Agoracom Blog Home

Archive for the ‘Online Investor Relations’ Category

« Older Entries
Newer Entries »

Small-Cap CEO Lesson: Obama Calls On Blogger In First Press Conference

Posted by AGORACOM at 3:55 AM on Tuesday, February 10th, 2009

“AT his first press conference Monday night, US President Barack Obama made
history at 8:52 pm ET by calling on blogger Sam Stein of the Huffington Post
to be among only 14 reporters to ask a question.”

Dominic Jones
IR Web Report
Time To Open Up Your Earnings Calls To Bloggers

President Obama’s recognition of bloggers as a primary source of information, is a massive wake-up call to small-cap CEO’s and investor relations officers.  If you continue to believe that mainstream traditional media outlets are your only target market for mass communications, then you are missing out on what is arguably the better, faster and farther reaching way to get your message out to investors – the blogosphere.

Actually, the blogosphere is far too limiting of a term – but I haven’t thought of one that best encapsulates blogs, micro-blogs and online financial communities.  For now, let’s not worry about that because the important thing is to understand that a bigger, faster, more targeted reporting system is growing every single day – and it is never going to look back.

More than just lipservice, Dominic Jones summarizes this point perfectly in his following excerpt:

============

============

65% ….. 65%.! That is a huge number – and I guarantee you it is only going to get bigger with every passing year.  That is good news for small-cap companies that have embraced Web 2.0 – but for the majority that don’t understand the phrase “independent non-broker research sources” …. you’re in trouble.

Regards,
George

Posted in All Recent Posts, Online Investor Relations, Small-Cap CEO Lessons | Comments Off on Small-Cap CEO Lesson: Obama Calls On Blogger In First Press Conference

The AGORACOM Client Intelligence Report – February 2009

Posted by AGORACOM at 2:34 PM on Sunday, February 1st, 2009

We’re pleased to provide you with the February 2009 edition of The AGORACOM Client Intelligence Report. For those of you who didn’t receive our last report or are new clients of AGORACOM, you can now find an archive of these reports on our blog here.  For confidentiality reasons, all “Off The Blog” items mentioned in these reports are not mentioned in the blog posts.

WHY AN “INTELLIGENCE REPORT”

For the benefit of our new clients, we call this an “Intelligence Report” because it provides you with important information, data and trends that impact your business – information that you normally don’t have time to find. We often write about these in The AGORACOM Blog, so we call these “On The Blog” Stories.

In addition, this newsletter gives you a chance to look into our crystal ball and know what AGORACOM is working on months before the general public. You can’t find these tidbits on our blog, so we call them “Off The Blog” and ask that you keep them confidential.

As you know, we move faster than any IR firm on the planet, so knowing what we’re doing in advance helps both of us coordinate our activities. This is especially true for what we expect to be an extremely fast moving and exciting year in 2009.

In short, greater market intelligence that puts you ahead of all of your peers.

I can’t stress enough my recommendation that you review our monthly newsletter carefully for the purposes of incorporating some of our market intelligence into both your IR and business initiatives.

AGORACOM is now the largest small-cap IR firm and site on the continent thanks to our effective use of web technology. As such, following us will help you achieve your goals.

OFF THE BLOG … Shhhhh

**For confidentiality reasons, the “Off The Blog” items are not mentioned in the blog posts as they are only available to AGORACOM clients**

ON THE BLOG

The AGORACOM 100 Marketplace Is Now Live (are you in it?)

We’re proud to announce that the AGORACOM 100 Marketplace″ went live in January 2009. This elite group of small-cap companies will become an incredible research tool for investors and an outreach program for small-cap public companies this year and beyond.

Small-Cap CEO Lesson: Online Video Time Jumps 40% In 1 Year

According to this report, the amount of time U.S. Internet users spend watching video is up 40% year over year. So how does this impact your investor relations? Read more to find out…

AGORACOM Is 1 of Only 13 Finance Content Providers To Every BlackBerry® Device On The Planet

Look for AGORACOM to significantly advance its mobile efforts in 2009. I say “advance” rather than “launch” because for the past few years AGORACOM has already been the exclusive provider of small-cap content to every BlackBerry® device on the planet.

Small-Cap CEO Lesson: Chinese Internet Users To Surpass Entire US Population In 2009

If you’re a small-cap CEO and thinking about ways to broaden your shareholder base you can continue knocking/calling/e-mailing the same people from the same tired lists, or you can take your message to the entire world via an online investor relations program.

