If you don't work for a publicly-held Fortune 2000 company or an agency that deals with them, then you can skip this article and get back to your email or whatever you were doing before you read this. Go read Web Strategist or something.
That said, if you do, you might want to go get a cup of coffee and read up. Last Wednesday, the SEC's Kim McManus (Special Counsel, Division of Corporation Finance) gave a talk flatly titled "Comission Guidance on the Use Of Company Web Sites." This talk was the opening section of the remarks given at the SEC Open meeting (full transcript here).
The nut of it is that McManus's remarks instructed publicly-held brands as to how they could disseminate material (i.e. financial) information on their blogs or websites. One of the biggest reasons that brands (even start-ups) use the press release is to document important company information, in anticipation of some sort of SEC-type event (e.g. IPO, acquisition).
While social-media types are touting this announcement as a "crap your pants"-level game-changer, I see this is as just one more step in the direction towards blogging and the Internet becoming a mainstream method of corporate communication. The sudden car-crash death of the press release, this ain't.
That said, here's ten things you'll probably want to do in reaction to the announcement, and how it's going to affect your brand.
1. Just because Brian Solis said we can "kill the press release" doesn't mean you can. No need to tell your Marketwire rep to jump off the 10th floor of 200 N. Sepulveda quite yet. You're still going to issue press releases. You just have to decide when and why.
2. Read the SEC's documents. Check out the IR Web Report to understand which circumstances it's okay to use your website or blog to disclose financial information under Regulation FD (fair disclosure).
3. Read the Neville Hobson article that clearly spells out the straight dope (sans the social media Jingoism of the TechCrunch article).
4. Sit down with the PR team and figure out how many of the financial information releases could be shifted to an electronic format (blog, website) in light of the announcement. The key thing to figure out is which items *still* need to go in regular press releases. Remember: 70-80% of your key stakeholders could give a shit about your company blog. If this information is important, you're going to need to distribute it in multiple formats. Besides, what's a $600 social media release to you anyway, Mr. Multi-Global Corporation Guy?
5. Know what an SMR (social media release) is, and when to use it.
6. If you don't know when to use an SMR, email me or leave a comment on this post.
7. Sit down with your communications team and make sure that they understand what this announcement means. Explain to them that it does not mean that they will need to re-arrange existing press releases on your website.
8. Figure out if your brand has the stomach to deal with investor (and non-investor) comments on those releases.
9. Read the original well-known post by Sun Microsystems CEO Jonathan Schwartz from last March where he implored SEC Chairman Cox to change the criteria for Reg FD's "widespread dissemination" requirement.
10. Wait for the ink to dry on the SEC announcement. This organization's knowledge of social media is nascent, at best. Keep your eyes on your feeds to see if the SEC amends this announcement in any way.
High Linkage Rock and Roll:
- Brian Solis' article from TechCrunch
- New Media Release Podcast #18 (Shel Holtz, Chris Heuer, Tom Foremski, Brian Solis)
Tags: SEC, blogs, social media, sarbanes-oxley
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