Happy to report yet another AGORACOM success story – Torch River Resources (TCR: TSX-V). Trading around .21 when they retained us on Feb 27 and closed at .53 yesterday. Over 14,000,000 shares have traded in the last 3 days. Torch River Resources Ltd. is a company engaged in the exploration of Molybdenum, Rhenium and Copper in British Columbia. For more information, please visit their IR HUB
Regards,
George
Despite SEC Operation Spamalot vowing to crack down on stock spam, it appears the people at Twin Trader contnue their spam attack undaunted. So far this week I’ve received 8 separate spam messages discussing 7 different companies. Even if I was a legitimate subscriber to the service, how valuable can the service be when you send information about 7 different companies?
A closer look at their disclaimer uncovers the typical we might own a bunch of stock and sell it at anytime even if it avalanches the stock warning. What I also find particularly interesting is the following:
“TT has been compensated five hundred dollars from Inside Wall Street for disseminating this news release and other services” 500 Hundred Dollars? Either TT is selling its spam services short, or they are a related party in which IWS is the company selling the services and TT is conducting the spam operations.
Either way, I didn’t ask for 8 stockspam messages and a report will be filed with the SEC. If you’ve been spammed by TT, I suggest you contact the SEC or e-mail them directly at [email protected]
Regards,
George
Those of you who are familiar with my posts around the blogosphere, or my comments at various conferences, know that this has been my mantra for some time now. Well, the good folks at GigaOm have a great post on this very subject.
Hopefully, this is the beginning of a trend where real Web 2.0 businesses with real customers get some of the attention that has, to date, been reserved for W20 sites that are nothing more than fun apps that nobody is willing to pay for.
Best,
George
PayPerPost (PPP) has been the subject of hot debate since it opened for business in 2006. For those of you not familiar with PPP, it is a site that basically acts as a broker between advertisers and bloggers. The twist is that rather than spending one lump sum to buy space on one blog, advertisers can offer 500 different bloggers $5 each (or more) to post a message about their company. Purists argue it is deceptive and ruining the internet. PPP and other capitalists argue it is another smart way of getting a message out, while putting some $$ in the jeans of bloggers who earn pennies from Google.
It shouldn’t surprise you that I’m all for the business side of the debate. A recent webpoll on WebProNews puts the capitalists in the overwhelming majority, with more than 91% saying they would use PPP. Now, only 78 people voted during the week long poll but the poll was placed at the bottom of an article that pitted PPP against one of the biggest blogs in the world – Gizmodo.
Paying bloggers to write about you, as long as it is disclosed, isn’t deceptive and it isn’t ruining the web. Not because I say so but due to the fact no self-respecting blogger would affiliate themselves with products or services harmful to the blogosphere. Do they have to love it? Does Tiger really love Buick? I’m sure he loved them a whole lot more once they dropped cash on the table. Why should bloggers be any different? Power to the free market.
Best,
George
Our campaign for responsible small-cap IR has only begun, so it’s nice to see others who share our vision. The Elliott Report has some great pointers for small-cap companies that are considering engaging an IR firm.
Best,
George
It was bound to come up sooner or later, so here we are. Companies such as Sun Microsystems and General Motors have been operating blogs that contain posts by company officers. I personally believe both companies should be commended for using blogs to further communicate with the investment community. Nonetheless, I’ve debated those who believe blogs do not constitute full disclosure - though none of them have ever been able to tell me how webcasts stay within the guidelines.
Well, the issue is now officially on the table thanks to SEC Chairman Cox dropping in on the blog moderated by Sun CEO, Jonathan Schwartz. I could try to summarize the courteous discourse between the two but nothing beats the real thing.
I’m confident that blogs are going to pass the test due to the fact they are available for all to read just as webcasts are available for all to listen/watch. Nonetheless, you are watching history in the making as Web 2.0 finds its way into investor relations – something we’re already leading the way with in the small-cap / micro-cap world.
Best,
George
Good morning to you all. On behalf of AGORACOM and everyone we know in the small-cap space, we applaud and thank the SEC for its announcement yesterday. As an advocate of legitimate small-cap companies across North America, we have done our part in drawing attention to this very serious problem which is tainting an entire industry of legitimate small and micro-cap companies that do not engage in such practices.
To this end, I gave a keynote speach on this very matter at the PIPEs Conference in New York this past November, titled “E-Mail Promotion Is Dead – How To Conduct Great Investor Relations In A Web 2.0 World” in front of more than 100 investment bankers. Reaction to the speach was so positive tha we made it available by webcast for everyone to view:
We hope this is just the beginning of things to come out of the SEC.
Best,
George
                     
The world’s biggest mining conference has now been YouTubed and the results are fantastic, with over 7,700 views of our interviews with Peter Grandich, Paul Van Eeden and Gerri Paxton of Palmarejo.Â
In the process, YouTube awarded our AGORACOMIR “guru” channel with several honors for number of views and new subscribers on both individual days and over the entire week.Â
This small experiment bodes very well for the future of online video in the small-cap world, so look for us to significantly increase coverage beginning the with Calgary Gold Show at the end of this month.
Zac Bisonette has a great article on bloggingstocks about pump ‘n dump promoters using YouTube as another avenue for stock promotion. The most imporant, however, is that tactics such as e-mail spam, direct mail and telephone boiler rooms are no match for some simple due diligence – check the SEC litigation database by running names of companies, officers and directors through it. In just a couple of minutes, you’ll go a long way towards determining whether a possible investment is just another scam.
By the way, here is the “AGORACOM” search result under SEC litigation. One of the rare instances I can be proud of seeing “No documents matched your query.”
Regards,
George
P.S. YouTube can be used for legitimate stock marketing purposes. AGORACOM will be unveiling a YouTube profile just in time for PDAC 2007 and posting interviews with analysts, executives and attendees for the benefit of those who can’t make it to the biggest mining conference in the world
The Globe & Mail reported a story yesterday that the OSC is considering setting up a scam squad to battle pump n’ dump boiler rooms and e-mail spammers. We at AGORACOM would applaud any such initiative by the OSC. E-mail spam is at all-time highs now, making up close to 20% of all spam we receive on a daily basis.
An annoyance to most people, stock spam actually hurts the small-cap industry because it paints the entire industry as one of pump n’ dumpers that need to spam in order to promote their stocks. We all know differently and that this is the raison d’etre of AGORACOM – but penalizing companies and unscrupulous promoters is good for everyone.
Will the OSC go through with it?Â
In an interview following his speech, Mr. Wilson said the proposal for the scam unit came from the commission’s enforcement division and hasn’t been approved yet, but will be considered in coming weeks as the OSC sets its budget for the coming year. He said he doesn’t know how much such a unit would cost, but said it would be assessed on a cost-benefit basis.
I sure hope they take into account the intangible side of this equation.
Best,
George