Samenvatting

This thesis contains research on the use of Social Media for Investor Relations. This research was conducted in 2011 by Digital Communication student Kasper van Merrienboer and is commissioned by Interactive Investor. Interactive Investor is located in Sydney Australia. This is the reason that my thesis is written in English.
During my project I was researching the question how Social Media can add value to the Investor Relations of a large cap organization and what does this offer to Interactive Investor? The research is divided in three parts: (1) Which Social Media channels add value for Investor Relations? (2) Are investors using Social Media? (3) Are public companies using Social Media for their Investor Relations?
All Social Media channels can be used for Investor Relations. It all depends on how the companies are using Social Media, are they aware of the risks and do they know how to reach their target group? Investors believe that Social Media will play an increasingly
important role in investment decisions in the future. If companies aren't using Social Media for their Investor Relations, they need to make it a priority and start right away. Investors are slow in using Social Media for the decision-making on their investments but
the amount of investors that use Social Media is growing per year. The results of the research give Interactive Investor an opportunity in creating a new Social Media platform. Currently there is one Social Media channel specific for the investment community named
StockTwits (think of a Twitter for investors only). With Interactive Investors network in IR and their expertise on Social Media it is the perfect company to create a Social Media platform. In the second part of this thesis there is a short summary on the Social Media platform
Invedia that will be created by Interactive Investor in February 2012. For this platform a new branding was given to Interactive Investor. In the third part of this thesis I describe the rebranding of Interactive Investor. I was responsible for rebranding the corporate website and logo.