There is growing popularity in using social networks to reach out to and proactively engage shareholders during the quarterly reporting process. Giants like CGI, Garmin, Compellent, Best Buy, eBay and Google are all using innovative social media messaging to reinforce their earnings call communications. The use of Twitter during conference calls to engage users is growing, both to Tweet relevant points, and to ask and answer questions. Companies are finding that this practice can cut down on the amount of follow-up calls to the IR team after the calls, and also better highlight important data during the call. Google even recently used YouTube to post a conversation with its CFO, to talk about earnings results and important key points.

 

This area of interactive communications is fast becoming an important avenue for telling the company’s story and for connecting with the investment community. Social networks provide yet another valid source of information for institutional investors to make investment decisions….and this trend will continue.

As more companies report their earnings this way, it will be interesting to track the different ways in which they are implementing social media — Twitter in particular — to enhance the quarterly reporting process.

Take a look at this complete post from the Q4Blog and take note. http://www.q4blog.com/2010/01/29/the-use-of-social-networks-to-engage-investors-during-the-quarterly-reporting-period/