ProActive Client Applied DNA Sciences Ranks Second in Google Search Results using Long Tail Keyword

Applied DNA Sciences is a ProActive Network client that sells patented DNA security solutions to protect products, brands and intellectual property from counterfeiting and diversion. 

In a recent Google search for "anti counterfeit technology," Applied DNA Sciences ranked second in the list of results: 

The company ranked high in search results thanks to the use of a long tail keyword, a type of keyword phrase that has at least three, and some times as many as five words in the phrase. In this case, the company realized that ranking high using only "counterfeit" would not be effective, so they used a long tail keyword to fill that space.

This is a clear example of why blogs are often more powerful and a better use of resources than expensive Google adwords campaigns. 

ProActive uses this strategy in all content composed on the company. 

IBM CEO Study: Openness by Social Media Is Key Enabler to Organizational Success

IBM recently conducted its  biennial study of CEOs from all over the world, seeking to gain their perspective on emerging trends and issues. This year's study, entitled Leading through Connections, sought to glean insight into how CEOs are responding to the complexity of increasingly interconnected organizations, markets, societies and governments. 

One of the study's principle findings was that "open CEOs’ identify openness enabled and supported by social media and technologies, as a major influence on their organization and its success. These organizations perform better because they are utilizing the collective intelligence, are more agile, able to act quickly to gain higher profitability and growth."

The research indicated that only 16 percent of CEOs are currently using social networks to be more directly engaged with their employees, customers and partners. Within the next three to five years, this number is expected to jump to 57 percent. At this point, social media is "the least used means to interact with stakeholders. Within five years [it will] become the number two 'engagement' method, closely behind face-to-face interactions as number one." Read more at InnovationManagement.se. 

The reason behind this trend is simple: "CEOs are beginning to recognize that using email and the phone to get the message out isn’t sufficient anymore. [They understand] that using social technologies to engage with customers, suppliers and employees will enable the organization to be more adaptive and agile."

At Forbes.com, contributor Mark Fidelman sums up the study's findings neatly when he writes,

"The IBM study shows that CEOs and the companies they manage must constantly evolve to stay competitive. Partners, suppliers, employees and customers want CEOs to communicate with them on a personal level to build trust and to help align them to the organization’s strategy. There is a lot at stake here. And if CEOs continue to hide in their Ivory Towers under the guise of some old command and control mentality, the next chapter in their career might be written somewhere else.

No one wants that."

Read more at Forbes.com. 

StockTwits Social Heatmap being used on CNBC's Fast Money Halftime Report

StockTwits is a social platform widely used by the investment community. It uses the $TICKER tag to enable and organize "streams" of information around stocks and markets across the web and social media. These streams provide new forms of insight, ideas and information that are used by investors, analysts, media and others as they research stocks and manage their investments. 

Its new Social Heatmap feature provides a dynamic visualization of message volume across sectors and individual stocks over 4 time frames within a 24 hour period. By glancing at a visualization, investors can see which sectors and companies are generating the most chatter on social media. 

Social Heatmap is now being used daily on CNBC's Fast Money Halftime Report, providing a focus on stocks that are receiving the most activity in social media — where analysts, media and investors of all types share insights, news and ideas.

As StockTwits continues to grow and the volume of the social conversation around financial markets continues to raise, this stream is becoming increasingly valuable and influential as an information source. We expect to see more of this broad use of StockTwits and other social media platforms in the future.  

Study: LinkedIn is social media of choice for high-net-worth investors

A recent Cogent Research survey of American and Canadian investors shows that LinkedIn is the top social network of choice for high-net-worth (HNW) investors looking to connect with financial advisors and to conduct a variety of financial planning and investment research activities.

LinkedIn beat out Facebook, Twitter, and Google+ as the most trusted and reliable source for these activities. Respondents in the study felt that LinkedIn has created a "trusted platform for financial service companies" to engage with HNW investors. LinkedIn is also "the preferred platform for financial content, connecting with business colleagues, posting business updates and sharing and receiving new information about their industry."

Additionally,

"The survey also found that LinkedIn is now considered the second-best place for financial companies to advertise online, trailing only financial websites. The most common reason cited for this preference was the contextually relevant content provided on LinkedIn.

The popularity of LinkedIn among big-dollar investors has made the site the most important social media destination for financial advisors in all specialties.

According to a Hubspot 2011 survey of 611 advisors, 61% said they had landed a new client directly from LinkedIn."

Read the full article at ohioscpa.com.

How To: Tagging Tickers for StockTwits and Twitter - Part 2

Similar article to my Cashtag article below, direct from Stock Twits:

Here is a quick How To on tagging tickers for inclusion on StockTwits.

If you are posting commentary, a trade idea, information, a link or a chart to StockTwits, you will want to tag it well so that others who are most interested in your message will see it not only on StockTwits but across our content distribution network.

