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.  

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.

Forbes on the Growth of StockTwits.com

Forbes had an interesting article on StockTwits and how LinkedIn is now using them for earnings calls:

The recent wild gyrations in the stock market have been a boon for one start-up. StockTwits, an online platform for sharing ideas about stocks that integrates with Twitter, saw time spent on its website and messages up more than 200% over the last 12 months.

StockTwits pulls in all Tweets about companies that are tagged with the “$” dollar sign and the stock ticker. For example, $LNKD for LinkedIn. The service is used by stock traders to discuss stocks and monitor chatter on the web. In a social media era, investors are no longer just reading articles or charts, they’re also monitoring places like Twitter for real-time information.

StockTwits has recently added new paid services for public companies to manage and monitor messages on StockTwits. Companies such as Dell, BASF, eBay, HP, PepsiCo and Royal Dutch Shell and signed to claim their “ticker page.” Using this, companies can send out Twitter messages that are compliant with SEC regulations.

LinkedIn recently used the service to post real-time messages during its earnings call. The company also used start-up SlideShare to post documents in real-time to the public.

StockTwits is not designed to replace the earnings press release, says Howard Lindzon, CEO of StockTwits. Companies that don’t want to post on StockTwits can also use it just to monitor discussion about the company.

“It’s to amplify what they’re already doing with a really inexpensive tool,” Lindzon says. “It can help them listen and monitor (and post).”

For smaller public companies in particular StockTwits is a way to get information out to the public in a fast way. Messages posted from inside StockTwits also get syndicated to other news outlets such as Yahoo and MSN.

FINRA's Guidance for Broker Dealers - #finra

SEC to receive guidelines in Q&A format within weeks

It appears that Social Media (we call it Digital Media) is finally getting some guidance from FINRA as far as what brokers and Broker Dealers can and cannot do:

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) plans to release to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in a matter of weeks new guidance on social media usage by broker-dealers and their advisors.

The additional guidance, which must first be approved by the SEC, won’t “change any of the fundamental principles” in FINRA’s Regulatory Notice 10-06, which was released in January 2010 and focuses mainly on recordkeeping rules for social media usage, said Joseph Price, senior VP for advertising regulation/corporate financing at FINRA, during remarks at the Insured Retirement Institute’s (IRI) regulatory conference in Washington on Tuesday.

Full Story @ Advisor One

Why we like StockTwits as a platform and a company...

Additional Large Players Are Integrating Investor Relations and Social Media

Dave Hogan teaches public relations at Abilene Christian University and serves as director of investor relations and corporate communications for First Financial Bankshares, Inc. (Nasdaq: FFIN). He posted an interesting article at PRNews.com that in many ways encapsulates this Blog.

Dell Inc. is no stranger to mixing social media with investor relations. It’s widely recognized as a pioneer in using blogs, YouTube videos and Twitter for reaching investors.

But it wasn’t until recently when Dell’s investor relations team implemented some lesser-known social media tools that its social media results really kicked into high gear. As a result of Dell’s stepped-up social media initiatives, the company estimates a potential audience of at least five million people saw its most recent quarterly earnings announcement. That’s far higher than it has experienced in the past and may be a record for any public company.

Investor relations departments have been notoriously slow to embrace social media compared with other sectors of public relations and marketing, but that may be changing as new social media channels emerge that seem better suited to investor relations needs than popular consumer-facing sites such as Facebook.

Two of the new breed of investor-friendly social media sites that are creating the most buzz are StockTwits and Slideshare. Dell introduced both of these tools in its most recent quarterly earnings announcement and gives them credit for helping to significantly expand its audience.

Full article @ PRNews.com

Jacqueline Borer - Why should we comply in XBRL?

Posted with the permission of Jacqueline Borer of Borer Financial

There has been a lot of buzz lately about XBRL and the high cost of implementation.  Many smaller companies feel that the costs are too exorbitant and are considering not filing in XBRL.  Thus, these companies will be delisted from their respective stock exchange.
 
There will be serious repercussions to publicly traded companies that do not comply with the SEC’s mandate for filing in XBRL.
 
The SEC is currently granting reporting companies a 30 day extension to file their first interim document (10-Q or applicable 6-K) in XBRL.  Many companies are taking advantage of the extension.  Companies are filing their ASCII or HTML document by the SEC mandated due date and then they file an amended 10-Q or 6-K with an explanatory note saying something similar to the following:

This Amendment on Form 10-Q/A to our Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended ______________ 30, 2011, filed with the Securities and
Exchange Commission on ___________ __, 2011 (the “initial filing”), is being filed for the sole purpose of furnishing the Interactive Data Files on Exhibit 101.
No other changes have been made to the initial filing. This Form 10-Q/A does not reflect events that may have occurred subsequent to the original filing
date, and does not modify or update any related disclosures made in the initial filing.
 
Pursuant to Rule 406T of Regulation S-T, the Interactive Data Files on Exhibit 101 hereto are deemed not filed or part of a registration statement or
prospectus for purposes of Sections 11 or 12 of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, are deemed not filed for purposes of Section 18 of the Securities and
Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, and otherwise are not subject to liability under those sections.
 