Happy Members Bode Well For Future Of AGORACOM Small-Cap Community

While at the Vancouver Cambridge Conference, we were reminded of the fact that our community is primarily powered by individual investors who have taken the time and effort to breathe life into it…

AGORACOM Interview: Electronic Shareholder Forums and Online Investor Relations

Last month, AGORACOM was interviewed by Zack Miller (former Seeking Alpha guy), which led to a great discussion concerning the future of online investor relations and electronic shareholder forums.

“AGORACOM Small-Cap 100″ TV Commercials Launches in January 2009

Last month, AGORACOM officially launched their “Meet The AGORACOM 100″ television and search marketing campaign. Look for this 30-second spot on CNBC and Bloomberg in the United States (Dish Network), as well as, BNN in Canada. Naturally, look for a major push online via search engines and our content partners.

Small-Cap CEO Lesson: Web 2.0 Coverage Of Plane Crash Beats CNN and Major Media

This photo came from a passenger on a ferry that was sent to pick up passengers from the US Airways plane that landed in the Hudson River. The passenger used his mobile phone to take the picture, then post it via Twitter, where it was then sent around the web like wildfire. In the meantime, all CNN could do was provide aerial footage from helicopters…

CONCLUSION

We hope you found this edition of the AGORACOM Client Intelligence Report to be helpful. If you have any questions or comments, please do not hesitate to contact us or your AGORACOM representative for further assistance.

Thank-you and have a great day.

Yours truly,
George Tsiolis, LL.B
Founder
AGORACOM

Posted in AGORACOM Client Intelligence Report, Online Investor Relations, Small and Micro-Cap Space, Small-Cap CEO Lessons | Comments Off on The AGORACOM Client Intelligence Report – February 2009

VMS Ventures (VMS: TSXV) Joins And Strengthens The AGORACOM 100

Posted by AGORACOM at 7:59 PM on Thursday, January 29th, 2009

Custom dictates that service providers give praise and thanks to new clients for hiring and entrusting them with critical company responsibilities.  New clients, on the other hand, ordinarily reserve judgment until the vendor actually delivers a job well done – and even then may remain reserved 🙂

The leadership of VMS Ventures is anything but ordinary.

This afternoon, the Company issued a press release announcing it had retained AGORACOM to provide online investor relations services and that it had joined The AGORACOM 100.  Par for the course.

However, a couple of hours later, the Company did something that speaks volumes about the leadership qualities of VMS – qualities that are just as, if not more, important than fundamentals on the ground.  Qualities that differentiate great small-cap companies from ordinary ones.  CEO Rick Mark sent the following message out to investors via e-mail:

True, I am absolutely floored by Rick’s kind words and will take this opportunity to thank him deeply.  However, I’m even more impressed by the fact that he took the time to communicate to investors how long and seriously he contemplated this step prior to making his decision – and now that the decision has been made, is calling on shareholders to act.

If that isn’t great leadership, I don’t know what is.  The AGORACOM 100 just became a whole lot stronger and I urge readers to visit the VMS IR HUB for all the details.

Onward and upward.

Regards,
George

Posted in AGORACOM Clients (New), All Recent Posts, Online Investor Relations | 2 Comments »

AGORACOM Interview: Electronic Shareholder Forums and Online Investor Relations

Posted by AGORACOM at 1:39 PM on Friday, January 23rd, 2009

Pleased to announce we just completed this interview with Zack Miller (former Seeking Alpha guy) of New Rules Of Investing. Great discussion concerning online investor relations, electronic shareholder forums and the future of investor relations.

I was also labeled as “indefatigable” in his intro, which was a really nice touch – after I looked up the definition 🙂

The information contained in the interview is well worth the 5 minutes. Moreover, when you’re done, have a look at Zack’s other interviews and articles. Great stuff if you want to be on the cutting edge of the future of investing.

Regards,
George

Posted in AGORACOM In The Press, AGORACOM News And Events, All Recent Posts, Online Investor Relations, Web 2.0, 3.0, ... | Comments Off on AGORACOM Interview: Electronic Shareholder Forums and Online Investor Relations

The AGORACOM 100 Is Now Live !!

