Ultimate Twitter Strategy Guide and Rules for IR – Corporate Tweets and Strategy
December 8, 2009
Section 1 of the Investor Relations Twitter Strategy Guide
Twitter Strategy Guide for IR Section 2 – Useful, Informative, Legally Defensible Twitter Tweets
For businesses to get value from Twitter, the company must generate a useful and informative feed of Twitter posts that compels users to “Follow” the company’s Twitter account. On the other hand, to avoid any potential problems with tweets made on Twitter, corporations must be careful not to accidentally publish misleading or misunderstood messages. Ensuring that both of these things happen on a regular basis is the crux of a useful IR Twitter strategy.
The person handling the IR Twitter postings should be an experienced professional already versed in the various rules and regulations regarding communications with investors and the general public. All the same rules that apply to phone calls, emails, letters, and in person conversations apply to messages posted to Twitter. In other words, if you can’t say it on a person-to-person phone call with the SEC’s top enforcement watchdog listening in, you can’t tweet it either!
Lastly, do not confuse the conversational nature of Twitter with actual conversation. Every post made to Twitter is in writing! If it couldn’t be typed on official company letterhead with an executive signature at the bottom, then it can’t be posted to Twitter either. This simple distinction can save IR a lot of trouble.
1) – Tweet Daily
Everyone knows Twitter is about fast real-time communication, but it also about constant communication. Twitter feeds with occasional tweets drop quickly from view. Power Twitter users follow dozens or hundreds of other users. Keeping up with all of those tweets requires users to triage the inflow. A once a week message from an account is just too likely to be skipped, missed, or buried to provide value. Don’t worry about posting tweets on weekends or holidays. No one will be surprised when a corporate Twitter stream goes dark during non-business hours.
a) How To Tweet Daily
Coming up with a new tweet every day may seem daunting at first. However, remember that Twitter’s value lies in being part of the conversation, not in just broadcasting your own communications. Responding to direct questions, responding to general statements made in the “Twitter-sphere”, and even responding to media stories or events can (and should) be part of the Twitter strategy. It can be several days or more in between each originating tweet.
2) – No Junk Tweets
Every tweet needs to be worthwhile to keep the company’s Twitter feed on the must follow list for shareholders, potential shareholders, and analysts. No interview about Twitter usage is complete without the declaration that communications are important, and there are no tweets about what was eaten for dinner. Don’t let your tweets become the corporate equivalent of meal tweets.
3) – No Coupons, No Promos, No “Funny” News Links
Unless the IR group is the only official Twitter account for the entire corporation, chances are someone else is handling the smiley face side of social networking for the company. Investor relations is the most difficult Twitter communication channel there is. Don’t make it any harder by trying to be something else. Besides, the people you actually want following your IR tweet stream are serious about being shareholders, becoming shareholders, or analyzing the company. The followers you don’t want are the jokers, pranksters, agitators, looky-loos, or others who are not serious about investments in the company. Don’t give them a reason to follow you. Unlike other accounts that might be looking to increase exposure and publicity, if a IR tweet goes “viral” it is probably a bad thing.
4) Speak With Links – The 140 characters allowed for tweets posted to Twitter is too short to be useful for IR – Period – End of Story – No ifs ands or buts. It is too short. Never forget that.
The maximum protection from any legal or regulatory issue, plus the best way to avoid any misunderstanding or confusion, is to let links do the talking.
In an earlier article we discussed examples of Twitter trouble for IR. The carefully crafted statement and meticulously crafted wording in an official company statement about a recent dividend cut was not short enough to be tweeted. Trying to tease out a shorter, but equally accurate and legally sufficient tweet of 140 characters is liability suicide. However a tweet that directs Twitter users to the original statement is not only completely defensible, but incredibly easy.
Example IR Tweet:
@CrankyInvestor – Look here for that information about the dividend cut. http://bit.ly/6UKFaR
This tweet is well under 140 characters. It provides a link to a webpage with the original full length statement complete with all disclaimers and notices.
Notice the difference between a response to a Twitter user’s specific tweet and an unrelated random tweet about a new press release. Which brings us to…
5) Don’t Tweet Press Releases – Remember no junk tweets! If people wanted to read the company’s press releases whenever they just happened to come out, they would be reading them on the website, or more likely subscribed to either email delivery, RSS feed, or other notification. Tweeting a link to a press release or other information only when asked about, makes it a relevant and helpful tweet. Doing the same thing at 1:14 P.M. for a press release sent out at 1:13 P.M. makes it tweet-spam.
