As an executive or management of a company, chances are you’ll be spending a lot of time out and about advocating your company’s potential and success. This is especially true for ASX-listed companies in the junior mining space, where it’s important to get the market keen to invest and stay invested. This includes broadcasting important company updates via important and traditional avenues like conferences and networking events, exactly where the desired target audience is available.
These days, when you and a potential investor meet, it shouldn’t just stop there. QR codes or digital business cards allow for contact details to seamlessly get added to your contacts and distribution database. You might even connect on LinkedIn or decide to follow them on Twitter/X, growing your online professional network and presence further. According to LinkedIn, 180 million of all its users (25%) are senior-level influencers.
Your digital presence is a must.
For those who don’t live and breathe social media and digital marketing, you might not be aware that for two days this week, State of Social, Perth’s leading social media conference, took over the stunning venue that is Optus Stadium for its sixth year.
The hundreds who attended, including our very own White Noise digital team, were provided with the opportunity to get the heads-up on what’s going down in the world of digital marketing and get the lowdown on what’s top of mind from the smartest brains in the business, both from interstate and overseas (including the former Aus-NZ Facebook CEO).
A big focus was to educate all attendees on how to understand the digital world, your shareholders and what the data are telling you. And, crucially, what to do about it.
Key themes over both days included:
- Signals & symbols
- Mental availability vs. physical availability for your brand
- Is X (formerly Twitter) dead?
- Who would win in a fight between Elon Musk or Mark Zuckerberg?
- Shortform video is the way to go, and
- the big one, Artificial Intelligence (AI).
The consensus was to accept and use AI as it is a powerful tool that can help prompt ideas, save time, and even create new images/videos with a limited budget.
This is all well and good but how is it relevant to a publicly listed company?
Communications are vital for a listed company, it’s what connects the company to the market and investors.
Let’s start with websites.
A company website is often the first port of call for most investors. As well as providing them with up-to-date information on a company, where they go on the site and how long they engage for are important analytics for a company to assess message cut-through. The messaging needs to be clear and uncomplicated so that shareholders can understand the value of investing in your company and build trust in your expertise.
On to media.
Online paid editorial are increasingly important for market amplification. Differing editorial styles and audience demographics provide access to a diverse audience, albeit one focused on company investments.
Traditional media still covers a significant audience segment and many of the keynote speakers emphasised that a mix of content is important to create multiple touchpoints for your company brand to be recalled.
The flow through success is only as good as the company platforms that the paid editorial and traditional channels are lead to. For example, if a junior gold explorer wants their company name to be recalled when people are trying to think of the ‘latest exciting gold story’, they are going to have to invest time and money into building their digital brand presence.
Social media is an excellent tool to amplify company announcements, media releases and industry information and connect with investors. People spend roughly 2 hours and 23 minutes daily on social media browsing and messaging (GlobalWebIndex). Additionally, 98.55% of people use at least four social media channels daily (GoodFirms).
Engaging content can reach peak amplification with sharing, liking and direct engagement with investors. These engagements acts as another touchpoint and well crafted, interesting posts assist with traffic being driven to your company website.
From there, your company ideally will end up with new subscribers to your announcements to receive email updates, landing your latest news into their inboxes in real time.
People in your company matter
Apart from the typical day-to-day work that gets done in a company, it’s important to make sure that shareholders and your audience see who is creating value for them.
Why? One, it is more engaging and two, it builds trust.
As a Managing Director or Chairman, it’s important to remember that you are representing the company that shareholders have invested their hard-earned money in. Shareholders like to see activities of work on-site, presentations at conferences, and company updates, all so they can be reassured that you are delivering on your promise to create value for them.
This is why video is such a powerful tool, especially in short form. By short form, we mean less than 3 minutes, a length where viewers are likely to watch to the end without getting bored.
Videos are the number one branded content used by marketers. Nearly 93% of marketers say that they’ve landed a customer thanks to videos on social media. Additionally, 54% of them say that video is the best type of content for achieving social media goals (SproutSocial).
Every company has core metrics
All these forms of amplification allow companies to control your own investment narrative, something that third parties might not get exactly right.
And the beauty of digital is that everything is trackable. How long did a viewer stay on a project page and at what point did they stop scrolling down the page? Which announcement social posts got the most engagement?
Objectives require continuous measurement and improvement. We work with our clients to ensure the delivery of strategic communications that align with your business.
Final Thoughts
Whether it’s Threads or setting up an X (again formerly Twitter) account for your brand, embracing and mastering new media is priceless. Content creators, including your team, should think more carefully about how your company channels will be consumed on mobile devices, which is where socials come in.
Finally, you’re already behind if you’re not spending money on sponsored advertising, especially on LinkedIn. It doesn’t need to be a huge budget, however it will likely give you the best return on investment.
A quote that was highlighted at the conference that resonated with attendees was referenced from a book by Blair Warren called ‘The One Sentence Persuasion Course’:
“People will do anything for those who encourage their dreams, justify their failures, allay their fears, confirm their suspicions, and help them throw rocks at their enemies.”
So, if you’re not already, will you join the masses in making the move to the state of social?
White Noise communications is provided a fee for service working with companies which may have exposure to commodities or securities mentioned in these articles. All articles are the opinion of the author and are not endorsed by, or written in collaboration with, our clients.
