Using Social Media in Investor Relations -- Part 2

Continuing our series on social media in IR, I'd like to discuss a few ways that we have learned to use some of these tools.

For starters, Meetup is a networking site that I have used personally for some time (it's great for when you move to a new city), but only recently have begun to experiment with as an investor relations tool. For those that are not familiar, Meetup.com is a place for like-minded individuals to congregate into groups for the purpose of face-to-face gatherings. There are groups of every imaginable kind including investor clubs.

Now, This can be a great IR resource for at least one reason. The members of these clubs tend to be relatively young. This is in contrast to what is typically found in your database where investors are more likely to be older. Therefore, it's a great place to connect with new investors who are more likely to be active and influential in the future. In fact, I'm tempted to make the same observation about all social media tools in general. Additionally, although I have no hard evidence in support, I suspect that the investors active in social media are more likely to want to invest in technology.

As for Meetup usage, here are a few ways we're beginning to use it.

• Use investor club Meetup gatherings as pitch venue, similar to a roadshow with several participants. This can also approached by IR staff in lieu of management.
  
• Network through these participants to other individual investors and organizations which you can add to your database to increase the magnitude of your other IR efforts.
• Take advantage of the collaborative nature of the groups to gain valuable market intelligence insights.

In other words, think of it as a free conference with an audience that is more unknown. I'm interested in hearing how other IR professionals are working with this site, if they are at all.

So that's all I have for Meetup. This weekend I'll find a few moments to talk about Facebook and Twitter which are the sites that everyone has been in love with for the last few years.