What Makes for Effective Investor Relations Sites? Part 9: More on Providing Context for Your Financial Information
January 13, 2010
The job of a financial analyst is often described as one of assembling a mosaic of information into good investment ideas. Therefore it is often surprising that companies do not do more to help investors find the appropriate pieces of information. Too often the company’s position seems to be, “This is what we are required to disclose. You figure it out from here.” Yet this misses a significant opportunity to help frame your company in the larger context of its industry, markets, trends and external factors affecting performance
In my last post in this series, I pointed out how Total, the French energy company, displays data on external factors such as the dollar/euro exchange rate and the price of Brent crude oil. Today’s example, BT, the telecom company, takes a different tack. As a big, complicated company in a highly regulated industry, what BT does is pull together relevant links to information for investors both from the company’s web site, and from external providers. Of particular interest on their page are the links to Industry Bodies and News and Research, both shown on the bottom of the screen shot below.
By providing links to external information providers, BT is helping to point investors to where relevant information may be found, either about the industry, relevant trade associations, research companies and outside experts. (I’m a bit surprised that I didn’t see a bit of legal boilerplate here disclaiming responsibility for the content of outside sites linked to the BT site, but that may be an abundance of caution on my part.) Even professional investors, when they pick up coverage of a new company or industry, spend a considerable amount of time trying to figure out appropriate sources and benchmarks. so pointing them to good sources is quite helpful. More companies should do this.
In this series:
Previous post: Provide context
Next post: Graphs
Consumers Rank Ford as Most Improved Brand in 2009
January 12, 2010
According to a BrandIndex poll, which based results on over 1.2 million online interviews throughout 2009, consumers voted Ford as the ‘most improved’ brand of the year. Based on those results, I guess it’s not surprising that Ford saw a 33% increase in sales in December, and Ford’s 2009 market share grew by 1% over 2008.
One of the reasons consumers might have a positive view of the Ford brand could be attributed to the company’s refusal to take money from the U.S. government’s TARP (Troubled Asset Relief Program) in 2009. Furthermore, the company made some overt attempts to adjust its product line to meet consumer needs rather than focusing on the ‘easy money’ sales automobile manufacturers had come to rely on in the 21st century.
Facebook ranked number two in the BrandIndex list of the most improved brands of 2009, and two more Ford-owned brands, Lincoln and Mercury, took the third and fourth spots. The top 10 most improved brands are shown in the image above.
BrandIndex also provides an annual consumer ranking of the ‘healthiest’ brands, which are defined as the brands that consumers perceive to be the strongest. Not surprisingly, brands like Google, Johnson & Johnson, M&M’s, Campbell’s, and other brands that people have learned to trust over the years ranked high in this list.
I’ve written about the importance of building brand trust here on Corporate Eye before, and the BrandIndex ranking supports that line of thinking. Without a doubt, consumers are looking for brands that offer transparency and trustworthiness in 2010 and the foreseeable future. At a time when consumer perceptions are easily shaped by the speed of social media conversations, brand managers have to work harder than ever to set, meet and exceed consumer expectations through every marketing touch point.
Consider Ford’s ranking on the BrandIndex list of the most improved brands of 2009. It’s unlikely anyone would have predicted that ranking a year ago. However, by setting consumer expectations (not taking the TARP money), meeting consumer expectations (revising the Ford product line), and exceeding expectations (let’s face it, expectations were low a year ago so Ford had a lot of opportunity to exceed them), word spread among consumers both through word-of-mouth marketing and social media conversations, and consumers began to see the brand as being more transparent and trustworthy than some of its competitors.
Take a look at your own business, consumers and competitors. Knowing that consumers want transparency and trustworthiness from the brands they choose, how can you capitalize on opportunities where you competitors are not delivering on those needs and create the perception that you can deliver on those needs.
Source: BrandWeek
And the Onrec Goes to . . .
January 12, 2010
Liverpool Victoria!! (Better known as LV=.)
