TWITCAM is a free new service that combines video and Twitter in a simple product that could make company executives more accessible to rank and file investors.
It offers an easy way for company executives to answer questions from individual investors, blogger-analysts and other stakeholders who typically have less access to management.
All you need to use Twitcam is a Twitter account and a computer with a webcam. Twitcam automatically detects your camera, creates a page and live video player for the broadcast.
Once you click the “go live” button, Twitcam posts a link along with a message of your choosing to your Twitter feed so followers can know how to join in live.
Your company’s Twitter followers can then log in to Twitcam using their Twitter credentials to ask questions and post comments.
I’ve tested the service and it’s extremely simple to use. It would work well for executive chats with investors to supplement formal events where only a few professional analysts and investors get to ask the questions, such as earnings conference calls and analyst days.
Live video is better than hosting text chats with executives on your website (see Germany’s LPKF) or on Twitter, as General Motors and others have been doing.
Seeing executives actually answer the questions in their own words gives participants assurance it’s actually them providing the answers rather than some PR person behind a keyboard.
One downside is that investors have to be using Twitter to participate. That’s not a big issue for retail investors but it could be a major barrier for anyone who works for a regulated investment dealer that has policies against using Twitter.
If your company doesn’t have a lot of followers on Twitter and no one shows up for your broadcast, that could be embarrassing. Some pre-promotion of your event via Twitter and your traditional communication channels might be needed.
Twitcam, which is a service of Livestream, can support up to 100,000 viewers, which means it will easily accommodate most IR departments’ needs.
Competing services to Twitcam include Camtweet, which is still in private beta, and Ustream, which is probably the best known live video service.
For additional coverage of Twitcam, see:
CNET : Twitcam turns Twitter into a video streaming hub
TechCrunch : Launch Wars – Twitcam Beats CamTweet To Live Video Tweets
Mashable : TwitCam: Live Video Arrives on Twitter
Twitcam brings Live Streaming to Twitter
Paidcontent : How Livestream Upstaged Justin.tv With Its New Video Streaming Service on Twitter
Dominic (bio & disclosures) is IR Web Report‘s founder and an online investor relations consultant. He advises leading public companies and investor relations service providers worldwide on using the web for disclosure, engagement and profile building. You can contact him via the contacts page.
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