On October 24, 2013, we released our third whitepaper in the 2013 series on social media use for Investor Relations. The findings reveal that public companies’ adoption of video- and presentation-oriented social media such as YouTube and SlideShare continues to grow:
• YouTube: 80% of companies in our sample have an account (up 12%), and 42% of those companies are using it to provide investor-related material, up 13% from our 2012 report.
• SlideShare: 25% of companies use a SlideShare account (on par with last year), but the rate of use for IR purposes has gone up to 52%, up 8% from 2012.
Get the FREE ebook to gain access to the complete whitepaper and you'll learn:
- How your peers are using YouTube and SlideShare to interact and engage with investors.
- What sectors, geographic regions and size of companies are leading the way in adoption.
- Innovative ways to use video and presentations to provide the investor community more company and industry context.
- Best practices for organization, grouping, and consistent delivery of IR content on YouTube and SlideShare.
- How these social media platforms can fit into your overall IR communications strategy.
2. Why Social Media Matters For Investor Relations
• The statistics on social media use continue to be very compelling:
– By the end of 2012, 67% of US Internet users were on one or more social
networking sites.
– One in four people worldwide will use social networks in 2013.
– Internet use (especially on mobile devices) is experiencing rapid growth,
with 27% of Internet time in the US being spent on social networking sites.
• Research shows that:
– 49% of professional investors are reading blogs and 27% use YouTube.
– 3 out of 5 financial bloggers use Twitter as their primary news source.
– 52% of institutional investors use social media as part of their research
process, and 63% of institutional investors believe social media will become
increasingly important to them.
Q4 Whitepaper: Public Company Use of Social Media for IR
Part 3: YouTube & SlideShare - Summary Slides
Download Complete Whitepaper
3. Overall Social Media Findings
• Q4 performs year over year reviews of how social media is used for
Investor Relations by the companies in our sample. Our findings in
2013 reveal:
– significant growth in Twitter, YouTube, and corporate blogs for IR.
– increases in use of Facebook, SlideShare and StockTwits.
• Our study includes some new measurements for 2013:
–
–
–
–
50% of companies have a Google+ account.
11% of companies have a Pinterest account.
10% of companies offer a mobile IR application.
10% of companies provide a mobile IR website.
Q4 Whitepaper: Public Company Use of Social Media for IR
Part 3: YouTube & SlideShare - Summary Slides
Download Complete Whitepaper
4. 2013 Research Sample
Q4 Web Systems’ research sample size for social media research has
grown from 80 public companies in 2009 to a total of 890 in 2013.
Companies Included in Study by Sector
Utilities, 49
Airline, 16
Automotive, 17
Telecommunicatio
ns, 39
Consumer
Goods, 119
Technology, 141
Exchanges,
4
Financial
Services, 78
Services, 127
Industrial
goods/Basic
materials, 76
Media, 13
Real Estate, 15
Pharma/Healthcar
e/Biotech, 52
Q4 Whitepaper: Public Company Use of Social Media for IR
Part 3: YouTube & SlideShare - Summary Slides
Natural
Resources, 144
Download Complete Whitepaper
5. YouTube
• YouTube is the most popular online video forum in the world,
allowing users to share video content.
– Usage stats up significantly from last year to over 1 billion unique
monthly visitors.
– In an average day 33 million people visit YouTube to watch 200
million hours of video.
– YouTube reaches more US adults age 18-34 than any cable TV
network.
Q4 Whitepaper: Public Company Use of Social Media for IR
Part 3: YouTube & SlideShare - Summary Slides
Download Complete Whitepaper
6. YouTube for Investor Relations
• Q4’s 2013 sample shows that 80% of companies have a YouTube
account. Of these, 42% use it for Investor Relations, up 13% from
our 2012 study.
– By Sector – Top sector using YouTube for IR is Natural Resources,
followed by Technology and Industrial Goods/Basic Materials.
– By Region - North American companies (US and Canada) in our
sample significantly outpaced the rest of the world, with France and
Germany as the next highest.
– By Market Capitalization – Large cap companies are leading in use of
YouTube for IR, with Small cap and Medium cap following behind at
second and third place.
Q4 Whitepaper: Public Company Use of Social Media for IR
Part 3: YouTube & SlideShare - Summary Slides
Download Complete Whitepaper
7. SlideShare
• SlideShare is the world’s largest online presentation sharing
platform, used to share documents, videos, webinars and
presentations.
– SlideShare has over 60 million visitors and 3 billion slide views
every month.
– According to ComScore, SlideShare is the preferred platform for
business owners, getting 5 times more traffic from them than
Twitter or Facebook.
Q4 Whitepaper: Public Company Use of Social Media for IR
Part 3: YouTube & SlideShare - Summary Slides
Download Complete Whitepaper
8. SlideShare for Investor Relations
• Q4’s 2013 sample shows that 25% of companies have a SlideShare
account. Of these, 52% use it for Investor Relations, up 8% from our
2012 study.
– By Sector – Top sector using SlideShare for IR is Natural Resources,
followed by Financial Services, Automotive and Telecommunications.
– By Region - North American companies (US and Canada) significantly
outpaced the rest of the world, with Sweden, Germany and Brazil as the
next highest.
– By Market Capitalization – Small and Large cap companies led in use
of SlideShare for IR, with only one percentage point between them.
Medium cap followed behind in third place.
