• How Social Network LinkedIn Leverages Social Media For Investor Relations

    Leena Rao

    Leena Rao is currently a Senior Editor for TechCrunch. She recently finished graduate school at the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University, where she studied business journalism and videography. From 2004 to 2007, she helped lead Congresswoman Carloyn Maloney’s community outreach and relations efforts in New York City. She graduated from Columbia University in 2003, where she was... → Learn More

    Friday, August 5th, 2011
    LinkedIn_

    LinkedIn posted its first earnings as a public company yesterday and in true form as a social network, the company used a number of social media outlets to disseminate this information. LinkedIn posted earnings slides on a SlideShare Pro Channel at the close of the bell yesterday, which made it much easier for bloggers and others to then embed and share these slides on their sites (we did).

    LinkedIn also partnered with StockTwits for the live-tweeting of the company’s earnings. StockTwits’ LinkedIn ticker page includes this stream of information as well as the earnings presentation.

    As more and more people turn to social media sites for their news, more companies are using social media tools during their earnings calls. As StockTwits’ Chris Bullock writes, Companies are actively posting 10-20 messages during their earnings call that highlight the key points – almost like a “Cliff Notes” for earnings.

    As you can see from LinkedIn’s Tweet stream, the company’s chief blogger Mario Sundar Tweeted everything from CEO Jeff Weiner’s commentary to revenue numbers to traffic updates. LinkedIn isn’t the only tech company to live Tweet their earnings. eBay also live Tweets via its eBay Ink blog.

    And using SlideShare for earnings presentations and annual reports makes it easier for investors and consumers to distribute this information and publicly comment. Of course, you can always go to the investor relations sites for the companies to access earnings slides, but I find most of these sites clunky and difficult to navigate. Dell also shares its earnings presentations via SlideShare.

    As Bullock notes, companies have to deal with certain compliance issues when it comes to sharing financial information but I think we are going to see more and more public companies, especially those who are playing in the tech field, use social media when reporting earnings. I for one, can’t wait to see how Facebook uses Twitter, and its own site, when the company eventually goes public next year.


    Company: LinkedIn
    Website: linkedin.com
    Launch Date: May 2003
    IPO: NYSE:LNKD

    With over 225 million users representing over 200 countries around the world, LinkedIn is a fast-growing professional networking site that allows members to create business contacts, search for jobs, and find potential clients. Individuals have the ability to create their own professional profile that can be viewed by others in their network, and also view the profiles of their own contacts. Competitors to LinkedIn include sites such as XING, Doostang and Ecademy. Of note, LinkedIn won...

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    Company: SlideShare
    Website: slideshare.net
    Funding: $3M

    SlideShare is a community for sharing presentations. Individuals or organizations can upload and share PowerPoint, PDF, or OpenOffice presentations. Anyone can find presentations on their topic of interest. Users can tag presentation, and download or embed them into their own websites or blogs. Users can also share their documents privately. SlideShare lets its users to join groups to connect with SlideShare members who share similar interests. Business presentations make the most of the content. SlideShare also has a facebook...

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    Company: StockTwits
    Website: stocktwits.com
    Launch Date: 2008
    Funding: $8.6M

    StockTwits is a social, stock micro-blogging service. StockTwits is an open, community-powered idea and information service for investments. Users can eavesdrop on traders and investors, or contribute to the conversation and build their reputation as savvy market wizards. The service takes financial related data and structures it by stock, user, reputation, etc. Log into the site with your Twitter details or download the StockTwits Desktop and you will be joining a community where market participants share their very best ideas in...

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