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6 Where we’re R headed GUIDE NUMBE Social media’s New web new foothold Understanding corporate blogs and trends – social bookmarking How SEO can get social media your IR news noticed New media and SEO going forward A N E D U C A T I ON A L S UPPLEMENT TO ir M A G A Z I NE Understanding social media Are blogs fair disclosure? s the web evolves, it’s no act as a starting point for dialogue longer safe to assume with online participants. Conversation Jonathan Schwartz is not only your investors are getting is in, authoritative opinions are out. CEO of Sun Microsystems, he’s their information just from also a well-known blogger (www. mainstream media. They The rise of social media blogs.sun.com/jonathan). Last Amay be browsing sites like Digg or The online encyclopedia, Wikipedia, year he asked the SEC to change Reddit, which rate news items by how defines social media as ‘the online Regulation FD so that Sun and many clicks they receive, to find out technologies and practices that others could announce material how others are prioritizing top stories people use to share content, opinions, news on their company websites. of the day. If you’re a tech company, insights, experiences, perspectives a specialized social media site like and media.’ Popular social media Although the SEC didn’t agree, Technorati may be more influential tools include message boards, its chairman, Christopher Cox, than the Wall Street Journal. podcasts, social bookmark sites, did post a positive comment last In the past wire services and blogs and wikis (collaborative November on Schwartz’s blog, newspapers culled the most impor- websites that are edited by users). In raising the profile of corporate tant stories, researched and wrote short, social media are community- blogs considerably. them as articles that were then driven, online information exchanges. professionally edited, and presented Growth in social media has been A March 2007 online survey of to a paying audience. Today people phenomenal. According to Alexa CIRI members conducted by can extract or ‘pull’ exactly the Internet, nine of the top 20 US sites Marketwire found that one in information they want from a wildly are social media sites: Blogger, Digg four IROs at companies without uneven but up-to-the-minute YouTube, Wikipedia, MySpace, Flickr, corporate blogs think a blog could collection of information on the web. Facebook, CraigsList and Orkut. enhance shareholder dialogue. Pull models are unforgiving, What’s more, 39 percent of online However, 55 percent of those though. If your press release doesn’t Americans, around 57 mn people, IROs oppose corporate blogs. appear high in the search engine read blogs, according to the Pew They worry about a lack of control results, your announcement may Internet & American Life Project. And over potentially negative, false be lost. What’s more, many popular a study by Redboots, a consulting firm or misleading commentary, and social media sites aggregate rankings that helps companies increase their they are concerned about liability that tell users what other readers internet traffic, found that 77 percent and disclosure risks. consider high-quality information. of people consider blogs a good way Even the New York Times has begun to get information on a company. But corporate blogs are not to rate its 10 most popular articles A recent Marketwire study of IR really so radical. No matter how on its website. The mechanisms of blogging habits found 33 percent of freewheeling they purport to be, such rankings must be understood the mega-caps surveyed have a blog. they still pass through the same if you want your news to get noticed. And 87 percent of the 114 respondents legal and disclosure vetting What’s striking about social are open to the idea of posting content process as press releases or media sites is that instead of sending including product/service announce- other official documents. information to a passive audience they ments, earnings releases and M&A 6.ii IR guide New web trends – social media and SEO Top 10 social networking sites In August 2006 Cisco podcast its Learn by example first earnings call and logged an MySpace AOL Hometown additional 6,000 downloads in the first Here are a few social media sites Blogger Yahoo! three days. It then began placing its worth exploring: monthly tech talks on its IR site, while Classmates Online MSN Spaces making 10 to 15-minute highlights ✜ TechCrunch (www.techcrunch. YouTube SixApart Typepad available as podcasts. Cisco recently com). A positive write-up from started posting its earnings releases TechCrunch, a blog chronicling MSN Groups Xanga.com on one of its four islands in Second web start-ups, usually spurs Source: Nielsen/NetRatings Life, an online virtual world. calls from venture capitalists. Cisco’s blogging activities show its developments on a corporate blog commitment to new media. At first, ✜ Dogpile (www.dogpile.com). as long as they continue to retain Gibson says, the company fretted Described as ‘the best search control of the content. about letting the public comment on engines piled into one’, this every issue, however sensitive. ‘We site consolidates results from A new role for IR hunkered down and expected a lot different search engines. For decades IROs have served as of bad staff to happen, but it didn’t,’ stewards of financial filings, preserv- she says. In fact, Cisco found, ‘the ✜ Wikipedia (www.wikipedia. ing a company’s reputation and conversations are very targeted.’ com). Wikipedia is a user- preventing any embarrassing regula- Gibson believes blogs are useful generated encyclopedia with tory glitches. Social media offer IROs for setting the record straight. When nearly 2 mn articles in English. a new role, letting them promote their Yahoo!, Google and Cisco were Is your company listed? If so, company’s financial performance by accused of modifying their routers what’s being said about it? bringing results to a wider audience. so the Chinese government could Correcting false or outdated By learning to use online tools, restrict information, Cisco posted information on Wikipedia IROs can present analyst days or its congressional testimony denying makes sense because all users earnings releases in formats investors the allegation on its public blog. are welcome to edit content. like best. Blogging, social bookmarking ‘The reporters never went to public and search engine optimization (SEO) relations, they read our blog.’ ✜ YouTube (www.youtube.com). can all help ensure your IR message Gibson warns that blogging isn’t Anyone can post videos on this gets attention. for everyone. It’s best for firms site. Should your most recent As a technology company, Cisco comfortable with open debate. But analyst day be available here? Systems’ IR has embraced all types she believes IROs should familiarize of new media, from podcasting to themselves with blogs because ✜ MySpace (www.myspace.com). corporate blogging to initial ventures ‘what’s being mentioned can hit your This site exemplifies the social into virtual worlds. ‘We want to reach reputation.’ It’s also important to have network concept: certain more outlets with our story,’ says policies in place governing new media demographic or psychographic Jeanette Gibson, director of corporate ‘because you’re legally responsible types come together to interact communications and new media. for information you’re giving out.’ with one another. New web trends – social media and SEO IR guide 6.iii Courting the new media Reaching the blogosphere nvestors eagerly ferreting out rated on social media sites like information about your company Technorati or del.icio.us, all of a Communicating with bloggers may sound like a gift. However, the sudden a casual remark can assume isn’t the same as communicating gift comes with strings attached. a life of its own. IROs need to begin with traditional media outlets. Social communities tend to monitoring what’s being said on the If bloggers sense you’re pushing respond poorly to overt marketing better-trafficked blogs. I unwelcome or biased information efforts. They prize independence and When venturing into the blogo- on them, they may get testy and sometimes their assessment of your sphere for the first time, begin with turn against you. company and its performance may blogs dedicated to a subject you know not be to your liking. well. Blogs exploring your industry, Step one is to know your bloggers. Today’s bloggers want to evaluate the IR profession or the corporate Blogs are idiosyncratic. Reading whether stocks are good buys or blogs of direct competitors are all the same few on a regular basis not, but their methods for doing so good places to start. will soon give you a sense of their aren’t orthodox. For an IRO trained in preoccupations and the type of dealing with financial analysts and Firing back? story they gravitate toward. large institutional investors, commu- Clearly contributing to blogs anony- nicating with social media outlets mously is risky. But should an IRO Instead of ‘pushing’ news to requires an entirely different mindset. who notices something unfavorable or bloggers, consider your interac- untrue being said about his company tions a conversation. So you might Read the blogs set the record straight? In principle, email a blogger with an interesting In 2005 someone called Rahodeb deciding whether to respond to blog news item, even if it doesn’t entered Yahoo! Finance and opined rumors or innuendo is similar to directly relate to your company. that no company would buy Wild Oats deciding whether to respond to other at its price of around $8 a share. types of market rumors. However, Contrary to conventional Rahodeb turned out to be the online some of the particulars are different.