Investor Relations 2.0 – Still Well Ahead of it’s Time for Microcap Companies

For the last 7 months, I have been working with publicly traded companies at the microcap level with respect to Investor Relations 2.0 initiatives… I can tell you right now after such a length of time that there are problems and major challenges with deploying IR 2.0 on behalf of microcap companies. Concept of IR 2.0 There are a number of misconceptions regarding IR 2.0. I figure that if I write about the misconceptions often enough and long enough… I have always said that the square peg WILL go through the round hole if it is hit often enough with a big enough hammer. Back to the point — The process of IR 2.0 is complex and much more involved than IR 1.0. I wrote about the differences in an article at wikinvest.com.  I am not going to rehash the article here and again, I have written about IR 2.0 often enough to consume a good portion of page one at Google. The reason for failure is one of two things (both are similar): 1. No Company participation– IR 2.0 efforts are 50% dependent on participation by the client company. In IR 1.0, the IR entity did everything; company participation was limited or non existent due to the nature of the process. Using IR 2.0 absolutely demands the attention and participation by company management. Lack of participation is rooted in lack of understanding of Web 2.0 and the inability of company management to see the benefits. 2. Application of IR 1.0 marketing methods on Web 2.0 platforms and tools. Example: IR/Web 1.0 depended on blasting a message out to the investment community. IR/Web 2.0 is PERMISSION based marketing; a much more subtle way of marketing. Essentially, you become interesting to people and attract them to a conversation. An example of using old marketing methods on Web 2.0 platforms is the use of Twitter to blast out news and create hype on behalf of a company. Twitter is not like dumb email though… there are many tools to fight spam and Twitter itself will suspend the accounts of users conducting suspicious activity. This is an example of misuse that will run its course in time.

Tagged as: google, Investor relations, Investor Relations 2.0, microcaps, web 2.0