The presentations made around Africa this year to listed companies highlighted an excellent look into the future by IR Web Report which provided a “past, present and future” overview of the web in investor relations.
Web 1.0 involved the publication of data on the web through intermediaries, Web 2.0 through people and Web 3.0, predicted by Dominic Jones IR Web’s leading IR strategist, through machines or databases. Web 3.0 means that peoples’ role in the distribution of data will be seriously eroded. The majority of information people want will be obtained through programmes and databases.
A link with people is what business is all about. You see it everywhere. The latest trends around the world involve the creation of online communities. You see it in Facebook, Google, Twitter e.t.c. and it’s not different for businesses in Africa. Create a community, a secure two-way link, offer what people want and nurture the relationship. Enjoy the returns.
To executives in Africa this is common sense and they shake their heads in agreement when I present to them. But in their minds there is no pressing need to adopt these strategies. These executives are busy. Subconsciously, negative conditioning about anything to do with websites kicks in. It’s easier to maintain the status quo. So what’s the catalyst for an executive to say “OK let’s do it”?
Vision.
It’s personal.
Knowing the long-term value and having the strength to make the decision is what it’s about. Using the web effectively cannot be done in-house anymore so trusting the right partner to achieve your goals is also important. This takes courage. Yes, the majority of executives are miffed with their website managers but why go create more problems all over again?
As I said, it’s about vision.
African Is Cool’s 11-client investment community is just over 8,000 investor contacts and this is growing daily. We have over 12,000 visits to our websites monthly and visitors view over 19,000 pages of information. They come from over 100 countries, mostly from the UK, USA and South Africa and India, the latter country where many of the wholesale investment data vendors e.g. ThompsonReuters process information into their databases for onward sale to subscribers around the globe.
Our clients, visionaries in their own right, are seeing the benefits of the online community strategy. In many cases the commercial return has exceeded the cost of investment in the first year. This image below shows the categories of feedback we receive through our client websites.
What are some of the results from this feedback? New deals, lower cost of doing business, hiring better staff, identifying shareholder administration problems sooner and better informed investors. We have the evidence. This was not an expected benefit of our service when we started, but the communications channel that we set up online works and sources feedback related to areas other than investor relations.
In a broader sense, our community of investors knows what African is Cool is about now and each new client is looked upon with excitement. For new clients, it’s an immediate introduction to a previously unidentified investor community.
In 2010 my mission will be to continue to increase the awareness of the value of online communities. We will also ensure that for our clients, if there is increased interest in Africa from the 2010 World Cup, we take advantage of it.
The comfort of knowing that a core governance activity is being carried out reliably, and in a way that benefits brand, corporate reputation and governance, is the KEY factor that justifies the long-term vision of the executive in the short-term.
But it’s only the executive that can make the decision.