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

Summary Presentation: Download Complete Whitepaper
August 2013

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/Healthcar
e/Biotech, 52
Real Estate, 15
Services, 127
Technology, 141
Telecommunicatio
ns, 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.

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 sales@q4websystems.com or contact us toll free at 1-
877-426-7829.

Visit Us Online
• Web: www.q4websystems.com
• Blog: www.q4blog.com
• Twitter: www.twitter.com/q4websystems
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/q4websystems

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

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