We’re headed to NIRI with big news to share.

This weekend the National Investor Relations Institute (NIRI) kicks off its annual conference, hosting IR practitioners, counselors, and service providers. Of course you’ll be able to find our Marketwired team there in full force as well.

We’re really looking forward to the conference this year as we’re in a unique position.

You’ve recently heard us talk a lot about how the worlds of investor relations and social media are quickly coming closer and closer together. Yesterday we wrote about the ASX’s (Australian Stock Exchange’s) mandate to have all public companies monitor social media. We’ve also shown you how the next generation of investors are relying heavily on information gleamed from social media. Not to mention our coverage on the SEC’s recent ruling that financial disclosure can now come through social media channels.

Why does all of this put Marketwired in a unique position at NIRI this year? We’re the only company in the world that specializes in both the handling of financial disclosures AND social media. And we’re excited to share our expertise with all of the NIRI attendees.

Are you interested in learning more about how social media and investor relations can work more closely together? Check out what we have going on NIRI:

• On the morning of Tuesday June 11^th our President and CEO, Jim Delaney, will be speaking about The Power of Influence: Social Media, Wall Street and What’s Next. In this session Jim will speak to the shifting marketplace and to the opportunities for companies that integrate traditional and digital investor relations. He’ll show examples of companies that have already started to integrate social into their IR efforts and call out the best practices we’ve seen so far. As well, Jim will speak to the ever-important issue of how to measure the impact of digital investor relations strategies and tactics.
• On Monday June 10^th from 4-5pm and Tuesday June 11^th from 5:30-6:30pm we will be holding our Marketwired Closing Bell cocktail hour. Come by our booth (Booth #603) after a day of learning to relax and have a drink with our team. We’d love to meet as many conference goers as possible and speak to you about how Marketwired can help with the releases of your financial information, how you can navigate the world of social media, or how you can do both at the same time.
• As well, for both those at the conference and those not able to be there in person, throughout the entire conference we be doing live Q&A sessions with conference goers and speakers which will be live broadcasted through Ustream. Follow our @Marketwired Twitter account for updates and links to when these Q&A sessions are going live.

As I hinted, we’ve got big news to share at NIRI.  I can’t give it away until our official unveiling during the conference, but I can tell you that NIRI delegates who visit the Marketwired booth will be introduced to an entirely new way to make social media integral to their investor communications.  We’ve led the way in developing safe, secure, simultaneous distribution for 30 years — this year is no different. Stop by booth #603 to get the inside story.

As you can see, we have a lot going on for NIRI 2013 and we’re very excited to share it all with the world.

If you’re going to be at NIRI we’d love to meet and speak with you, so please come by our booth and make sure you check out Jim Delaney’s session on Monday.

If you can’t wait until Sunday though, feel free to leave us a comment below today and we can start to connect before the conference even starts.

See you in Florida!

Today’s blog post comes to us from Marketwired CEO Jim Delaney.

Recently, the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX) announced that listed companies are now required to monitor “investor blogs, chat sites or other social media [they are] aware of that regularly comment about that listed entity.”

Two months ago, the SEC issued a ruling stating that social sites such a Twitter and Facebook are acceptable outlets for disseminating public information as long as companies have made investors aware of which outlets they intend to use. While the ruling came as a shock to some, those of us at Marketwired saw the ruling as the SEC finally catching up to the market and the evolving face, needs and habits of stakeholders. We’ve been providing social solutions, intelligence and support to our customers for years, so for us this was nothing new.

If you regularly read our blog and have been paying attention, you know that the real opportunity with social media is in listening. Social is an ongoing, 24-7 conversation. Whether you’re part of that conversation or not, people are talking about you. The ASX’s ruling recognizes this as a fact. There are things being shared about your business on social media without your knowledge. You not only need to be aware of what is being said, you need to know who is talking and who they are influencing. If their message isn’t cohesive with yours, you need to feel empowered and prepared to address it.

It is only a matter of time before one or more ruling bodies mandate companies establish official channels of social communications.  For the protection of their listed companies, and for investor confidence.  What is a best practice today, will be policy tomorrow.

There is a massive amount of risk with social media for public investor relations and the risk is not doing anything. You must integrate and control your message by embracing tools that empower you to deliver information in ways that work for your investors. 

If, prior to April 2, you thought Netflix’s Reed Hastings was an anomaly and social was not relevant to your business, the SEC ruling should have made you think twice. We have already shown you that Wall Street is paying attention, and the updated ASX guidelines should be another wake up call. We’re seeing a series of events that are interconnecting investor relations and social media. The question is no longer just a matter of whether it makes sense to integrate social media into your communication strategy. The bigger question is how long it will be before the NYSE and NASDAQ follow suit.

There is only one company that offers products certified by both Twitter and the major stock exchanges, and that is Marketwired. Only Marketwired has the ability to collect information from 189 different countries in 186 different languages. If you’re not thinking about social media from a 360-degree perspective, it’s time to open not only your eyes, but also your ears. The future of investor relations is no longer a distant dot on the horizon. It’s here. It’s social. It’s happening now.

Are you ready? 

A few weeks back the SEC (The Securities and Exchange Commission) ruled that public companies were now free to release their important information though social media channels. Since this ruling there has been a debate in the investment community as to what this means for the future of the industry. Some welcome the use of social media while others are continuing to lobby that the way things were worked just fine.

Because of this debate, we took to the street, Wall Street, to ask the people that this ruling will affect what they thought. We surveyed stock brokers, financial and market analysts, financial advisors, individual traders and fund managers, and made their results into the infographic below.

What we learned by doing this was that Wall Street, and investor relations in general, is changing. As the younger generation that embraces technology is coming into power in the workplace, we found that they are also the new workforce that embraces social media. And for more than just keeping in touch with friends.

We found that the investment crowd under 40 support the SEC’s decision to allow the distribution of information through social media. In fact, 60% of those surveyed and were under 40 said that they regularly consult social channels to research investments. But it’s not just the under 40 crowd. 40% of all survey respondents said that they were using social media to find information.

We also found that 49% of our responders companies blocked social media from the workplace, making it hard for them to use it as a source while at work. However, 48% of those people said that they had witnessed colleagues using personal devices, like a smartphone or tablet, to consult social media for investment information anyways.

It appears that the younger generation of investors is rewriting how business is done, and social seems to be part of it.

What do you think?

Regulating employee use of social media is no easy feat for an organization, but with increasing frequency, companies are finding out just how critical it is to mandate the behavior of those they employ when it comes to their activity on Facebook, Twitter and other social sites.  Tweets, posts, comments and opinions shared by an employee can reflect directly on the company they work for, positively and negatively.  For publicly traded companies, there can be even greater risk of exposure and negative repercussions if employees inappropriately share material news or make comments that breach the rules of fair disclosure. (more…)