Q4 Whitepaper: Public Company Use of Social Media for IR
Part 3: YouTube & SlideShare - Summary Slides
Download Complete Whitepaper
9. YouTube & SlideShare Usage and Content
• Public companies most commonly use YouTube and SlideShare to
share visual materials that provide corporate and event information,
and add context around their business and industry, including:
–
–
–
–
–
–
Financial Reports, Results
Annual Shareholder Meeting
Corporate Social Responsibility Videos & Reports
CEO or CFO Interviews
Investor/Analyst Day & Conference Presentations
Corporate Project Update Reports & Videos
Q4 Whitepaper: Public Company Use of Social Media for IR
Part 3: YouTube & SlideShare - Summary Slides
Download Complete Whitepaper
10. YouTube & SlideShare Best Practices
• Emulating the look and feel of the corporate website.
• Providing greater context on investor-related information.
• Directing or linking visitors to a corporate website or other social
channels.
• Organizing content for easy and targeted access.
• Consistently delivering content.
Q4 Whitepaper: Public Company Use of Social Media for IR
Part 3: YouTube & SlideShare - Summary Slides
Download Complete Whitepaper
11. Case Study: SCA Group
SCA Group incorporates many YouTube & SlideShare best practices in
their accounts.
SCA has designed their YouTube &
SlideShare home pages to emulate
the look and feel of their corporate
website – through consistent logos
and corporate colours, repeating
images, and matching content.
Website
YouTube account
SlideShare account
Q4 Whitepaper: Public Company Use of Social Media for IR
Part 3: YouTube & SlideShare - Summary Slides
Download Complete Whitepaper
12. Case Study: SCA Group (cont.)
SCA helps visitors easily navigate through their online properties and social
media accounts on their YouTube “About” page (below), with a brief intro and
links to their website, Wikipedia entry, and accounts on LinkedIn, Twitter,
SlideShare, Scribd, Google, Facebook and Flickr.
Similarly, on their home SlideShare page (left), they include links to their
website, Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn accounts, and a “Follow” button to let
users easily sign up to see more of the content they share.
Q4 Whitepaper: Public Company Use of Social Media for IR
Part 3: YouTube & SlideShare - Summary Slides
Download Complete Whitepaper
13. Case Study: SCA Group (cont.)
Even with such a wealth of videos on a wide variety of topics, SCA makes it easy for visitors to quickly find the
information they need through playlists.
In addition to their Investor Relations playlist (pictured above), SCA has several others they use to group and
organize content for their different audiences - “Sustainability at SCA,” “Life Inspiring Careers at SCA,” and
even for individual events they’re involved in such as “Team SCA in the Volvo Ocean Race 2014-2015.”
Q4 Whitepaper: Public Company Use of Social Media for IR
Part 3: YouTube & SlideShare - Summary Slides
Download Complete Whitepaper
14. Case Study: SCA Group (cont.)
When visitors click on the “SCA
Investor Relations” heading, they are
directed to a list of videos (left)
outlining the content of each.
SCA is very consistent and timely in its
content posting. Visitors looking at this
record of consistent content can feel
assured that SCA will be posting its
next earnings videos here - and they’ll
know where to come back for it.
Q4 Whitepaper: Public Company Use of Social Media for IR
Part 3: YouTube & SlideShare - Summary Slides
Download Complete Whitepaper
15. Case Study: SCA Group (cont.)
Through SlideShare, SCA
disseminates a variety of
corporate information
pertinent to the investor
community; quarterly
results, AGMs and interim
reports, conference and
seminar presentations,
and a report on a
divestment.
They are consistent in
posting content, and
visitors can view reports
as far back as 2010.
Q4 Whitepaper: Public Company Use of Social Media for IR
Part 3: YouTube & SlideShare - Summary Slides
Download Complete Whitepaper
16. Compelling Reasons To Use YouTube & SlideShare for IR
• YouTube is the largest video sharing platform in the world and
continues grow in usage.
• SlideShare is the most used presentation sharing platform, and has
particularly high usage amongst business owners.
• Both YouTube & SlideShare make it easy for companies to embed
visual content on their other social media accounts and on their
corporate websites.
• Evidence continues to show that many public companies see value
in using social media to increase awareness and engage with key
constituents.
Q4 Whitepaper: Public Company Use of Social Media for IR
Part 3: YouTube & SlideShare - Summary Slides
Download Complete Whitepaper
17. Get Your Free Whitepaper Today
Download and learn:
•
•
•
•
•
How your peers are using YouTube and SlideShare to interact and engage
with investors.
What sectors, geographic regions and size of companies are leading the
way in adoption.
Innovative ways to use of video and presentations to provide the investor
community more company and industry context.
Best practices for organization, grouping, and consistent delivery of IR
content on YouTube and SlideShare.
How these social media platforms can fit into your overall IR
communications strategy.
Q4 Whitepaper: Public Company Use of Social Media for IR
Part 3: YouTube & SlideShare - Summary Slides
Download Complete Whitepaper
18. About Q4 Web Systems
Q4 is the the leader in corporate websites and social media solutions
for public companies. Hundreds of IR professionals rely on Q4 for their
IR website, social media and mobile applications. Using Q4, public
companies of all sizes increase awareness, reduce risk and build better
relationships with their investors.
Through active best practice research, Q4 has earned a position at the
forefront of the investor relations market, sharing knowledge through
webinars, whitepapers and articles on on http://www.q4blog.com/. For
more information, please email sales@q4websystems.com or contact
us toll free at 1-877-426-7829.
Q4 Whitepaper: Public Company Use of Social Media for IR
Part 3: YouTube & SlideShare - Summary Slides
Download Complete Whitepaper
19. Visit Us Online
• Web: www.q4websystems.com
• Blog: www.q4blog.com
• Twitter: www.twitter.com/q4websystems
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/q4websystems
Q4 Whitepaper: Public Company Use of Social Media for IR
Part 3: YouTube & SlideShare - Summary Slides
Download Complete Whitepaper