After spotting news of the Best Online Career Website 2009 Award handed out at the recent Onrec Expo 2009, I zipped right over to the LV= site, and had a really fun visit. It’s quirky without being gimmicky—which is tough to pull off.
Onrec (“The Magazine for Online Recruitment Around the World”) didn’t offer any specifics about their award choice, but here’s my reaction to the LiverpoolVictoria site.
What I loved:
It’s loaded with real people. They do seem to skew toward the extra-attractive, but not so much that it seems staged. And they are identified with first names and titles, so there’s a feeling of authenticity. Nice touch: The people are actually interacting with one another—sharing activities instead of just staring into the camera.
It’s tongue-in-cheek. The banner at the top of the page looks like a bumper sticker, and there’s a continuing theme of lime-green hearts . . . and umbrellas . . . and—well, you just have to see it. In general, there’s not a lot of playfulness on corporate websites, because there’s always a risk that not everyone will “get it,” and it doesn’t wear well for long. (Novelty has to be updated.) But done right, whimsy can be very engaging.
It’s obvious, but not in a boring way. That means you can easily find what you’re looking for (so it’s intuitive), yet you don’t feel the need to rush because wherever you are, there’s something of interest.
What I liked:
This was a total surprise. I usually don’t like sound (music, speech, or otherwise) on a website. But LV= is awash in sound–peppy music, people talking, etc.–and it seems to work. I think that’s mainly because the sound supports the visuals and fits the personality of the company. Plus: You can easily turn it off, so it’s user-friendly.
The basic options are there, in the sense that you can you can easily locate and apply for vacancies, and you can also create a job alert.
What seemed to be missing:
I saw zero social media connection. Although that’s not a deal-breaker, it does imply that the site is a bit behind the curve. It’s interesting that Onrec (which is focused specifically on online recruiting) gave the top award to a site with no Facebook and no Twitter. But on the up side: If LV= hasn’t committed to a social media strategy, at least they are not trying to fake it.
I couldn’t find a link to the main corporate site. That seems odd.
It doesn’t appear you can upload a CV proactively—just for a specific position. However, their description of the employment process (which is clear, helpful and easy to find) indicates that resumes will be compared against all open positions.
That’s the end about LV, but–
Did you notice that the bold words above represent all five vowels? (Leaving out “sometimes W and Y.”) They are borrowed from a nice presentation by Matt Adam, Chief Talent Strategist for NAS Recruitment Communications. Not groundbreaking, but a good summary, plus lots of examples—and the “vowels” offer an easy way to remember some basics of best practice for the Careers website.
Social Networking: What About the Men?
January 11, 2010
Royal Pingdom recently figured up the ratio of men to women on nineteen social network sites, and the results are both not surprising and very surprising. Also very important for those companies wishing to reach potential job candidates through social media. Not in absolute terms (as pointed out at the end of this post) but as a reminder of the subtleties involved in social media strategy.
The “not surprising” part is that women significantly outnumber men in the social networking arena. Even though men were the earliest adopters of online activity and continue to lead in overall Internet use, women have taken more territory in the social networking landscape. The obvious explanation is that women are (in general) more social than men, and more interested in interpersonal communication—which is true in the aggregate, though not necessarily in smaller slices.
The “very surprising” parts are (a) the extent of the disparity in 2009, and (b) the enclaves that men have apparently chosen to occupy. Some details:
- Sixteen out of the nineteen sites included had a majority of women. MySpace is one of the most heavily female sites, with 65%.
- The two major sites had almost identical ratios: Twitter users are 59% female, Facebook 57% female.
- Men take over on the social news sites Digg, Reddit and Slashdot. In fact they really take over, with 82% male users on Slashdot, and 66% on Reddit.
- The most nearly balanced sites are Delicious, LinkedIn, StumbleUpon, and FriendFeed, all with just a slight female preponderance at 52%.
Several Pingdom commenters offer interpretations, pointing out that the male-favored sites are more about competition than sharing—that is, they focus on who’s got “the most” and “the best.” Also that the often snarky tone of Slashdot lacks feminine appeal (which definitely rings true) and that women may be less interested than men in content labeled “news for nerds.”
