Three Step Approach to Social Media for Investor Relations

By Dennis Walsh, Vice President I recently moderated a webinar hosted by NIRI on social media strategies for investor relations. On the panel with me were David Jackson, CEO, Seeking Alpha; RJ Jones, Investor Relations Officer, Zillow; and Andrew Shapiro, Founder, President and Portfolio Manager, Lawndale Capital Management. The discussion made clear that professional investors…

Shareholder on a Shelf: An Earnings Tradition

By Dennis Walsh, Vice President The Shareholder on a Shelf is a new tradition that has become the holiday gift of choice for IROs to their executive management teams. The story of the Shareholder on a Shelf is as follows: “Have you ever wondered how the SEC could know; If you’re naughty or nice in…

Employee Training: From Reg FD to “Wall Street 101”

By Maureen Wolff, President and Partner, Sharon Merrill Associates When the SEC last month charged First Solar’s former head of investor relations with violating its fair disclosure rules, the announcement gave more than a few IROs pause. And for good reason. Lawrence Polizzotto paid a $50,000 fine for the violation. Although corporate IROs and the…

Integrating Social Media into Your Investor Relations Program

By Howard Berkenblit, Partner, Sullivan & Worcester LLP By Maureen Wolff, President and Partner, Sharon Merrill Associates As you may have heard, the SEC has stated that public companies may announce material, non-public news on social media outlets like Facebook and Twitter, provided that companies take appropriate steps to alert investors which outlets they will…

The Greatest Social Media for Investor Relations Panel Ever*

By Dennis Walsh, Vice President & Director of Social Media *Okay, so I may be biased since I was the moderator, but this panel session at the NIRI’s 2013 Annual Conference had all the elements necessary to help IR professionals develop a strategy for using social media for IR. Attendees heard from David Urban, Director…

SEC Gives Social Media for IR Its Blessing

By Dennis Walsh, Vice President & Director of Social Media The SEC finally has provided guidance on the use of social media for investor relations. The guidance came in a report on its investigation to determine whether Netflix CEO Reed Hasting had violated Reg FD. In a Facebook status update on his personal account, Hastings…

Preparing for a Social Media Crisis

By David Calusdian, Executive Vice President & Partner I recently participated as the designated “social media expert” as part of a crisis communications case study session at the 2012 NIRI Southwest regional conference.  This year’s conference was held in New Orleans and the session centered on a fictitious publicly held bead manufacturing company (apropos for…

Social Media for Investor Relations for the Marketing/PR Professional

By Dennis Walsh, Senior Consultant & Director of Social Media It’s that time of year again: Back to School! For my first job out of college I worked as an educator.  This year, for “Back to School” season, I thought I’d step back into my teaching shoes.  The following is a quick lesson on social…

The Guidance Effect, Re-visited

By Maureen Wolff, President and Partner Three years ago, on the heels of the greatest collapse U.S. financial markets have experienced in decades, in conjunction with IntelliBusiness/eventVestor, we published a study, “The Guidance Effect: Improving Valuation” (PDF 570 KB), that evaluated the impact of increased transparency on equity valuation during the turbulent first quarter of…

Confronting the Quarterly Quiet Period Dilemma

By Jim Buckley One of the investor relations issues that companies often struggle with is the “quiet period.” Here I’m not talking about the SEC mandated quiet period related to IPOs, other public offerings or around the release of lock-up agreements.  Those all have defined legal parameters and lines drawn around what companies can and…