A Well Tagged StockTwits Message

1.  Add a StockTwits $ Cashtag (Exs: $AMZN, $GOOG, $SPY) to the tickers you are messaging about.

So, if you are messaging about Amazon, then you will tag the message with $AMZN.

2. Add only the Cashtagged Tickers that pertain to the message.

So, if you are messaging about Google, use the $GOOG tag only.

3. In addition to stocks, we also have Futures and Forex streams on StockTwits.

You can find the appropriate tags for those HERE for Futures and HERE for Forex.

4. If you watch how others are tagging, you will pick it up quickly.

Reuters on $TICKER; Why the cashtag matters on Twitter and StockTwits

Twitter is an online social networking service and microblogging service that enables its users to send and read text-based posts of up to 140 characters, known as "tweets". For stock market investors, Twitter began as a retail oriented tool, and it has since evolved into an institutional investor tool. This is confirmed in this story by Reuters: How investors use Twitter:

"Ever since the $TICKER tag was introduced on Twitter two years ago, active traders and investors have used the 140 character message stream to share tips, ideas and news. Most companies whose stocks were the subject of those tweets ignored the chatter the same way they ignore online chat rooms. Worried about inadvertent selective disclosures, corporate spokespeople kept their own Twitter conversation focused on routine PR matters, and steered away from financial and investor information.

That is changing fast as companies figure out how to tweet without crossing the foul line. A recent study of more than 600 public companies using social media found that two-thirds of them employ Twitter to communicate directly with investors, up dramatically from two years ago when just a handful were starting to tweet.

The study, conducted by Q4 Web Systems, a Toronto-based consulting firm that advises corporations on using the web, reported that natural resources and tech companies represent the greatest number investor-tweeting companies, followed by services, industrials, basic materials, and retail companies.

The survey cited emerging “best practices” these companies use when tweeting investors, including:

• live tweeting during earnings conference calls, analyst investor days and annual meetings;
• reaching out to investors for questions prior to an earnings call;
• answering investor questions live for all to see;
• linking to breaking news, analyst reports and opinions on the company or the industry;
• inviting followers to webcasts, conference calls and video blogs;
• using unique #HASHTAGS for specific events to make them easier to find later."

When Derwent Capital raised an insitutional hedge fund based on Twitter sentiment, the views from market professionals changed as identified by this article at The Atlantic Wire:

"You might think a 140 character tweet doesn't have much power, but, as one hedge fund proved, Twitter can help you win the stock market. "Derwent Capital, the hedge fund that is using Twitter sentiment to make its investments, beat the market--and other hedge funds--in its first full month of trading," Lauren Dugan reports. Using an algorithm based on the social media mood that day, the hedge fund predicted the market to make the right trades. Sounds unbelievable that something cluttered with mundane musings and media links could have anything smart to say about the market. But it's working so far.  

The idea behind it. Social media is a powerful force in the market--we think it could be making things worse. This algorithm puts those ideas to the test. It's based on a paper that came out of University of Manchester and Indiana University, which found a correlation between mood and Twitter, explains Bloomberg's Jack Jordan."

StockTwits - Next up was StockTwits, which is a verticle style application of Twitter focused in on being "a communications platform for the investing community". StockTwits is specific to investors. Twitter has financial messaging co-mingled with consumer messaging.

StockTwits boasts having a solid mix of professional traders, long-term investors, and hedge fund managers.  As such, the StockTwits site has significant appeal for companies looking to have their message heard. The company was founded in 2008 by long-time investor Howard Lindzon.

StockTwits created the $TICKER tag to enable and organize “streams” of information around stocks and markets across the web and social media. These streams provide new forms of insight, ideas and information that are used by investors, analysts, media and others as they research stocks and manage their investments. Other sites that use $TICKER include InvestorsVillage.com, InvestorsHub.com and TweetTrader.net.

A distinctive benefit to posting a message on StockTwits as opposed to Twitter is the "distribution reach."  All messages sent through Twitter are automatically posted on StockTwits, and they make their way to:

• CNNMoney.com,
• Yahoo! Finance,
• Bloomberg,
• The Globe and Mail,
• Bing, as well as
• Twitter, Facebook and Linkedin.

Much of ProActive's distribution from the ProActive Newsroom.com is via our ProActiveNR Twitter account and our client's Twitter accounts which feed into StockTwits $TICKER system.

Today, more than 150,000 investors, market professionals, and public companies share information and ideas about the market and individual stocks using StockTwits, producing streams that are viewed by an audience of over 40 million across the financial web and social media platforms.

With StockTwits’ Investor Communications Solutions any public company can quickly add their official communications to the $TICKER stream for their company on the StockTwits platform, across the leading financial web properties, and on Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook – all from one centralized interface that provides metrics, monitoring, compliance, and workflow tools.

