Onboard an early flight to NYC, I wanted to share some thoughts on my experiences traveling across the country speaking about the web, social media and mobile.
My 2014 has started off with a significant pace with about 2 speaking gigs a month. Last year I logged about 30K miles travel, a new personal record. Comparatively, I know that many of our clients are traveling upwards of 100K a year so I knew I had a long way to go. Although at this pace, I should do over 60k miles this year. Nice for frequently flyer miles!
The bulk of my travel is driven by speaking engagements (although I always fit in other meetings). During these opportunities to speak with IROs from around the country, I have found that attitudes towards the web, social media and mobile have changed dramatically over the last few years.
I recall not so long ago having a debate with a skeptical IRO around whether investors use websites as part of research when they, as this person argued, “can get everything from Bloomberg”
We now know how integral websites are to the research process, with 65% buy-side visiting at least monthly and close to 80% using as part of research.
I also remember having a discussion with an IRO who discovered during my talk that his company’s PR team had been live tweeting their earnings. (This has happened numerous times and is far more common than you’d think!)
In our research we now find that 72% of companies that have Twitter account are sharing investor related information. If your company has Twitter, there is a strong likelihood investor information is being shared.
Memorably, I recall an emotional response to one of my talks not to long ago. The individual said something along the lines of “none of these social networks make any money, there is no way any of them are going to be around in a few years”
We now know truly how powerful these global social networks can be. With both Twitter and Facebook now public, it’s clear they are here to stay and are very much a part of how the world communicates.
Finally, about 18 months ago, I was speaking on the importance of mobile and a common issue that I encountered was “I can’t see an investor downloading an app for every company they follow”. I actually agree this is the case the case for individual apps. But this does not take away from the fact that mobile traffic is eating the online world.
Our current stats reveal that 25% of investor traffic on IR websites is coming from mobile devices. The commonly held opinion of Q4 and others in our industry is that this growth is well on pace to cross over 50% in the next 12 months.
Today, with numbers like we’re seeing above, it is absolutely clear to me that these trends are undeniable. Every public company is being impacted as investors rely more on the web, social media and mobile to make their decisions.
In my opinion, the companies that acknowledge and react to these changes faster have a distinct advantage over their peers when it comes to competing for capital and maximizing valuation.
I have many more thoughts (go figure!) let me know what you think on Twitter @darrellheaps
My flight is descending now “please stow your electronic devices…” until next time Internets.