The digital age democratizes investor communications

Investor communications is not a lonely island in the digital age, but its voice effectively carries through the media to all stakeholders.

It is worth constantly investing in the company’s visibility and public image – a good reputation is a good companion on the way to being a listed company and as a listed company. In the digital age, the challenge is to bring information to those who need it at the right time, in the right form so it stands out from the growing flood of information. Involving the community requires diverse channels: blogs, social media and discussion forums, webcasts, and videos. Presence with  management easily available for investors and stakeholders, including trade shows, stock exchange events and general meetings.

It is a good idea to seek visibility on both paid and free channels. When the marketing of the issue also takes into account the needs and goals of the business, it is ensured that the invested euros also generate value in personnel and customer communications.

Exceeding the news threshold in earned media remains a major challenge for many a smaller company. A company intending to list (itself?), on the other hand, is usually of interest to  the media. Through investor communications, the company thus has a better chance of gaining visibility in the earned media.

Investor communications is a megaphone

Investor communications not only lives in its own vacuum, serving not only the investor audience, but also adds strength to marketing and customer communications as well as internal communications. Properly implemented, investor communications is a megaphone that reinforces the company’s story to all stakeholders and their networks.

Good investor communications brings the company credibility among customers and visibility among various stakeholders. The company’s reputation brings pride to the employees involved and removes fear from those who come along. At its best, investor communications is business-friendly and productive.

A unified story for all stakeholders

Successful investor communications builds on the company’s story. The story forms a corporate culture that leads people. The story gives a reason to belong together.

The equity story presents the investor with a  justification for the company’s existence. It tells you what the company is doing, where it is going and by what means, provides visibility into the company’s current state as well as an understanding of the company’s market environment and position. It opens up how the plans are to be implemented and how the goals have been achieved in the past. Investor communications curates the story. It filters out the content that is relevant to the investor from the data mass obtained from the company. The company should invest in an illustrative and clear narrative of its story, for example on its investor pages.

In the revolution in communication, it’s good to keep in mind that a company can only have one truth and story. The story is distributed through digital channels to various stakeholders and is constantly updated. Therefore, the story must be consistent for all its listeners. At the same time, private investors are also users of products and services and thus the messengers of the brand and the company.

The community helps to succeed

A listed company should invest in private investors in its investor communications. Actively trading private investors determine the value of especially smaller companies in continuous trading, i.e. they allow the value of the share to more accurately reflect the true value of the company. The smaller the company and the more concentrated the ownership structure, the greater the power of private investors.

Through discussion in various forums, private investors will take the company’s story forward. At best, they can form an integral part of a listed company community, which acts as an extension of the company.

In such a situation, the company has a unique opportunity to consider private investors, engage in active dialogue with them and provide them with the necessary information. It is therefore worthwhile to listen carefully with an open mind to the opinions and feedback of private investors.

The thriving private investor debate on the discussion forums is an excellent example of how the digital age democratises content production and ongoing dialogue creates community. The community, in turn, helps the company and its investor communications succeed.