Presentation given to the Board of Directors of the Cherokee Water Company in Longview, TX on January 11, 2014.

1. Communicating
with Shareholders
Using Social Media
Cherokee Water Company
January 11, 2014

2. Get these slides here:
:
http://sarahtpage.com/Cherokee/

3. Agenda
Social Media Overview
Most Common Social Media Platforms
for Shareholder Communications
Best Practices and Examples
Planning for Effective
Shareholder/Customer Communications

4. Social Media Overview
Photo: Fristle on Flickr

5. Keep It Simple
• Remember: It’s just a conversation
• We can either engage in the conversation with
our customer (or shareholder), or they will have
the conversation without us.
Flickr: Search Engine People Blog

6. Why Social Media Matters
• By the end of 2012, 67% of US Internet users
were on one or more social networking sites
• 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 investors use social media as a part of
their research process
Source: Q4 Web Systems

7. Why Implement Social Media?
•
•
•
•
Social media encourages dialogue
Technology drives greater transparency
Multiple channels reinforce the message
Social media is a high ROI strategy
Source: http: //www.brandchannel.com

8. Twitter Leads the Pack
• More than 1/3 of US public
companies use Twitter for IR
• Typical uses include
announcing news, such as
corporate earnings
• Helps drive traffic back to
corporate website
• Few companies use Twitter
for value-added discussion
or to engage audience in
two-way dialogue
Source: NIRI 2010 study

9. Primary Functions of Social Media
• Share – inform shareholders of services and
company news
• Listen – observe, analyze, and understand
what shareholders are discussing to improve
services
• Engage – respond, collaborate, and create
with shareholder to improve services.
Source: http: //www.howto.gov

10. What Are Your Goals?
• Provide additional channels for shareholder
input and other potentially affected interests
• Increase the transparency of the Board’s
decision-making process
• Facilitate a sense of community
• Reach new audiences with messages and
information

11. Why Is Social Media Scary?
Someone could say something BAD about you!

12. Remember:
Social media
is not
an island.
Photo: lisbokt

13. Your website should be the hub of your
online communications

14. Social Media Brings Users To You!

15. Integrate Social with Web
From this …

16. Integrate Social with Web
… to this.

17. Things To Consider
•
•
•
•
•
Records retention
Legal issues/constraints
Transparency
Terms of use
Social media policies

18. Common Social Media Platforms
Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube

20. What Is Facebook?
• Social networking service that allows users
to connect to friends and businesses
• Share content, links, photos, and videos
• Comment on others’ activity
• Remember: Personal profiles are for people,
not businesses. Develop a fan page instead.

21. Facebook Stats
• Over 1.1 billion active users
• Average user is connected to 40 pages
• Smartphone mobile users check Facebook an
average of 13.8 times a day
• 751 million users access Facebook from a
mobile device
Source: IDC; expandedramblings.com

22. What Is Facebook?

23. Facebook Benefits
• Low cost
• Engage with fans of your page
• Fans receive your updates and can upload
comments, photos, and video
• When fans engage you on your page, their
activity shows up in their friends’ streams

24. Facebook Benefits
• Can incorporate content from other social
media platforms
– Ex: blog posts, updates from Twitter, pictures from
Instagram, videos from YouTube, etc.
• Targeted advertising opportunities (cheap too!)

25. Facebook for Shareholder Comms
• Companies use Facebook to share the
following types of information to shareholders:
– Press releases
– Financials
– Annual reports
– Corporate videos
– Company/industry news
– Media coverage
– Event information
Source: Q4 Web Systems

27. What Is Twitter?
• Free social networking and micro-blogging site
that allows users to send and read messages
known as “tweets”
• Tweets can have no more than 140 characters
& are delivered to the author’s subscribers,
known as “followers”

28. Twitter Stats
• 500 million users
• 60% of active users use their mobile phone to
tweet
• Average number of followers per Twitter user is
208
• Twitter engagement rates for brands are 17%
higher on Saturdays and Sundays
Source: Linchpin SEO; expandedramblings.com

29. What Is Twitter?

30. Twitter Benefits
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Low cost
Speed of feedback
Potential reach of message
Customer engagement/service
Track what people are saying about you
Create buzz around upcoming events
Promote the city and other content you create

31. Twitter for Shareholder Comms
• Companies use Twitter to share the following
types of information to shareholders:
– Industry/company news
– Photos and video broadcasts from conferences
– Linking to reports and trade information
– Live tweeting annual meetings
– Engaging followings by asking direct questions to
elicit discussion
– Directing followers to other social media channels
Source: Q4 Web Systems

33. What Is YouTube?
• Allows people to discover, watch, and share
originally-created videos

34. YouTube Stats
• More than 1 billion unique users visit YouTube
every month
• 100 hours of video are uploaded every minute
• 6+ billion hours of video are watched each
month
• YouTube reaches more adults ages 18-34 than
any cable network
Source: http://www.youtube.com/t/press_statistics

36. Best Practices and Examples

37. Share Information

41. Ask Questions

44. Be Helpful

47. Show, Don’t Tell

51. Integrate

54. Link To Website

57. Plan Content

60. Planning for Effective
Shareholder Communications

61. Shareholder Communications
=
Customer Communications

62. Traditional Communications
How do you currently
communicate with your
shareholders?

63. Social Media and the SEC
American companies can now post
important business information
onto social networks like Facebook
and Twitter, as long as investors are
made aware of which sites they’re
going to be posting to.
April 2, 2013
Source: HootSuite

64. Launching a Social Media
Communications Program

65. 1. Planning

66. 1. Planning
A. Determining marketing/communications goals
B. Creating a social media policy
C. Creating a social media terms of use

67. 2. Assessing Resources

68. 2. Assessing Resources
A. Is there staff available?
B. Does the staff have the resources they need?
C. Does the staff have the time to devote to
making the program successful?

69. 3. Developing Strategy

70. 3. Developing Strategy
A.
B.
C.
D.
E.
F.
Who is the audience?
What are your key messages?
What is your tone of voice?
How often will you share it?
Monitoring and moderating
Content posting schedule

71. 4. Listening

72. 4. Listening
A. What channels are your shareholders using?
B. What topics are meaningful to them?
C. How can you address their needs and
concerns?

73. 5. Training

74. 5. Training
A. Train staff on initial social media tools
B. Involve them in the planning process
C. Keep staff current on social media channels
and trends

75. 6. Creating Content

76. 6. Creating Content
A.
B.
C.
D.
Develop and use a content calendar
Post frequently
Make content engaging and “likable”
Engage with fan base

77. 7. Measuring

78. 7. Measuring
A. Create metrics that are tied to your goals
B. Track metrics over time

79. 8. Adjusting

80. 8. Adjusting
A. Review metrics and look for trends
B. Take action to improve results

81. Can I Help?
Call
Me!

82. Follow Me
Facebook.com/SarahTPageConsulting
Linkedin.com/in/sarahpage
@pagetx
Sarah Page, Principal
Sarah T. Page Consulting, LLC
http://sarahtpage.com
sarah@sarahtpage.com
512.914.8873
Instagram.com/stpconsulting
Pinterest.com/sarahtpage

83. Thank You!
Questions?