Courtesy Of Blog.USA.Gov
If you are a small-cap company and still have doubts about the power of online investor relations, then you need to know that a survey of American adults conducted in late 2009 found that 82 percent of Internet users — or 61 percent of American adults — had looked up information or completed a transaction on a government Web site over the previous year.
5 REASONS WHY YOU HAVE TO HANG UP THE PHONE FOR GOOD AND CONNECT WITH INVESTORS ONLINE
If people have become so comfortable with the web that they are overwhelmingly connecting with important government services online, you have to assume they’re ready to connect online with your small-cap company for something as important as their investment portfolio. Why? Here are some good reasons:
- People are too busy during business hours to call you. Thanks to e-mail, the average worker never completes their work anymore. They have a backlog of to do items, so they don’t have time to call you.
- Timezones. Most of the world lives outside of your timezone. Some live on the other end of the planet. They simply can’t call you unless your IR people are working at midnight.
- Workplace technology makes it very easy for employers to track long-distance phone calls. If Joe’s Plumbing in California doesn’t do business in Calgary, you can bet his employees aren’t going to make 15 minute phone calls to you.
- Investors want to feel you out. No group of people has experienced more spam and unwanted phone solicitations than small-cap investors. Now, they’re on to you and have no desire to call in, display their phone number, get into a long-winded conversation and get pressured into joining an e-mail list. If you don’t offer the ability to connect online, then you better be a damn great small-cap or investors will go to companies that do.
AND LAST BUT NOT LEAST ….
The web accounted for 78.3% of all research into new small-cap investments in 2009.
I’ve got a bunch of other reasons that I will write about in the coming days but this post should suffice to get my point across. Get connected or you are doing your company a great disservice. If you are looking for more reasons, have a look at my 51 Small-Cap CEO Lessons before this one.
Regards,
George