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.  

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

"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

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.