Web 2.0 in the Service of
the Investors Relations
Petko Karamotchev
Sofia, 15 October 2009

About Me
• Business Development Manager at Magic
Solutions (www.magicbg.com)
• Scholarship holder, EMBA program of
Cotrugli Business School, Croatia
• Former chairman and member of the Board
of the Bulgarian Web Association
• In 1998 I became the youngest stock
exchange broker on the BSE

About Magic Solutions
• Magic Solutions is a web, software
development, and integration company,
totally oriented towards satisfying
customers’ needs.
• Our philosophy is simple - “To provide the
most efficient and innovative solutions to
address our customer's and our customer's
customers business needs”

What is Investors
Relations?
• According to Wikipedia it is a Strategic
management responsibility that integrates
finance, communication, marketing and
securities law compliance to enable the most
effective two-way communication between a
company, the financial community, and other
constituencies
• Ultimately contributes to a company's
securities achieving fair valuation

What is Web 2.0?
• According to Wikipedia it is “The second
generation of the World Wide Web, especially
the movement away from static web pages to
dynamic and shareable content.”
• It is not a specific technology you can
acquire, install, run, or copyright
• It is more a concept, set of principles and
good practicies

Do I Like Web 2.0?
• No
• Most of the technologies have been around for
many years. Wikipedia was found in 1994
• “Nobody really knows what it means... If Web 2.0 for
you is blogs and wikis, then that is people to people.
But that was what the Web was supposed to be all
along”
Sir Timothy John "Tim" Berners-Lee - the inventor
of World Wide Web
• Fear of “second bubble” or
“Bubble 2.0” (The Economist)

So?
• Web 2.0 provided the Internet users with a
real platform to publish and create
• We have to admit that individuals and
companies became much more open
• Web has become a collaboration space
• A whole new economy has been created
and based on search

What Can IR Obtain
from Web 2.0?
• Create and constantly improve the electronic
communication with shareholders
• Provide best possible information (on-time,
regularly updated, qualitative and quantitative)
• Provide better user experience (this is not the
graphic design of the site, but the monitoring of the
needs and constantly seeking feedback)
• Build sites not for yourselves but for your
investors

Website Transformation
• Public companies communicate through their websites. They are not
libraries with static information anymore
• Educate the users and motivate them why should they invest in your
company
• Equality between institutional and individual investors in the access to
information
• Access to audio or video archives of the shareholder meetings
• Open your websites through RSS to media and bloggers
• Constantly monitor your website traffic with tools like Google Analytics
• Important financial information should not be left buried away in financial
reports. Summarize it

What Can Managers
Obtain from Web 2.0
• Webcasts should be held on a regular basis with
CEO’s, CFO’s, Investor Relations specialists
• If not possible or too expensive this can be done
in collaboration with the media
• Conduct Online Reputation Management
Improvement for your company and yourself
• Listen to your web designers but keep in mind
that the technology should be used where it
adds value, not for its own sake

Offline vs. Online
Reputation
• This is new and trendy. Can make or brake your business
• Online reputation management is in the search engines
• Bad online reputation means that your investors are going to avoid
your company
• If you don’t have any search engine reputation at all, then clients will
hesitate to trust you, even if they manage to hear about you
• If you have a good reputation, then your company is willing to do
anything to maintain that positive image
• It is created through online press release publicity campaigns,
creation of social networking profiles, reviews, launch of a social
media optimization campaign, article marketing campaigns, business
or investors reviews, social bookmarking (Digg, Del.icio.us, Svejo)

What Makes a
Blog Successful?
• How much attention it garners from
the right people
• Good blogging style
• Often postings
• Full-text RSS feed
• Search facility
• Tags
• Example - Guy Kawasaki

Office 2.0
• Email: GMail • Weblog: Blogware, Blogger,
Blog.bg
• Bookmarks: del.icio.us, Svejo,
digg • Spreadsheet: Google Doc’s and
Spreadsheets
• Photos: flickr, Picasa
• Project Management: Basecamp
• Calendar: Google Calendar
• Contract Management: Echosign
• Desktop: Google Desktop,
iGoogle • Google Wave - the next Gmail
• Feedreader and federation of • Complete Office Suite: Zoho
content: Google Reader
• Online Accounting: Xero

Web might become the
killer of the enterprise
apps.

Xero - The Online Accounting
Solution

The Zoho Offering - A 1B$ company

Zoho - Work. Online

Google Wave - A Killer App

Benefits for BIRS
• Forum (however it is not the typical Web 2.0 app) for
internal use only or user group (like Google User
Groups)
• Linked-In user group of professionals
• Guidelines for company websites. The financial
information can be displayed in an elegant and uniform
manner, but this is our of scope for our meeting for
today
• Calendar sharing (events, invitations)
• Social Media Profiles

Keep in mind that the
technology should be used
where it adds value, not for its
own sake.

Questions?
You can also email me on
petko@magicbg.com
Petko Karamotchev
Sofia, 15 October 2009