Posted by AGORACOM at 3:08 PM on Tuesday, January 20th, 2009

I am proud to announce that AGORACOM 100″ is now live.  The full description can be found on our earlier blog post here.  If you prefer video, I’ve included our nationwide TV commercial below, as well as, the 2-minute overview that you can find right on the marketplace.

2-MINUTE VIDEO

NOTE: This is the YouTube version. If you want the clearest player, please watch the video here.

30-SECOND NATIONWIDE TV SPOT

This TV commercial started playing on major Business TV channels and search engines on Monday. Look for this 30-second spot on CNBC and Bloomberg in the United States (Dish Network), as well as, BNN in Canada.  Naturally, look for a major push via search engines and our content partners.

NOTE: If the player does not show up below, I’ve included the YouTube version below.

The AGORACOM 100 is going to become an incredible research tool for small-cap investors and outreach program for small-cap public companies.

Why?

QUALITY OVER QUANTITY – THE RESEARCH FILTER FOR SMALL-CAP INVESTORS

With close to 10,000 small-cap companies listed in North America, small-cap investors simply can not differentiate between great small-cap companies and the rest of the “noise”. As such, we created AGORACOM 100 for the sole purpose of providing small-cap investors with a filter that focuses on quality over quantity.

THE SMARTEST IR PROGRAM FOR SMALL-CAP COMPANIES

Much like investors, you are having difficulty differentiating your great company from 10,000 others – most of whom should not even be public. As an AGORACOM client, you automatically become a part of The AGORACOM 100, an elite group of small-cap companies.

ARE YOU IN IT? 65 SPOTS ALREADY TAKEN PRIOR TO LAUNCH

If your small-cap public company is not in AGORACOM 100 but deserves to be, simply contact us and we’ll get back to you within a couple of business hours.

We only have 35 spots left to round out our 2009 group – and we haven’t even launched yet. You now have an opportunity to become part of the best small-cap IR program ever created. With Google, Yahoo, AOL, Blackberry, CNBC, Bloomberg, BNN and Globe Investor on our side, I guarantee this will be your greatest opportunity for IR success in 2009 and beyond.

Regards,
George

Posted in AGORACOM News And Events, All Recent Posts, Online Investor Relations | 5 Comments »

Small-Cap CEO Lesson: Online Video Time Jumps 40% In 1 Year

Posted by AGORACOM at 9:58 PM on Tuesday, January 6th, 2009

You’re a small-cap CEO and looking for a way to tell your story to investors beyond text.  I have always maintained that video is the best new online investor relations tool because of its personal touch (CEO speaking to investors) and demonstration abilities (new product, factory, etc.).

However, until a couple of years ago, video was nearly impossible to execute for all but the most savvy small-cap companies due to the lack of cheap channels such as YouTube.  Moreover, online video usage was in its infancy with a limited number of users.

ONLINE VIDEO IS NOW ON

Today? Welcome to the ubiquitous  world of online video.  According to this NewTeeVee report, the amount of time U.S. Internet users spend watching video is up an impressive 40 percent year over year. Specifically, watchers tuned in for 273.1 minutes of online video in the month of November 2008, up from 195 minutes.  Some other interesting stats include:

  • 77 percent of the total U.S. Internet audience viewed online video.
  • The number of video viewers was up 6% to 146 million.
  • 97 million viewers watched 5.1 billion videos on YouTube.com (52.3 videos per viewer).
  • The duration of the average online video was 3.1 minutes.

HOW DOES THIS IMPACT YOUR INVESTOR RELATIONS?

Buy a good digital video camera and make video part of your IR program.  The connection created to your shareholders will be invaluable.  Meetings, executive addresses, new products, new facilities.  If it’s something you want investors to know about, shoot it and share it.  AGORACOM’s video strategy is already in full swing, just click on any of the logos above to see just some of our syndication.

Regards,
George

Posted in All Recent Posts, Online Investor Relations, Web 2.0, 3.0, ... | 1 Comment »

Small-Cap CEO Lesson: Create An Emotional Connection With Investors And Win.

Posted by AGORACOM at 3:52 AM on Monday, December 22nd, 2008

As the CEO / IRO of a small-cap company, one thing you struggle with is how to differentiate yourself from your peers and attract more shareholders to your company.  Yes, one great way is to communicate fundamentals via facts, figures and results. No doubt about it and I will always advocate this.

