Twitter for IROs

Twitter History First tweet sent March 21, 2006 Launched full scale version in July 2006 Twitter founded as a company 2007 Raised $22 million in venture funding in May 2007 Mainstream Media Events –2008 Presidential Election (September 25, 2008) –Mumbai Attacks (November 26, 2008) –Hudson River Plane Crash (January 15, 2009) –Iran Election Result Protests (June 13, 2009) 2

2008 Presidential Election Twitter usage increased by 43% on election day 3

Mumbai Attacks During the peak of the crisis, eye witnesses sent an average of 16 tweets per second. Relaying critical information to police and rescue workers. 4

Hudson River Plane Crash 5 There’s a plane on the Hudson. I’m on the ferry going to pick up the people. Crazy

Iran Election Result Protests The U.S. State Department contacted Twitter and asked them to postpone a planned maintenance procedure during the Iranian uprising because of the valuable information being disseminated from within the country. 6

Twitter Growth 2007 = 5,000 Tweets per day 2008 = 300,000 Tweets per day Jan 2009 = 2,500,000 Tweets per day Dec 2009 = 35,000,000 Tweets per day Feb 2010 = 50,000,000 Tweets per day 7

Twitter Growth 8

Journalists on Twitter Go to to see list of thousands of journalists on Twitterwww.muckrack.com 278 business/finance journalists 15 Financial Times 28 Business Week 41 Forbes 66 Wall Street Journal 108 New York Times 9

Public Companies on is tracking 639 public companies with Twitter profiles. Not all are using for IR purposes Q4 Web Systems identified 80 in Q Q4 Web Systems Identified 350 in Q

Set up an Account Personal vs. Corporate? Avatar should reflect your choice Background: Basic or Custom Bio: 160 Characters –Studies show that Twitter accounts with bios have far more followers than those without 11

How Does Twitter Work? Avatar: A picture or symbol used to represent you on Twitter Direct Message: DMs are private messages on Twitter between 2 people Hashtags: A word preceeded by a pound sign (#). These are used to categorize tweets. Followers: People who can see your tweets without searching for them. Following: You see the tweets of those you follow Replies: Direct conversations are facilitated Retweet: Someone re-sends something that someone else has already sent. Trending Topics: List of most popular topics happening on Twitter Tweet: A 140 character message sent via Twitter URL Shorteners: Services used to significantly reduce the size of a URL 12

Avatar Personal accounts often have a picture of the individual Some people chose not to include their picture and instead use some other picture or symbol to represent them Corporate accounts often use a corporate logo as their avatar Your avatar is how people who follow can quickly identify your tweets Try not to change your avatar frequently as it may confuse your followers 13

Direct Messages Direct Messages = DMs Start a tweet with and your message will go privately DMs are similar to s You can only DM someone if they are following you If you follow someone they can DM you Twitter’s default sends DMs to (can be sent via text etc.) 14

Hashtags #irchat is a hashtag Placing #irchat into a tweet ensures that everyone searching for #irchat sees your message whether they are following you or not. Hashtags allow unstructured text to be categorized thematically Hashtags are great for following attendees at conferences, group discussions or breaking news events 15

Followers Followers can see your tweets without having to search for them. The number of followers you have represents the number of people who will receive your tweets Followers = Reach = Influence Increase your followers Post unique and interesting tweets Listen, share and respond to others Follow influential people in your space and engage. Many will follow you back. 16

Following You see the tweets of those you follow Follow people that you find interesting and engage with them Use Twitter’s Find People feature to find people in your list who are also on Twitter Search for people talking about your company and industry and follow them. Identify smart people on Twitter and follow who they follow. 17

Replies Include within your tweet to ensure that your tweet will show up in twittername’s Replies Tab. This is a great way to ensure that you get someone’s attention. You can talk to someone even if they do not follow you. If the target of likes what you have to say they may follow you. 18

Retweets Include then copy and paste the content of one of twittername’s prior posts within your post and send it. ReTweets are the most powerful aspect of Twitter. If you have 500 followers and your tweet is RT’d by 5 followers who each have 500 followers your message may be seen by as many as 3,000 people. Getting RT’s by people with very large followings creates a viral effect for your posts 19

Science of Retweeting* Between 11:00 AM and 6:00 PM EST is the most popular time for retweeting Asking for the retweet – by explicitly saying “please retweet” – sounds cheesy, but it works. But don’t ask every time. Most retweets contain a link, many more than nonretweet updates. Talking about yourself won’t get you retweeted much Posting about social media, Twitter itself in particular, will get you retweets. 20 Dan Zarrella the social media marketing book*

Trending Topics Twitter has developed an algorithm that tracks common mentions of key words and phrases and posts the most popular topics. Big unplanned events quickly make their way to the trending topics list. The list can be localized to see what people various locations are talking about 21

Tweet A message sent via Twitter is known as a tweet Tweets must consist of no more than 140 characters Tweets may contain text, links to blogs, web pages, videos and pictures Tweets may be read by your followers or anyone who searches for content contained in your tweet. 22

URL Shorteners Because tweets are confined to 140 characters URL shorteners are often used to reduce the characters within a URL while maintaining the ability to direct you to the desired web page. Common URL Shorteners –Bit.ly –TinyURL –Ow.ly 23

Tools TweetDeck: Most popular Adobe Air platform Twhirl: Adobe Air platform Seesmic Desktop: Desktop Adobe Air platform HootSuite: Web based twitter client Brizzly: Web based twitter client TweetGrid: Web based twitter dashboard StockTwits: Crowdsourced investment related content leveraging the Twitter ecosystem 24

TweetDeck 25 Everyone I Follow IR Professionals Search #irchat Tweets That Members of the Media Automatic URL Shortening Tweet Shortening Search Column Tweet Translation Capability

#irchat Weekly open discussion for IR professionals moderated IR professionals send me questions or topical suggestions each week and I ask 4 questions over the course of an hour. Thursdays 11:00 AM EST Recent #irchat had participants from US, Canada, Brazil, Germany, Austria, Denmark, South Africa, UK, Poland and Sweden Please join the discussion 26

Helpful Hints Twitip.com: Great tips on how to use Twitter better. Mashable.com: Leading Tech blog with its own Twitter channel. Great source for news and info related to Twitter. Oneforty.com: App store for Twitter. Get info, ratings and recommendations for covering thousands of Twitter applications. 27