js_modules: [name: expandable-photo], assetid: , aws: money/markets, aws_id: money_markets, blogname: , byline:Matt Krantz, USA TODAY, contenttype: story pages , 搜索引擎优化title: Sec-social-media-twitter-netflix, 搜索引擎优化titletag: Smart investors are social-media savvy, ssts: money/markets, taxonomykeywords:Hastings,U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission,Reed Hastings, templatename: stories/deult, topic:hastings,us-securities-and-exchange-commission,reed-hastings, videoincluded:no, basePageType:story

One likely option investors will neeSocial Media Smart investors are social-media savvyd to be on the lookout for would be disclosures at the bottom of earnings news releases, in quarterly reports and annual reports listing the social media platforms they plan to use and the identifiers, says Joel Greenberg, a partner at law firm Kaye Scholer.

• Know the rules. Perhaps even more dangerous than missing out on a post from a company, Social Media, is following a source that appears to be a company, but really isnt. Investors were reminded of this again on April 23 when the market briefly plunged after a lse report on the Associated Press Twitter feed. Make sure the Twitter feeds and Facebook posts being followed are the official ones from the company. Some companies may get special badges to confirm they are official, such as the Twitter Verified tag. Other companies like Microsoft list the coordinates of their official Twitter and Facebook feeds on their own website. And if the news is major, confirm its also on the companies website.

Over time, services designed for professional investors will likely cull the social media data for professional investors, taking much of the hassle away, Greenberg says. Even so,new york asian escort the spread is likely to be slow. It wouldnt surprise me if investors talk to companies and say, we dont want you to do this, Foley says. I dont think it will catch on.

The Securities and Exchange Commission recently announced dramatic changes that made social media ir game for companies looking for ways to get information out to investors.

If theres to be a model, thats likely to be Netflix. The company, which sparked the changes when its CEO, Reed Hastings, shared non-public information on his Facebook page, put out a disclosure that may be the pattern for other companies to follow. Netflix on April 2 put out a news release and a filing with the SEC that described, in detail, the companys social media sources. There, Netflix told investors it posts to five social network channels, including the Netflix Blog, the Netflix Tech blog, the Netflix Facebook page, the Netflix Twitter feed and CEO Hastings public Facebook page.

Investors have a hard enough time reading 10-Ks and keeping up with earnings releases. But soon they may have to add monitoring Twitter and Facebook to their chores.

But one thing is for sure: Investors will need to reconsider their sources of information and potentially widen the places they go to. Some also worry investors will be overwhelmed if they have to be on the lookout for financial data coming from multiple sources, be it Twitter and Facebook, in addition to traditional places. The concern is that once again, professional investors with the means or tools to survey the expanse of data sources will have the edge.

Many investors have a hard enough time reading 10-Ks and keeping up with corporate earnings releases. Now theyre going to have to monitor Facebook and Twitter, too.

The landscape (for investor information) has become more varied, says Anna Kipchuk, senior director at CEB, a company that consults with companies about disseminating information. Social media is just one more forum investors will have to be watching.

• Finding out what companies are planning to do. The biggest caveat to the SECs permissiveness with social media is that companies must inform investors specifically how they plan to use social media. Its unclear how companies will relay this information, though.

No matter what companies ultimately decide to do with social media, investors can start coming up with their strategies to deal with this new world, including:

How this is all going to work is still subject of debate with companies, consultants and lawyers. Companies are now considering how they will adopt the SECs blessing to use social media as a way to share important company information.

• Dont assume all companies will turn to social media. While social media may be a great way to follow the latest happenings with news and celebrities, many large investors arent exactly pushing companies to use the medium, says Patrick Quick of Foley & Lardner. Having to follow dozens of Twitter and Facebook pages is not appealing to large shareholders, and most companies wont do that do their investors, he says. Many companies will likely use their social media outlets, for now, as just another way to direct investors to their news releases presented in traditional places like websites and on the SECs own website.