However, you can not forget the fact that investors are human, meaning they are both cerebral and emotional beings.  Facts and figures cater to the cerebral … but the greatest connection ultimately takes place on the emotional side. This is where brands become leaders. Emotional connections run deep into parts of people’s minds and souls that we can’t explain … but they stick with people (investors) forever (or until a company breaks the bond).

Want to see 2 amazing examples?

NIKE AND LOUIS VUITTON ARE 2 INCREDIBLE EXAMPLES

You don’t have to be a football or designer bag fan to appreciate the following ads.  See my comments at the end:

How did these ads make you feel?

Notice the absence of cerebral facts and figures? Notice the lack of “buy our shoes / handbags” messages. Yet, you probably feel a lot warmer towards these brands than you did just a minute ago. Amazing. I know I did after watching each ad.

EASIER SAID THAN DONE?  ACTUALLY, NO.

No doubt anything is easier said that done- and I know you don’t have the 7-digit budgets of Nike and Vuitton … but the good news is you don’t have to.  Technology now provides you with an ability to easily create a blend of imagery and music that best reflects your corporate image and values.  Companies like SpotRunner will even provide you with canned commercials that you can simply add music and words to – for $500!

In fact, I would contend the production side is actually pretty easy and very cost-efficient.  Same goes for distribution – you can distribute an ad via the web (your site, your IR HUB, e-mail, YouTube, investor confeences, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc.).

The hardest part of the process is coming up with something creative.  You and your team have to shake loose from spreadsheets for a few days and get in touch with your company’s soul.  You have to answer the question “where does my company connect with people?”

CONCLUSION

Daunting? You’re only constrained by your imagination.  Nonetheless, I’m willing to bet that 75% of CEO’s / IRO’s reading this have already had some ideas pop into their heads.  I know I did.  The good news is that you don’t have to come up with something today.  Just come up with something sooner than later.  Investors are waiting to connect.

Regards,
George

Posted in All Recent Posts, Online Investor Relations, Small-Cap CEO Lessons, Web 2.0, 3.0, ... | 2 Comments »

Webcast Of AGORACOM Keynote Investor Relations Speech From PIPEs Conference 2008

Posted by AGORACOM at 5:14 PM on Sunday, December 7th, 2008

AGORACOM was proud to be the Investor Relations Sponsor at The PIPEs Conference hosted by DealFlowMedia in New York last month, which has become the largest and most important event on Wall Street for the small-cap and micro-cap space.

KEYNOTE PRESENTATION – TURN THIS TURMOIL TO YOUR ADVANTAGE

As the IR Sponsor, I gave the keynote IR presentation titled “A Recipe For Success During Market Turmoil”. which is based on our blog post back on October 7th. The post was very well received by clients and non-clients and even cited by IR Web Report as an example of how to turn this period of turmoil into a competitive advantage.

More than just lip service, we’ve followed these principals for our own business and had a record month in October.

For those of you that couldn’t attend, please find enclosed a webcast of the presentation.

Click To Launch Presentation

Regards,
George

Posted in AGORACOM News And Events, AGORACOM Presentations, All Recent Posts, Online Investor Relations, Small-Cap CEO Lessons | 2 Comments »

AGORACOM Noront Community Serves Notice That Main Street Now Has Muscle. Staves Off Hedge Fund In Board Battle

Posted by AGORACOM at 9:50 PM on Tuesday, October 28th, 2008

Nemis credited the company’s retail shareholders, many of whom use the small-cap
investor relations website Agoracom, for strengthening management’s position.

“Without the Agoracom support, we never would have come to a balance with Rosseau
and never been able to negotiate the kind of agreement that we did negotiate and that
was my main concern.”

Richard Nemis, Chairman Emeritus, Noront Resources
Annual General Meeting
October 28, 2008

On October 9th, the most recent and biggest battle for a Canadian junior resource company – Noront Resources – commenced.  As the company’s investor relations firm, we went to work protecting the interests of management and the board – but we weren’t alone.  The AGORACOM Noront Shareholder Community was bigger, more motivated and ultimately more effective than the AGORACOM Aurelian warriors – and that was one hell of a crew.  Here is the tale of the tape over just 19 days.  The figures are quite simply massive and unprecedented.