EXHIBITS
 
Exhibit 101 The following financial statements as of and for the period ended __________ __, 2011 from ABC’s Report on Form 10-Q
for the month of __________ 2011, formatted in XBRL (eXtensible Business Reporting Language): (i) Consolidated Statements of Income,
(ii) Consolidated Statements of Comprehensive Income, (iii) Consolidated Balance Sheets, (iv) Consolidated Statements of Cash Flows,
(v) Consolidated Statements of Shareholders’ Equity and (vi) Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements.

Please read below the SEC’s final ruling on XBRL compliance and hardship exemption.  Also, please note that the SEC does not easily grant hardship exemptions.

Consequences of Non-Compliance

Companies that do not submit or post required interactive data on the date required will be deemed not current with their Exchange Act reports and, as a result, will not be eligible to use the short Form S-3, F-3, or S-8, or elect under Form S-4 or F-4 to provide information at a level prescribed by Form S-3 or F-3. Similarly, these companies will not be deemed to have available adequate current public information for purposes of the resale exemption safe harbor provided by Rule 144.

A company that is deemed not current solely as a result of not submitting or posting an interactive data exhibit when required will be deemed current upon submitting or posting the interactive data. As a result, it will not lose its status as having “timely” filed its Exchange Act reports solely as a result of the delay in submitting or posting interactive data.

Hardship Exemptions

Consistent with the treatment of other electronic reporting obligations, companies can obtain temporary or longer term hardship exemptions under appropriate circumstances. Rule 201 of Regulation S-T will provide a temporary hardship exemption from submitting or posting interactive data without staff or Commission action, when a company experiences unanticipated technical difficulties that prevent timely submission or posting of interactive data. The temporary hardship exemption will cause the company to be deemed current for purposes of incorporation by reference, short form registration, and Rule 144 for a period of up to six business days from the date the interactive data were required to be submitted and posted if the company otherwise is current.

Rule 202 of Regulation S-T will permit a company to apply in writing for a continuing hardship exemption if interactive data otherwise required to be submitted and posted cannot be submitted or posted without undue burden or expense. It is expected that these requests would be granted infrequently. If the Commission or the staff, through authority delegated by the Commission, grants the request, the company will be deemed current until the end of the period for which the exemption is granted if the company otherwise is current.

Jacqueline Borer

Brand Journalism - The Future or the Past?

At ProActive, we say both as a blend of "old school" and "new school". Content is King and distribution is King Kong.

This is a very interesting article at Ragan.com titled, "Can journalism help establish your brand?"

Some envision a communications future in which organizations spread their messages like bread-crumb trails through Twitter, Facebook or whatever new medium emerges next week.

But a new movement sees the future in an old media institution known for bad coffee, snappish editors and storytelling prowess under pressure: the newsroom.

A growing number of organizations are embracing a communications philosophy under a hotly debated name: "brand journalism." They are hiring reporters and photographers to write articles, shoot pictures and produce videos that draw readers to their websites and heighten brand awareness.

Brand journalism is the effort by any organization—the military, corporations, rock bands, nonprofits—to position itself by creating content ranging from articles to video to white papers, says David Meerman Scott, bestselling author of Real-Time Marketing & PR.

"I think all websites in the future will look like The Wall Street Journal online or msnbc.com," Scott says. "The good ones already do."

Yes, and they all need Google juice:

The topic is current enough to merit a panel discussion this year at South by Southwest. Advocates cite examples like IBM, HBSC's Business without Borders, Imperial Sugar, and Monster.com's use of tips articles as what Scott calls "search engine fodder" that attracts people looking for information and then ropes them in as potential customers.

Full story @ Ragan.com

ProActive Client CASE STUDY - Social Media Activity, Stock Price, and Volume

ProActive “PRISM” Social Media Case Studies on VTUS, APDN, UNIS, ACCP, KNKT, KERX

ProActive positions itself as a "thought leader" in the Digital Investor Releations market. This study was created to show the correlation between Clients’ Social Media/Internet Activity and Volume/Stock Price. The following are true case studies showing ProActive (Clients’) Social Media activity prior to being placed on the PROACTIVE “PRISM” System, and Social Media activity after being on the platform.

We are continuously looking for new media sources and adding them in the system. Content from all sources on the public social web, regardless of the country or language, is added to the system daily. We currently support content crawling from over 186 languages in 190 countries, and new media sources are automatically added as they are discovered by our crawlers. Clients in this study include a variety of clients from NASDAQ to OTC and they are:

• Ventrus Biosciences (NASDAQ: VTUS)
• Unilife Corp. (NASDAQ: UNIS)
• Keryx Biopharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: KERX)
• Kunekt (OTC: KNKT)
• Applied DNA Sciences Inc. (OTCBB: APDN; Twitter: $APDN)
• Access Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (OTCBB: ACCP)

To see the full report, please download the PDF version here.