6) ALWAYS: “Look into,” “Check on,” “Investigate,” “Pass On” – Speed is what makes Twitter so powerful. It can also become intoxicating. Resist the temptation to fire off replies or other tweets at the spur of the moment. Twitter may be real-time, but it is not chat.
The reflex tweets sent right away are the ones that will end up causing trouble down the road. Unless you have already considered a similar reply and have a link at the ready, don’t tweet. If a reply is required, but none is ready, simply tweet that you will look into it and get back to them. For users that offer suggestions or other unsolicited advice or information, simply say that you will pass their comments on, or otherwise make sure the right people see them. Don’t promise anything.
@CrankyInvestor – I’ll check on that and let you know.
7) NEVER SAY: Promise, Guarantee, Never, Always, Obviously… – Certain words carry a literal meaning that you do not want associated with things you say on behalf of investor relations. These words include any form of promise, any form of complete exclusion (never) or complete inclusion (always). Also troublesome are words that imply that there is no question about something, or that something is common knowledge. These are standards the IR group does not want to be held to in a court room or regulatory action. Create a list of banned words and post them on every computer that will be used to send official tweets.
8) Be Careful With Re-Tweet – Recall all the hoops the IR department had to jump through to link out to another website while staying in compliance with all rules and regulations. Re-tweeting is just as dicey. Whenever possible, avoid it altogether.
These tips should get most IR groups up and running with a successful Twitter for business strategy. What comes next is being able to successfully manage Twitter conversations for businesses. For that, additional utilities and a little bit of advanced Twitter know how will be in order.
Complete Twitter Strategy Rules Guide for Investor Relations – Creating Official Corporate Tweets
December 3, 2009
Twitter mania is everywhere. Whether the quickly deafening crescendo heralds a change in the world’s communication paradigm, or the impending pop of the social networking bubble remains to be seen. What cannot be ignored is that businesses are embracing Twitter for the benefits they can gain from direct, real-time, two-way communication with consumers and business partners. It is only a matter of time before shareholders and company executives alike start asking, “Where is the company’s investor relations on Twitter?”
Twitter Is Different for IR
Jumping on the Twitter bandwagon and establishing a corporate presence is a simple task. The most difficult part of the whole process might be chasing someone off of the username that is the company’s registered trademark.
Otherwise, creating a Twitter account with a username, and typing in sub-140 character messages is a no-brainer. Bragging about company achievements, talking up new products, sending out links to coupons, or even just reminding the business’ followers about the company are par for the course when it comes to business Twitter usage.
Unfortunately, for the Investor Relations Department things are not so easy. There are legal pitfalls to Twitter for business use, as well as regulatory requirements for publicly traded companies on Twitter. Don’t forget, that the whole Twitter business is moot if the tweets the company sends out don’t add up to the kind of Twitter feed that people follow. Between the prospect of getting the company in legal trouble, developing a robust following, responding to shareholder concerns in a fast-moving forum, and just coming up with something to say in the company’s tweets, can tie the most technically savvy IR department in knots.
Fortunately, Twitter for Investor Relations can be broken down into an easily manageable process that provides tangible benefits for the corporation, the shareholders, and IR. This guide provides a step-by-step plan to get a business Twitter strategy running quickly. After all, quick communication is what Twitter is all about.
Rules and Strategy Guide to Twitter for Business Investor Relations
1) – Tweet Officially
a) Link to Official Twitter Account – Don’t make shareholders or analysts guess about your intentions. If you are going to use Twitter or other social networks to communicate with shareholders and others, make it official. Have a link directly from the Investor Relations landing page to the IR Twitter account along with a statement that this is the official Twitter account for corporate IR news. You don’t have to explicitly say it, but the implication is that anything else out there on Twitter, is rumor, innuendo, or speculation from non-official sources.
b) Have a Specific Twitter Account For Investor Relations – Do not use an umbrella corporate Twitter account. Do not share a Twitter username with any other department or purpose other than Investor Relations. Any lawyer with 5 minutes of experience knows that the quickest way to defeat legal protections is to show examples where these were violated, ignored, or otherwise misused or unused. In other words, your carefully crafted disclaimers, tweets, and links will all be for naught if the marketing guys throw up even a single tweet with hyperbole that proves not every precaution to ensure all information posted on Twitter is accurate. Use an IR only account and include IR or some other identifier in its name.