PAGE VIEWS:             2,232,789
UNIQUE VISITORS:     41,709
PAGES PER VISIT:       58.90
AVG TIME PER VISIT:  22:09
TOP 10 COUNTRIES:   Canada, USA, Netherlands, Germany, Belgium, Austria, United Kingdom, Peru, Switzerland

On October 27th, after a 19-day e-mail, web, telephone, letter writing and media campaign that the dissident shareholder group never could have foreseen, the two sides agreed to a jointly determined single slate of directors for election at Noront’s annual and special meeting.

Much like the Democratic and Republican political conventions, once the nominees have been finalized, both sides agree to lay down their arms and unite behind the new leadership. True, it will take many investors some time to completely trust and support the new board but that is to be expected following any such battle.

For our part, AGORACOM unequivocally supports the new board and will continue to do its part to advance the best interests of the company and its shareholders.

On a broader scale, however, something has permanently changed the stock market landscape. It’s big and notice of the change was served the following day.

On October 28th, the AGORACOM Noront Community finished the lesson first started by the AGORACOM Aurelian Community, which forced Kinross Gold to extend it’s “friendly offer” 3 times before finally taking control of Aurelian Resources.  Specifically, Bay Street no longer has unfettered control. The boys in the towers can no longer count on making deals to the detriment of retail investors over scotch.  Main Street now has Web 2.0 muscle and will use it to amalgamate and protect its interests.

CONCLUSION

Words can not express how proud I am of every AGORACOM Noront member/shareholder.  You saved the day.  You are pioneers that shook the small-cap world and returned it to its rightful owner – the retail investor.  Above all, you are a courageous, intelligent, cooperative, selfless and noble group.  Be proud and take a moment to fully savor your accomplishment.

Tomorrow, let’s get back to work.  Noront Resources will not be the last company to go through this process.  This is especially true given current market conditions.  Spread the word by sending this message to every investor you know, with the goal of having a fully functioning HUB (client or non-client), for every great small-cap company. Investor communities are never going to be the same.

Finally, I’ll save the last word for Chairman Emeritus, Richard Nemis.  On behalf of everyone at AGORACOM and the entire AGORACOM Noront Community, thank-you. For everything.  Anytime, anywhere, just pick up the phone. You have an army at your service.

With great respect,
George, Paul and the AGORACOM Team

Posted in AGORACOM News And Events, All Recent Posts, Online Investor Relations, Web 2.0, 3.0, ... | 4 Comments »

Small-Cap CEO Lesson: Online Advertising Grows During Slowdown Due To ROI

Posted by AGORACOM at 3:06 AM on Tuesday, October 28th, 2008

If you are a small-cap CEO, you didn’t need a slowing economy to make sure you get the best bang for every dollar spent.  You’ve been doing it for years.

Nonetheless, no matter how sharp you are, chances are you can always be a little sharper and – in my experience – this is especially true for CEO’s that have not fully embraced the web.  If you fit this description, then you’ll be very interested in this e-marketer story which concludes that online advertising will continue to grow in 2008 (17.4%) 2009 (14.5%) as companies look to maximize ROI during this turbulent period.

TOP 7 REASONS FOR SWITCHING OFFLINE TO ONLINE MARKETING

For those of you that don’t have time to read the entire article, here are the 7 top reasons given by more than 1,500 marketing managers for shifting dollars to online marketing:

1. The Internet is inherently more measurable and accountable than traditional channels.

2. The Internet allows for better, more-granular targeting than do other forms of media. That reduces media waste and can save marketing dollars.

3. The Internet is interactive, thereby allowing for a higher degree of engagement with consumer and business prospects and customers.

4. Particularly among younger consumers, the Internet is accounting for a larger and larger share of total media time; numerous studies demonstrate that teens, millennials and other younger cohorts are spending more time online per week than they are watching television.

5. The Internet plays into the consumer-in-control movement and therefore provides new opportunities for marketers to be a part of their conversations about interests, attitudes, shopping plans and even brands.

6. New Web 2.0 phenomena such as blogs, social networks and Twitter provide marketers with the potential to gain rich insights into consumer behavior and attitudes (the Internet is like a perpetual focus group on steroids).

7. The Internet, unlike any other medium or channel, allows marketers to reach prospects throughout the entire consumer buying cycle, from initial awareness through pre-information-gathering to sales and post-sale feedback and support.

Regards,
George

Posted in All Recent Posts, Online Investor Relations, Small-Cap CEO Lessons | 3 Comments »

« Older Entries
Newer Entries »