Activity on OXBO's eShareholderForum

OXBO's eShareholderForum has been live on their website for about 2 weeks now, and it was only announced 10 days ago (via press release). But already the e-forum is getting quite a bit of activity. There are already 27 verified shareholders who have registered (and been approved by OXBO) to participate (post) in the e-forum, and another 17 pending approval (anyone can read posts in the e-forum, but in order to post OXBO is requiring that you verify you are a current shareholder). The message boards are getting a ton of page views, and quite a few comments/input from the 27 shareholders approved to post. Also, check out the Q&A section: it looks like it's been a very successful start. Shareholders have been submitting questions to OXBO management, and OXBO management is posting answers. Also, CEO Chris Stern posted to his blog on 11/20, to communicate his vision of the e-forum to shareholders. And he will continue to blog. The only feature that hasn't been utilized (yet) is the polling.

So in summary already OXBO is an excellent example of how a company can utilize an electronic shareholder forum to drive traffic from third party message boards to their IR site, enable shareholders to engage in a dialogue with each other on the IR site, and enable management and IR to engage in a dialogue directly with shareholders.

PRESS RELEASE: Oxygen Biotherapeutics, Inc. Creates Web-based Shareholder Forum For Interactive Communications With Investors

Here is the press releases issued by Oxygen Biotherapeutics today announcing the launch of their e-forum (see 11/24/2008 release):
http://www.oxybiomed.com/pages/newsroom.html

Oxygen Biotherapeutics Goes Live with eShareholderForum

Today marked another milestone for iMiners: the launch of our very first (and the industry's first) electronic shareholder forum. Oxygen Biotherapeutics is traded on the OTC (ticker OXBO) and signed up for the service in July. They utilize Thomson Reuters to host their IR site, so their Shareholder Forum is seamlessly integrated. This is a soft launch; they'll be issuing a press release shortly to announce it to the public, but it is now live. We feel very strongly that these e-forums will soon become commonplace on many, many company IR sites. Now that OXBO has blazed the trail, others will be less shy about following.

Check it out for yourself: http://www.oxybiomed.com/pages/InvestorRelations.html (go to "Shareholder Forum"; anyone can read content, but to post in the message boards, ask a question, or participate in a poll you need to register and be approved as a verified shareholder).

CEO Blogging

Blogging is becoming more and more mainstream among C-level executives. It is slowly being adopted in Investor Relations (see the Dell IR blog called DellShares: http://dellshares.dell.com). But many forward thinking CEOs of both public and private companies blog extensively, and have been doing so for quite some time. For example, see how Jonathan Schwartz, CEO of Sun Microsystems, blogs to shareholders at http://blogs.sun.com/jonathan. See also how Penny Herscher, CEO of privately-held firstRain (San Mateo, CA), blogs at http://pennyherscher.blogspot.com. At iMiners we've been blogging since the beginning of the year to provide updates on our progress, insight into market developments, and to provide additional information to our clients, partners, and investors. Based on conversations we are having with IROs at leading public companies we expect the trend of IR blogs to continue to accelerate into 2009 as companies realize the communications advantages that blogging brings......

iMiners and PrecisionIR Extend Reseller Agreement to eShareholderForum

We're pleased to announce that we have extended our Reseller Agreement with PrecisionIR to include eShareholderForum (http://www.eshareholderforum.com), the industry's first turnkey solution to help any company establish a company-sponsored electronic shareholder forum on their IR website. Effective immediately, PrecisionIR will be offering eShareholderForum to its current and future clients. By providing eShareholderForum with its standard IR website solution, PrecisionIR will be the first service provider to offer a "Web 2.0" IR website package. We'll be introducing eShareholderForum to PrecisionIR clients via a webinar with PrecisionIR in early-to-mid November. Stay tuned for more details! The world of IR websites is changing, and for the better. Companies truly interested in leveraging their IR websites to communicate and engage in a dialogue with shareholders and prospective shareholders can do it now.

Communicating With Shareholders During These Challenging Times

Stocks dropped today for the 8th straight trading day, and the Dow is down 25% over that period. The up and down swings in the market are enough to make any investor queasy, and no one knows where the bottom is. Now, more than ever, IROs need to be communicating with shareholders to let them know what is going on. The institutions have an IRO's ear already, so how does an IRO communicate effectively and efficiently to a large retail shareholder base?

There is no better time for companies with large and/or active retail shareholder bases to consider implementing Web 2.0 technology to engage in a dialogue. Electronic shareholder forums, in particular, are taylor made to help a company quickly communicate to large groups of shareholders. "Democratization" of shareholder information is available today through this technology. eShareholderForum (http://www.eshareholderforum.com) is a turnkey Shareholder Communications Platform that companies should strongly consider utilizing. Message boards, blogs, polling and Q&A all give retail shareholders an opportunity to find out from the company what is going on. No wonder there is so much interest!

iMiners to Present at NIRI SF Luncheon

On October 14 I'll be on a panel at the San Francisco NIRI luncheon, with the topic being "Electronic Shareholder Forums and Blogs". Joining me will be Abe Wischnia, IR Consultant for our first eShareholderForum client, Oxygen Biotherapeutics. This is a great opportunity for us to discuss the topic of e-forums to a wide audience of IROs in the Bay Area! For more details see: http://acteva.com/booking.cfm?bevaID=168239