AGORACOM Small-cap Investor Relations Blog

AGORACOM Survey Reveals Important Information For Public Companies

Good morning to you all and welcome to all our new “C” level executives and IRO’s that have joined our resource company newsletter. I would like to extend a special greeting to all of you who stopped by the AGORACOM Sponsored Stock Market Resource Center at PDAC 2007. This was our first year as a sponsor of the event and you can expect to see us there for many years to come.

One of the most important things we accomplished at PDAC was 4 days of surveying investors in order to better understand their habits and preferences. With more than 500 investors surveyed, we were able to extract some extremely valuable information that will be of great importance to all of us. The information will have different implications for each one of you, depending on your primary metal/mineral and market capitalization.

As such, though I’ve provided some tertiary comments following each of the results below, the final analysis will be your own. To this end, we’re happy to provide you with the following results:

Percentage of Small-Cap and Large-Cap Investors At PDAC

• Small-Cap Investors 88.55%
• Large-Cap Investors 11.45%

Comment: Small-Cap Investors Are Much More Involved In Their Investments. As such, small-cap companies should consider means of communicating with them and motivating them beyond conferences. Conference calls and online tools should be explored.

Metal Or Mineral Most Bullish On (Top 6)

• Small-Cap Investors
  • Gold 47.9%
  • Uranium 14.4%
  • Silver 8.4%
  • Nickel 6.5%
  • Copper 3.8%
  • Diamonds 3.8%

• Large-Cap Investors
  • Gold 52.9%
  • Diamonds 11.8%
  • Uranium 8.8%
  • Zinc 5.9%
  • Copper 5.9%
  • Nickel 5.9%

Comment: Gold still dominates. Silver isn’t of interest to large-cap investors but the same group is 3 times more bullish on diamonds that small-cap investors. Silver and Diamond companies should alter their messages accordingly.

Percentage of Investors That Use The Internet To Conduct Research

• Small-Cap Investors 99.2%
• Large-Cap Investors 100.00%

Comment: Both small and large-cap companies should take note of this extreme number, which even surprised us. A simple web page is no longer sufficient if you want to differentiate yourself from your peers.

Percentage Of Research Into Next Investment That Is Derived From The Internet
Small-Cap Investors

• 50% of Research 30.4%
  
• 75% of Research 21.3%
  
• 90% of Research 25.5%
  
• 100% of Research 22.8%
  

Comment: Small-Cap Investors depend heavily on the web to find their next investment. Small-cap companies should take heed and significantly increase marketing on the web. Search engines are the easiest and most effective method. In addition, tools such as webcasting and podcasting should be considered.
Large-Cap Investors

• 50% of Research 50%
  
• 75% of Research 26.5%
  
• 90% of Research 5.9%
  
• 100% of Research 17.6%
  

Comment: A significant divergence from the Small-Cap Investor results above. Indicates that large-cap investors continue to rely just as heavily on brokers and financial media. Large-Cap companies should probably focus on traditional broker IR and possibly marketing through traditional media sources. Online marketing still needs to be in the mix but not as heavily as small-cap companies.
Percentage Of Investors That Participate In Discussion Forums

• Small-Cap Investors 64.8%
• Large-Cap 26.5%

Comment: Small-cap companies need to pay attention to this number. Though most CEO’s say “I don’t read forums”, 2/3 of your investors and potential investors do read forums. As such, you need to take control of your message by creating your own community. Otherwise, unscrupulous investors on unmonitored forums will have just as much impact on your share price as you do.

For Those Who Do Not Participate In Discussion Forums, The Percentage That Would Participate If Quality Control Measures Were Implemented

• Small-Cap Investors 77%
• Large-Cap Investors 84%

Comment: This is incredibly significant, especially as it pertains to large-cap investors. Both large and small-cap investors strongly deisre an ability to collaborate online about their investments. This is consistent with the advent of Web 2.0 in which community and mass collaboration has exploded in non-financial fields. Given the desire of those who don’t currently participate in discussion forums, it is only a matter of time until community and collaboration becomes a lynchpin of both small and large-cap investing.

CONCLUSION

The AGORACOM survey at PDAC has provided valuable information that companies of all sizes and focus should review, analyze and act upon. Putting our money where our mouth is, I have now started a blog at http://www.agoracom.com/blog for you to post comments and questions on this topic and all future topics. By creating a community and collaborating ourselves, we can all become better Web 2.0 communicators and marketers.

Regards,
George