I had the opportunity to speak on a marketing trends panel at Babson last week, and while I’m not sure how much of what I had to say was taken seriously, I saw the ears perk up when I told attendees that Chairman Cox was reading and commenting on blogs (more on this in a future post).

I think your last point is very important–it’s up to us as agency and communications professionals to direct our clients in the right direction here.

Why is it taking so long? Corporate America moves slow? Podcasting is confusing?

My feeling is that there’s less incentive for companies to embrace the new technologies then there was when webcasting was on the rise (remember Reg FD?)

IROs and agency reps need to help management teams understand how new technologies can help them more effectively communicate with shareholders, potential shareholders and analysts…and in the process expand the addressable audience for thier corporate message.

Paul
Public Company Hell
http://www.publiccompanyhell.com

And if I were a dinosaur, I would definitely stick with the low-tar cigarettes

You’re right. I was probably a little to caffeinated and just coming down off of a social media high when I wrote this. Just remember, the dinosaurs died because they were too slow. Or because of the smoking. One of those anyway (is that a Calvin & Hobbes reference? Somebody help me with that last visual…)

The real difficulty for clients will be figuring out who is actually doing what. Who actually understands that this whole 2.0 stuff is about people. Actual public relations (key word there is public.)

I personally think it will be easy. Just go to an agency’s site and see if they use the term next-generation, revolutionary or leader, and you can pretty much bet that those are people who haven’t had a creative idea since 1992.

We are still in a time where PR people show up for a panel to explain XBRL with questions like “What is Technorati?”

To rephrase that dichotomy: we have to continue to use what is effective now while building our knowledge and skills for what will be effective imminently. And when the SEC Chairman is responding to blog posts regarding disclosure by a Fortune 500 CEO, then imminent has gotten a little imminenter.

I keep having to remind myself that few companies have really mastered Web 1.0. They’re not primed to move on to Web 2.0! But with the SEC’s e-proxy proposal, the Transparency Directive in Europe and similar initiatives in Australia and Canada, not to mention the continued global push with XBRL, there’s a good chance the Web will finally get pushed to the front of the IR agenda. When that happens, there should be a big push to begin being more adventurous.

Of course, if someone said tomorrow, you can stop sending traditional news releases if your pages are RSS enabled, that’d make a big difference:-)

I appreciate the correction too. I should’ve researched the claim a bit more–it seemed a bit unlikely that nobody had tried it before then.

It’s a shame the session on IR and podcasting drew such poor attendance.

There’s a long way to go in terms of acceptance and commercialization. I hope they hold the same session again next year–I’d expect a lot more attention on the subject given where the SEC *could* go with this…

Just to correct this, companies like GE have been podcasting earnings conference calls since early 2005.

And the main reason companies don’t provide MP3s has nothing to do with what is claimed in your post. It is that their lawyers advise them against providing a permanent audio (or text) record so they can’t easily be sued by shareholders if things go wrong.

I’m not saying that’s good counsel, just that that’s the reason many companies won’t do it.

For more on podcasting in IR, see our recent article on the topic.