2) Create A Disclaimer Specifically for Twitter – The temptation to just use one of the standard disclaimers for Twitter is understandable. However, Twitter is unlike any other form of communication already engaged in, and it needs its own disclaimer. Do include as much of the standard boilerplate disclaimers as necessary, but also include Twitter specific information.
3) Post Twitter Disclaimers – Immediately next to your link to the official Twitter account, place a Twitter disclaimer. There will actually be two Twitter disclaimers required. The first is the short and sweet one that goes with the official link to the official Twitter account. The second is the one that is as long as the lawyers want it to be. The last sentence of the short one should be an “important note” that this is only the quick disclaimer and a link to the full disclaimer.
4) Create Twitter Terms of Use or Twitter Terms and Conditions – Disclaimers are one thing. Terms or Conditions of usage are another. Draw up Twitter specific terms to help protect the company against mistakes. Wal-mart created a stir with its laundry list of terms, which it has relabeled as “Twitter Discussion Guidelines.” The provide an excellent starting point for creating Twitter TOS.
5) Require Acceptance of the TOS or TOC – The software industry pioneered the concept of forcing consumers to agree to something without actually asking. CDs or Floppy Disks came in envelopes that said by opening the envelope you agreed to a whole list of terms and conditions. U.S. Courts have repeatedly upheld these “contracts” as valid. Do the same thing for your Twitter account. Use the “Bio” section to include a sentence which states that following or reading the posts on Twitter constitute acceptance of your terms of use.
6) Accept Limitations on These Safety Features – Disclaimers and Terms and Conditions can go a long way toward shutting the door on many avenues of liability. However, what stands up against a tort claim in court, and what stands up against the actions of a governmental regulatory agency such as the SEC, are two very different things. However, do not neglect these important safeguards. For every avenue of attack the company eliminates, the less chance there is for something to “stick.” – Following the rest of this IR Twitter guide will help provide more legal and regulatory protection.
With official Twitter accounts, disclaimers, and terms in place, the company’s investor relations department has done everything it can reasonably be expected to do in order to protect the company from unforeseen Twitter liability issues. Now, investor relations is ready to Tweet. What to tweet and how to keep what IR posts on Twitter from causing trouble is the next piece of Twitter strategy to get into place. Getting the corporate IR Twitter posting strategy right is next.
Demographics, Twitter and Virtual Meetings
November 11, 2008
While browsing through some archives recently, I came across … ArcelorMittal using Second Life to hold retail investor meetings – or at least, to hold a mixed reality meeting, with some people present in real life, and others present in a virtual life.
Now, I’ve talked before about using live chat for retail investor meetings, and I’ve mentioned companies using Second Life for recruiting before.
But the use of Second Life for investor meetings is interesting, and – not surprisingly – this caused a fair stir a few months ago.
Not only is the use of this technology for this purpose interesting, so too is the underlying reason: that ArcelorMittal have an aging group of retail shareholders. Apparently the average age is over 65, and, quite rightly, ArcelorMittal have identified this as a problem. (Good for them for recognising this – HR data was covered by Infohrm at their recent conference, but shareholder data is very important too).
I wonder how successful this venture was for ArcelorMittal? Apparently 50-70 avatars (or representations of people) came to the event. I’d like to know the numbers that turned up to the real-life section of the event – and how many of the people that came to the Second Life version were already investors, or were seriously interested in investing.
Is Second Life really full of people who might invest – using real life money – in ArcelorMittal?
There is some information available about age-ranges, and some on how many people regularly use Second Life, but no clear indication of whether these are likely to be investors.
However, Quantcast tells us that 56% of Second Life visitors, at least in the US, earn less than $60k/year (27% earn less than $30k), and that 33% are under 18.
Possibly not ideal investor recruitment territory, then.
Nevertheless, ArcelorMittal deserve kudos for trying this out. But what else could be tried?
