The corporate website and social media disclose price sensitive information

Wouldn’t you agree that the way the president of Google recently announced changes to its senior management structure is creative and innovative? Some CEOs and investor relations managers might think this doesn’t follow them. Rather than the traditional and widely known approach of announcing the changes in a press release distributed by paid public relations cable services, Eric Schmidt made the announcement on Google’s official corporate blog and with a message on his personal Twitter account. , which has more than 230,000 followers.

New Ways to Disseminate Financial Disclosure Information

This approach is not only innovative and creative. As IR Web Report investigated, it also complies with local regulations, as it should be. In the US, companies like Google and Microsoft are changing the way they share their financial information. They are using their own websites in lieu of public relations wire services, or are using wire services simply to distribute short advisory releases that link to the full-text information on their corporate websites.

If replacing paid PR leads by corporate websites as primary channels of price-sensitive information in combination with social media is a growing trend in the US, will companies in other parts of the world follow this trend?

Online + social media strategy for financial communication

If the investigation showed that investors, analysts, and the media rely on companies’ website or mailing lists for information, why would companies want to continue paying for news release cable services? press? If they stopped paying for cable services, companies would save a lot of trouble and money. It would also give businesses the boost they might need to further develop their online strategies for financial communication, including social media, while at the same time remaining compliant. You could even argue that it may not even be prudent for companies to continue to rely on paid public relations transfers to meet their obligations.

Local compliance rules are leaders

It goes without saying that companies must comply with local regulations for fair disclosure. In the Netherlands, for example, companies must issue a press release, using means that can disseminate information instantly and efficiently. As far as I know, in the Netherlands, Google’s example would trigger a call from AFM (Autoriteit Financiële Markten) to request the company to issue a press release instantly (as long as the company is listed on the Amsterdam Stock Exchange ). Would it be helpful for companies to talk to authorities about the changes we see in the way our financial shareholders obtain their information? Because if the only reason for companies to use paid cable services is to comply with the rules, then maybe this year is the time to challenge the authorities to change the rules.

What is required to bridge the gap with Google?

In order to follow Google’s lead, companies would first need to have compliant websites or blogs and they would need to adhere to certain standards. I know from experience that this could still be a challenge in certain public companies and in these cases companies will still want to rely on paid cable services. Companies must also be able to demonstrate that investors, analysts, and the media are using their own companies’ website or mailing lists for information.

Do you know of any public companies outside of the US that are following Google’s online and social media strategy to inform the financial markets and what is their opinion on it?

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