Search the Internet          Tips  Sites: Finance, Investment

Net is big, chat is bigger, markets can be affected, says study

Sanjay K Pillai

According to a study conducted by Fleishman-Hillard, one of the biggest public relations firms, the Internet is an influential source of investor information and chat room discussions can affect share prices.

The study polled 120 public companies with more than 84 per cent of the respondents saying they believed that the Internet has become an influential source of investor information. Around 60 per cent held the view that the Internet chat rooms and rumours can have an impact on share prices.

A meagre 20 per cent of the respondents could confirm that their companies had communications plans that addressed or included strategies dealing with the Internet.

The survey has revealed that beyond basic corporate and financial information, few public companies have implemented proactive and strategic online investor relations programme. Another important finding reveals that 73 per cent of respondents have been the subject of third party Internet chats or postings.

Nearly 34 per cent of the respondents confirmed that an investment professional or analyst has inquired about information or rumours related to the company on the Internet. More than half - 52 per cent - of the respondents polled said the company did not have a written crisis communications strategy.

The polled public companies also revealed that the Internet had changed the way information has been traditionally disclosed and over ten per cent of the respondents reported that non-public company news had been broken over the Internet prior to being officially released to the market.

Powered by

YOU MAY ALSO WANT TO READ:
The Rediff-Business Standard Special
The Budget 2001-2002 Special
Money
Business News

Tell us what you think of this report