The idea that investors will remain tethered to their desktops and laptops is long gone. Accessing e-mail from your mobile is already status quo and thanks to smartphones such as the iPhone, Blackberry line and others, people are are significantly increasing their mobile surfing.
More than just lip service, I posted a story on April 13th titled Mobile Internet trading and Research Skyrockets 188%.
Today, I provide you with further evidence. According to eMarketer, the number of people surfing the web from their mobiles is going to skyrocket. The graph to the left shows us that 59.5 million Americans were mobile surfing at the end of 2008, 73.7 million will be mobile surfing by the end of 2009 and 134.3 million will be doing so by the end of 2013. We don’t have numbers for Canada but I think it is safe to use the same percentages. Europe and Asia on the other hand are probably substantially higher due to mobile penetration and dependence in those regions.
UPDATE: Phil Barrett, vice-president of digital and mobile at B Street, noted that mobile devices have a 72% penetration rate in Canada and about four million Canadians are accessing the mobile web through their mobile device. (marketingmag.ca)
CONCLUSION
A mobile investor relations strategy is a must. Having a website accessible via mobile phones is not enough. Sending out IR communications via e-mail is not enough. Why? You aren’t reaching anybody new, you’re simply preaching to the converted.
You have to find a way to publish information into the web stream (if you don’t know what this means, stay tuned for webcasts of my presentations at the Cambridge and Reverse Merger Conferences). Getting your information into the stream makes your IR communications more easily accessible to mobile investors. There are a number of ways to accomplish it. If you are an AGORACOM client, you will have a free mobile strategy by September. If you are not an AGORACOM client, then your options are as follows:
- Build an application for iPhone and Blackberry that targets small-cap investors and your industry. A lot of expense for just one company’s IR stream.
- Start blogging. Blogs are search engine friendly and allow you to tag your information for targeting mobile investors (and all investors) that are specifically interested in your industry. Blogs also allow you to distribute your content via RSS Feeds.
- Start Twittering. Twitter is extremely search engine friendly, including its own search engine that mobile investors (and all investors) are using to discover investments related to their specific fields of interest.
Admittedly, these are not easy things to accomplish for 95% of small-cap companies. You can bring in a local consultant – but make sure they understand both your business and the stock market. Most tech geeks don’t understand both and could end up creating something that does not fit your goals.
On the other hand, you can contact us and have a turnkey online and mobile investor relations strategy created for you.
Regards,
George
