companies have a Twitter

account. Of these, 72% use Twitter for Investor Relations, up a

significant 9% from our 2012 statistics.

– By Sector – Top three sectors using Twitter for IR are Exchanges,

Technology, and Natural Resources and Pharma/Healthcare/Biotech

(tied for third place).

– By Region - North American companies (US and Canada) in our

sample significantly outpaced the rest of the world, with European

companies (led by the UK, Germany and France) as the next highest.

– By Market Capitalization – Large cap companies are leading in use of

Twitter for IR (41%), with Small cap and Medium cap following behind at

second and third place.





Twitter Usage and Content

• Companies use Twitter to share materials, providing consumers and

investors with information about their organization, their industry and

their markets.

– Related industry news content and market/analyst commentary is

increasing in popularity.

– More companies are experimenting with the practice of live-tweeting

of earnings calls and AGMs.

– We have also seen an increase in the number of companies

maintaining a dedicated IR Twitter feed.





Twitter Best Practices

1. Sharing industry and sector news/media coverage

2. Providing photos and videos broadcast from conferences

3. Linking to analyst reports and trade information

4. Sharing corporate/company news

5. Enhanced quarterly reporting practices

6. Live-tweeting annual meetings or analyst/investor days

7. Proactively engaging followers with direct questions to stimulate

discussions

8. Directing followers to other social media channels they are using

9. Using a dedicated IR or a corporate news Twitter feed.





Case Study: Alcoa

Alcoa (https://twitter.com/Alcoa) has an active corporate Twitter feed,

which incorporates many best practices.


Alcoa shares pertinent corporate,

industry and sector information of

interest to investors and analysts.

An announcement about the closure

of one of their operations (right),

links followers to the appropriate

press release.

https://twitter.com/Alcoa

https://twitter.com/Alcoa




Case Study: Alcoa (cont.)


This example (left) is a link to a

Bloomberg News article from

Alcoa, urging more transparency

at the London Metal Exchange.

Notice the various elements of

the tweet:

• They include their StockTwits

$ticker - “$AA” - which will help

group other messages related

to their stock.

• They use a #hashtag

(#Aluminum) to further help to

tag the tweet with other

Aluminum news.






In this example below, they’ve retweeted a post by their CSO Kevin J. Anton on his own Twitter

feed about Alcoa sustainability news.






Alcoa also does a great job

of engaging their Twitter

followers, and responding to

enquiries.

This tweet, for example,

shows their responsiveness

to a financial journalist.

Alcoa replied to Jack

Roberts’ inquiry within an

hour.






Alcoa also announces quarterly results and annual meetings on Twitter, providing links

to their corporate website with all the details for those interested to join in.






Linking to other social tools

and platforms on Twitter is a

great method of making

followers aware of other ways

they may want to access

timely information.

One example is their tweet

(left) about mobile apps

available for download.

Similarly, Alcoa tweeted a link

to its event-specific blog and

video posts, alerting Twitter

followers to other media

available for them to read

more about.

They use a #hashtag to allow

readers to simply click on

“#PAS13” to see every tweet

on Twitter that has that tag.






Alcoa is also prolific in its live-

tweeting practices, providing over

a dozen tweets during their most

recent, hour-long earnings results

webcast on July 8, 2013.

They ensured that their

StockTwits $ticker was included in

each post, providing CEO quotes

and financial results as they were

broadcast.

Alcoa also responded to a request

generated on their StockTwits

feed about the webcast transcript

(right).




Twitter Engagement

• Q4 also examined engagement practices of companies, how they are interacting and engaging in conversation with visitors on Twitter.

• 2013 engagement levels have changed over the last year, revealing many companies’ increased level of sophistication in their use of the platform:

– @replies use is down 8%

– retweets use is up 5%

– #hashtags use has significantly increased to 81% (up 25%)

• Increased engagement with visitors can:

– show the company as responsive, adding to their credibility

– show that the company regularly monitors their social channels, providing another source of quick, reliable information





StockTwits

• StockTwits is a social media platform that allows the investor

community to share real-time information and ideas, discover

relevant content, and connect with a global network of financial

influencers.

• Well-integrated with Twitter, StockTwits is used by more than

150,000 investors, market professionals and public companies to

share information – whose feeds are viewed by an audience of over

40 million.

• According to Q4 research, a full 66% of companies in our sample

have a presence on StockTwits (up 2% from our 2012 study).





StockTwits Best Practices

Some of the Best Practices identified for StockTwits include:

– Appending $TICKER

– Appending Tweets with Unique #Hashtag

– Live-tweeting Earnings Calls

– Posting Earnings Q&A

– Virtual Investor Days

– Including Disclaimers & Safe Harbors

– Augmenting News Distribution

– Publicizing Upcoming Events

– Highlighting Videos and Presentations

– Sharing Annual Report





Compelling Reasons To Use Twitter for IR

• Twitter has a significant number of users – well over 550 million

worldwide – and continues to show impressive growth.

• By far, Twitter has the highest rates of usage rates of all the social

media platforms for Investor Relations purposes.

• There is an increased sophistication in many companies’ Twitter use

(better targeted, more pertinent, IR-dedicated, higher volume of

announcements, and more integrated with other social media

platforms with re-sourcing and cross-posting).

• Evidence continues to support the fact that many public companies

see value in using social media to increase awareness and engage

with key constituents.





Download and learn:

– Best practices for live-tweeting quarterly conference calls, analyst/investor days and annual meetings.

– Effective tactics to better target and serve your IR audience.

– Innovative ways to share content from conferences and industry-related news/media coverage.

– How StockTwits has emerged as a viable social channel that public companies are using to share their financial information and corporate news in real-time.

– How to effectively integrate Twitter and other social media with your IR website.


Get Your Free Whitepaper Today





About Q4 Web Systems

Q4 is the the leader in corporate websites and social media solutions

for public companies. Hundreds of IR professionals rely on Q4 for their

IR website, social media and mobile applications. Using Q4, public

companies of all sizes increase awareness, reduce risk and build better

relationships with their investors. Through active best practice

research, Q4 has earned a position at the forefront of the investor

relations market, sharing knowledge through webinars, whitepapers

and articles on on http://www.q4blog.com/.For more information,

please email [email protected] or contact us toll free at 1-

877-426-7829.


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Q4 2013 Research: Public Company use of social media and IR - part 1: Twitter

Social Media

Transcript of Q4 2013 Research: Public Company use of social media and IR - part 1: Twitter