There are a number of caution factors to be considered in looking at the Pingdom summary, which is based on data from Google Ad Planner. First, it uses only U.S. data, which probably cannot be reliably extrapolated to other countries. Second, the data is not weighted, so “users” can range from people who merely have accounts (but never interact) all the way up to power posters. And third, many of these sites do not really figure into a recruiting strategy—or at least not obviously, not yet.
One Pingdom commenter points out that the best way to utilize these (and most) statistics about online activity is comparatively. Excellent advice! A lot of factors—such as fake profiles—may skew the numbers in absolute terms, but there is no doubt that the general indications are correct: lotsa men at Slashdot, lotsa women at MySpace, and so on.
Crafting a social networking strategy involves significant challenges—and obtaining the statistical information needed to evaluate various channels is just one of them. I found the Royal Pingdom info in a fantastic round-up from Jeremy Owyang, pulling together sources for a wide variety of statistical views. I’ll follow up on a few more and post further highlights soon.
Looking Ahead: 2010 (Predictions)
January 8, 2010
Lots of columnists around the blogosphere took advantage of the year’s end to speculate on what’s next. So here’s a round-up of their predictions:
Recruitment predictions for 2010 at Recruiting Futurology. Highlight: “It could be a very painful year for those in the industry who aren’t innovating quickly and effectively enough.”
A Bartender’s Predictions for 2010 at HR Bartender. Highlight: “And the buzzword word for 2010 will be ‘trust.’ We all know that people buy from individuals and companies they trust. Companies will develop marketing strategies around building customer trust. Human resources will develop programs to create employee trust.”
At HR Tests—Recruitment, Assessment and Personnel Selection, R/A Predictions for 2010. Highlight: “Even though we know better, don’t expect to see any big leaps in readability for 80% of job ads. Same old job descriptions. Maybe we’ll see some pictures. On the plus side, more organizations focus on making their career portals attractive.”
2010 New Year predictions for social recruiting et al at Social Recruiting Blog. Highlight: “As employers get back on the recruiting trail cost will be king so any channel that can (allegedly) get free candidates will be high on the agenda.”
Tim Sackett’s 2010 HR Predictions at Fistful of Talent. Highlight: “By the end of 2010, controversial video resumes begin to become the norm, and professional headhunting organizations begin using them to present candidates to client companies, in attempts to differentiate their candidates.”
Branching out a bit to 10 Predictions for 2010: Kaminsky and Weatherford at Network World. Highlight: “So, You Think You’ve Got Talent? 2010 should be the year organizations begin to truly focus on recruiting, training, and retention of cyber security professionals. One of the critical and growing problems those of us running security organizations face is the shrinking pool of technical cyber-security talent.”
Beyond just lists, there’s an interesting half-hour video discussion on 2010 Trends: More Speed and Integration, featuring Jeremy Owyang. Big picture stuff—worth watching. And for a big picture retrospective, Jeremy’s column at Forbes considers 2009 Social Media Trends. Highlight: “Humans are social creatures and, as a result, they tend to band together in hard times. During financial crises, this same behavior is evident: People connect to one other, share, learn, and communicate. What’s more, with unemployment at record highs, those with internet access have more time–and need–to connect with others.”
Another backward glance that illuminates the future comes for Kevin Wheeler in an ere.net column, The End of a Decade, the Good Recruiter, and Technology. Highlight: “Recruiters eagerly adopted Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and other tools as the new panacea, feeling perhaps that if the Internet couldn’t fix their problems, then social media would. They too have been disappointed, because the Internet, applicant tracking systems, CRM, and social media are tools that enable knowledgeable, skilled recruiters to do a better job. They are not, in themselves, solutions to anything and will not magically make anyone a good recruiter.”
Thanks to all these thinkers for the ideas they provide—and here’s hoping everyone who reads this is now safely into a productive, exciting New Year!
(And thanks to DeanFotos66 for the magical crystal ball.)
Get our updates
 |