News and views

Digital chip paper - has our General Manager had a Damascus Road conversion?

Digital chip paper - Has our General Manager had a Damascus Road conversion? Read his latest views on his social media experiment. More topical articles and comment in the Winter Edition of Informed which members will have received. Contact richard.knight@irs.org.uk to join the Society and receive your copy!

Digital chip paper?

Readers of my informed column may recall my mini diatribe about social media eighteen months ago.  Well time has moved on and, although I am not quite eating my words, I think an update is required. As some of you may have noticed I have tentatively dipped a toe into the new media soup with occasional Tweets, and the Society has both Twitter and LinkedIn feeds.  The first thing to say is that as a novice I am staggered at the volume of information that is now passing through the ether. The other observation that I have is that I am surprised how people seem to mix quite high quality contributions with mundane comments. So one minute you are reading links to thought provoking articles on corporate disclosure and the next you are being told what a guy is planning to do at the weekend. I also find it difficult when people have a conversation or argument on Twitter which is broadcast to the world, but you are reading only one side of the discussion.  Or am I missing something?

Andy Rivett-Carnac, a self confessed technophile, makes some interesting observations in his article on page 24 of this issue about the challenge to persuade IROs to embrace social media as a communications tool. Recently our own membership survey highlighted that 78% of those who replied were not using social media for IR purposes.

But clearly technology is providing new opportunities for the dissemination of information and as we have seen in this year's Best Practice Awards, some companies are now successfully integrating new media channels into their communications programmes. I was heartened to read, however, comments from award winner BASF's IR Manager Andrea Wentscher, who is responsible for their Twitter feed, that their motto is that ‘every tweet must add value ... we'll never say something for the sake of it.'

So what are my takeaways from my initial flirtation with social media?

First, I have been pointed to some very interesting articles and comment pieces which are helpful in my work as an IR professional;

Second, it is a very immediate way of disseminating information;

Third, there is a huge amount of dross out there which needs to be filtered out;

Fourth, if you're Tweeting you're not working so you need to be disciplined in controlling your on-line activities.

and,

Finally, its ephemeral - what's hot now is digital chip paper in just a few hours.

So will I be continuing with the experiment?  I now feel some, perhaps mistaken, responsibility to my faithful band of followers to keep going. But following the BASF line I won't be saying something everyday. I hope that my audience will appreciate being told if there is some relevant news or thought provoking comment as well as hearing news about the Society. And I promise I won't tell you what I am doing at the weekend...but for Christmas.... please can I have an iPhone 4!

Happy New Year and happy tweeting.