Strategic Planning, Social Media, and PW. Oh My!

A few of my colleagues joined NIRI for the organization’s annual meeting in Florida earlier this month. Amidst the many insightful sessions and sizeable vendor showcase, PondelWilkinson was well represented.

Roger Pondel’s interview by IR Magazine was widely distributed at the meeting. The interview focused on developing a goal-based investor relations plan. As Roger said during the interview, “The essentials for writing an initial strategic plan should be proper definition of the end point – the future – followed by an understanding of the possible ways to get there.” We recommend the following, as well:
 

• Define an attainable and realistic goal.
   
• Always know what the Street is thinking about your company.
   
• Understand what your peers are saying and doing.
   
• Put that intelligence to work by keeping your messages fresh and easy-to-understand.
   
• Leverage video and social media to distribute those messages.
   
• Integrate all communications from IR to PR to marketing to social media.
   
• Create an IR infrastructure built for success.
   
• Track your success.
   
• Be prepared to make changes along the way if necessary. As with many things in life, things don’t always go as planned.

We also distributed a white paper authored by Evan Pondel, in association with SNL IR Solutions, about how to make sense of Reg FD and new disclosure channels. With the SEC’s recent endorsement of social media as a viable disclosure channel, it is critically important that publicly traded companies understand the pros and cons of such disclosure and use the same common sense and follow the same rules and regulations that govern all investor interactions. Importantly, as social media gains steam as a way to speak with investors, companies should make sure to add social media policies to their existing investor communications policies.

There’s a lot of great stuff and strategic thinking going on here at PW. Stay tuned for our new and improved blog and webcast we’ll be producing on the subject of social media in the coming months. In the meantime, though, if you have any questions or thoughts, give us a holler.

— Laurie Berman, lberman@pondel.com