StockTwits is currently testing premium accounts for professional investors requiring compliance, workflow and analytics capabilities to fully take advantage of the StockTwits financial communications platform.

Google - If you Google our client "UNIS", it comes up with 239 million results and the United Nations International School is at the top of the page. If you Google "$UNIS", it comes up with 4050 results and every single result is about our client Unilife Corp (NASDAQ: UNIS).

$TICKER is fast becoming the new norm on Social Media sites as it allows stock information to be shared easily. Look for traditional sites to pick up this sharing capability soon.

2012 Hubspot Inbound Marketing - Vertical application to investor relations

HubSpot, Inc. published its annual 2012 State of Inbound Marketing report. Data is based on a January 2012 survey of 972 professionals familiar with their business' marketing strategy. Professionals include marketers, busines owners, entrepreneurs, and executives at companies of various sizes. 

Here at ProActive we apply this to the investor relations world:

2012 inbound marketing

Branding, Fishing in the new market by Steve Brazell of Hitman, Inc.

I came across the editing of Steve "The Hitman" Brazell during a recent visit to the Film Annex Studio in New York City. I found his message to be very interesting, and here is a longer than normal (13 minutes) of Steve's interview:

Watch more on Film Annex

Brazell is known as one of America's top marketing and branding experts. He helps Fortune 500s, start-ups, small-caps, celebrities, and individuals make more money by communicating their brand stories better.

He is the founder of Hitman, Inc., a Competition Removal™ firm, and the author of "Clear! The Simple Guide to Keeping Your Business Alive and Kicking."

Steve also speaks and presents world-wide, and provides white board strategy sessions for start-ups and corporate decision makers.

He was recognized as one of Esquire Magazine's 45 Under 45 Professional Men, is an ardent devotee to fitness and the martial arts, is fluent in Japanese, and an avid student of body language, human behavior, and Far East philosophy.

Forbes: "Time For Investor Relations Departments To Go Social"

As the new year begins, it is interesting to see the market start to understand what we do at ProActive. Rather than sell ourselves, let's see what Forbes thinks:

"The benefits of social media far outweigh the risks. By establishing the right guardrails, it can be a hugely rewarding journey.

• Expand breadth and depth of engagement

Companies are communicating with customers, prospects, stakeholders, thought leaders and other businesses worldwide at lightning speed using social engagement tools like Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. By taking advantage of these same tools for real-time, two-way social IR, companies can better understand what matters to investors. And by employing innovative tools like StockTwits, IR pros can pinpoint messaging and target IR engagement, overcoming the primary issue of information glut on the internet. By meeting members of the investment community where they are and on their terms and increasing distribution through a unique set of tools beyond the newswires, companies can expand their reach exponentially as well as monitor their presenceto better understand impact of this engagement.

• Provide accurate, timely information

Investors live and die by the accuracy and timeliness of the information they receive. Precise, timely data is vital, especially in volatile or emerging markets. Initially, companies might be wary of social media due to fair disclosure and other regulatory concerns; but when used correctly, these channels provide a standardized platform and method of outreach. Accurate, relevant information about a company’s performance can be delivered in a timely, cost-effective fashion to customers, prospects and investors alike. Social media is one of the cheapest, fastest ways to disseminate news that matters and still meet the demands of fair disclosure.

• Establish authenticity

Authenticity and investor relations? You bet. Communicating in a thorough, transparent fashion —whether it’s your brand’s mission and values, or quarterly financial results—creates trust. One-on-one, face-to-face meetings are the ideal way to create these relationships and build authentic connections. However, non-deal road trips are highly impractical, time consuming and expensive. I’ve discovered that leveraging video conferencing technology and inviting a personal, human element into all my meetings creates a bond with our investors and stakeholders that truly stands out and builds over time.

At the end of the day, social IR is about more than adopting new technology. It’s a shift in mindset with IR professionalstoward fosteringopen and transparent disclosure with their external stakeholders, while at the same time embracing innovation. It’s about meeting investors how and where they want and need, while carefully following the rules of engagement. Done right, social IR can be a safe and rewarding evolution of your investor relations program.

Full story @ Forbes

AdvisorOne: Advisors Urged to Act Now on Compliance

Regulators keep eyes on certain regulations, says Lininger of The Consortium

As we move into the New Year, look for new and updated regulations according to this article by AdvisorOne:

"That is the first thing you should be making sure of in 2012, and one thing regulators are always looking for, according to Nancy Lininger of The Consortium, a firm that helps RIAs and broker-dealers with compliance issues. She warns that if they find you aren’t living up to those commitments, they will come down hard on you.

Asked about the top compliance issues she sees for RIAs and BDs in 2012, she offers several suggestions for those who want to stay on the side of the angels, and warns, “… regulators are always looking for deficiencies.” In a time when Madoff-sized schemes make the public question who’s in charge, regulators “have to look effective.”

See full story at AdvisorOne.