It's interesting how just a few years ago the investor relations industry was using faxes, email and phone calls to get company news and information out to the street.
Most of this effort and attention never reached its intended audience. The Web has changed all that, and it is now the ultimate tool for communication. Most people do their research on the internet now, and they come to you. The days of blasting unwanted information are gone.
Every other industry has leveraged the web to enhance their business except investor relations (IR), which is interesting because so much of what IR does is about communications. Sounds like a natural fit. E-mail blasts don't work, intrusive calls don't work, and faxing is simply a joke and a waste of paper.
Zangani is trying a different approach than what most other investor relations firms are using. They realize the future lies in the tools and information that their prospective audience will inevitably dig for.
They have created a site with a great mix of resources for individual investors to utilize. Things like message boards, web casting, research documents and news, all integrated and logically formatted. As the typical investor will find out, just about every facet of research is at their disposal.
The market works on reaction to news and nowhere is it more eloquently portrayed as it is with the Zangani Investor Community. A typical scenario is a press release crosses the wire; an investor in one of our companies comes to Zangani, reads the release, plays a webcast interview that is linked to the press release, follows the charts and discusses the analysis in real-time on the message boards.
Other investors see this activity and are in turn interested in learning more about this company that is suddenly in the spotlight. As they dig into our client's profile, they will find all the news and filings and current discussions going on in the boards to help them make an informed decision.
As these scenarios are playing out, over time the investors realize that more and more they are finding hidden value in companies that previously had no exposure. They come to trust the community that Zangani has built, and it’s obvious Zangani built this for the community.
Up to this point, the discussion has been focused on how the Zangani team has empowered the investment community to find, explore and discuss the companies that make up their clients. Zangani also uses its research and expertise to take on undervalued and underexposed micro- and small-cap companies that have the capacity for growth our community is looking for.
The client needs to reach that audience quickly and in as many ways as possible. He needs "eyes and ears" on his company whether they are reading the financials, watching a videotape of their latest innovative technology, or listening to a presentation of their latest financial achievements. Their company's story needs to be heard, and with the array of communication venues that Zangani puts at their disposal, they can be given the image and voice that only far larger companies have had access up until this point.
For example, the CFO of one of the companies sits in his office and gives a company overview via video/audio segment, which is produced and uploaded onto the site quickly following its completion. The community is alerted, issuing a press release, in compliance with SEC regulations, that a client has just posted a business development update onto its page.
The community can view and hear the information and begin posting critiques and questions to other members of the community as well as to the company. The CFO can monitor all of this communication and comment accordingly using the message boards himself.
Now we have a seamless, real-time flow of information traveling between the client and the audience. The community is now interacting with Zangani as the producer. The above example illustrates a paradigm shift in the art of exposing companies to the market and Zangani is at the forefront of this new frontier in communications in the investor relations industry.
By melding the needs of the clients and the wants of the investor in one easily navigated web site they have established a dynamic fluid community that can only grow and bring about mutual benefits for all parties.
How can the Zangani Investor Community compliment your in-house investor relations?
First and foremost, our community gives you an instant audience with potential investors. We have discovered that giving a live presentation by management and comments on major events make the news more valuable and understandable to the shareholders.
By utilizing web technology and webcast media we help your in-house efforts further penetrate and saturate the market with up-to-date news and interviews, the sort of things our community looks for. Communication is key, and the investor-relations effort that fully understands and utilizes this philosophy will get the most results.
Additionally, we are very active in helping our clients on business development, especially in Europe.
Aside from the public-relations efforts, there are other key contacts that you need to make in the industry and our 20 plus years of networking opens many doors for our clients. We're not looking to take over your efforts, we're here to help, consult and compliment your efforts.