The average age of shareholders in the UK is (or was, back in 2006) between 35-54, and 42% of shareholders are classed as A/B (or middle/upper middle class).
The Twitter demographics from Quantcast seem to indicate that Twitter users are more likely to be shareholders: the average age of Twitter users is higher (only 1% of under 18′s), they are wealthier (29% earn over $100k/year compared to 20%) and better educated (63% college-educated compared to 52%).
Now, Twitter isn’t the same as Second Life, but it can be used as part of an online conference, so that the audience is at their desk (as for a webcast), and can see what you are displaying (perhaps a mix of webcast/video/audio/slides) and simultaneously see and participate in the related Twitter stream of comments and questions.
This takes some doing, for all parties:
The company has to
- arrange for technical control of multiple media streams
- chair the meeting of those people physically present
- incorporate the questions and comments being raised by those not physically present.
In order for this to work, the company would have to have someone dedicated to watching the Twitter stream, and summarising it for the chair, who could then invite responses from the Board members/IR team.
The participants who are not physically present have to handle multiple input streams simultaneously. Possibly, the participants who are physically present could have the Twitter stream presented on a large screen too, so that everyone has the same material available … and the same quandary about multiple simultaneous input streams. It isn’t easy to watch a webcast and simultaneously keep on top of the discussion happening on Twitter. I know, I’ve tried!
However, if your potential market is using Twitter, then I think it is worth a try – and I think ArcelorMittal is up to the challenge. I wonder if they’ve considered it?
The Importance of FAQs in Recruitment
August 19, 2008
FAQs or Frequently Asked Questions are important in every business sense but perhaps especially in Recruitment.
Upon application, there are a lot of things that applicants usually ask. Some of these questions could be shrugged off as something that is not important, but for the applicant it would really be a great help.
Take for instance the acceptance of online application. Some candidates would assume that all applications could be submitted online. If there are positions that really need personal appearance at the on-set of their application, it would be better if the applicant could be informed first-hand as opposed to wasting their efforts and knowing in the end that they would be processed much easier if they are a “walk-in” applicant.
Aside from answering normally asked questions, FAQs could also serve as a way to explain the norms and culture of the company in terms of considering candidates, interviewing them and the status of the position that the applicants are interested in. Here is one good example of an FAQ from Tesco’s careers homepage:
Can I apply through this careers site for Store based or Distribution roles?
We currently conduct all local recruitment for Team Members / General Assistants through each local location. Use the Store Finder to find your nearest store or else our Distribution Centre Finder to find the contact details of your nearest Distribution centre. However all office support and management positions are advertised on and applied for through this site.
Remember that the best approach in an FAQ is a casual yet a very explanatory manner. Through this way, you are still enticing candidates to apply but at the same time still informing them about the things that they should expect when applying and the characteristics that they should have in the first place.
Attracting Graduates: New Alternatives
August 12, 2008
Blurting out boring facts about your company is really not a good way to attract applicants especially if you are hoping to focus on graduate careers. The secret for attracting them?
Being innovative as much as possible.
Instead of just enumerating information, how about presenting it with a twist? Creating videos or blogs about your company could work, especially if you are promoting the culture of the company and how the culture would be able to nourish the growth that these future employees want to achieve in their career life.
One good example of this comes from AstraZeneca. This firm does not just give a brief introduction about the company! It gives an over-all experience for applicants. The tour goes from the different career opportunities which you could join in and also the perks (company gym and bar) that you could also experience once you join the company. This virtual tour could really entice interested parties because they could visualize themselves working for your company. I personally consider this as the best “marketing value” for both the company and future candidates.
Aside from that, testimonials are also a great way to promote your companies. If you are targeting graduate careers, you could ask someone from the same educational institution to write an honest-to-goodness testimonial about their experience in the company. The testimonial could include any of the following topics:
- personal recruitment experience
- present working situation
- stability and perks of the company
- future career and personal growth
Through this strategy, applicants could actually have that “connection” because these people that gave their own testimonial have the same background as theirs. This could give out a sense that they could actually relate to these people, and in the future they could also be like them.
Combining these two methods is a very good idea but companies should make sure that they maintain the standard and the real purpose of these strategies. Implementing a new twist in terms of attracting candidates could make a difference in a company’s sourcing goal but making sure that it still follows the mission and vision of the company should always be the main priority.
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