Story on Electronic Shareholder Forums in February Issue of IR Update

Abe Wischnia's article on electronic shareholder forums is in the February 2009 issue of IR Update (page 12). It's a nice summary of why Oxygen Biotherapeutics implemented eShareholderForum, what the challenges were, what the benefits are, and what the early results have been. The issue can be found on the NIRI website at http://www.niri.org/mem_service_area/irupdate/index.cfm

Two More New Clients

Through our partnership with PrecisionIR we'll be going live shortly with two more clients using Press Releases By Type and Event Chart: NTELOS, Inc. (NTLS) and Animal Health International (AHII). An excellent way to end the month of January!

PrecisionIR, iMiners, and Abe Wischnia Associates Team Up for Webinar on Electronic Shareholder Forums

This is now live on the PrecisionIR website under "Webinar Series":
http://www.precisionir.com/about/events.aspx. See the link to the webinar for Electronic Shareholder Forum. It is a 35 minute educational webinar about e-forums and the iMiners solution. We are proud to be working with Abe and the PrecisionIR team to offer eShareholderForum to any public company that wishes to use Web 2.0 technology to communicate more efficiently with its shareholders!

Happy Holidays!

Peace on earth, and all that good stuff! Happy Holidays from iMiners, Inc. We had an exciting 2008 with the launch of 2 new products, the signing of a major reseller agreement, and a lot of buzz and interest from the industry. We look forward to what 2009 will bring!

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

ev3, Inc. Goes Live with Press Releases By Type

ev3, Inc. is based in Plymouth, MN and uses Thomson Reuters for hosting their IR site. See iMiners' "Press Releases By Type" page seamlessly integrated into their site:
http://ir.ev3.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=189608&p=prtype

According to their IR home page: http://ir.ev3.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=189608&p=irol-irhome "Press Releases" are one of the most frequently visited sections of the site. So no surprise that ev3 immediately saw the value in having their news releases organized into categories.....

Compliance Week Writes About eShareholderForum

On September 23 there was a feature article in Compliance Week about electronic shareholder forums, and iMiners was featured prominently with several quotes. The story talked about how companies have been slow to adopt e-forums, but our position is that it just hasn't happened, yet! eShareholderForum was just announced 90 days ago, so many companies don't even know about us. But we know they are out there, companies who are looking for new ways to communicate with shareholders, but wondering HOW they'll do it? They are thinking of how they can possibly get internal tech resources to build something for them. But once they find out about eShareholderForum they will realize that their problem has been solved. eShareholderForum can immediately provide them with a turnkey solution: message boards, blogs, Q&A, and polling. And controls from an Admin interface to control who can post, ask questions, comment etc. There's no need for any company to try to build a solution. We've got you covered. Go to http://www.eshareholderforum.com for more information and to request a demonstration.

What Do the Lawyers Think of Electronic Shareholder Forums?

I enjoyed reading a recent article written by Brendan J. Radigan, a Partner at the law firm Edwards Angell Palmer & Dodge. It's titled "Is Social Networking With Shareholders Safe", and addresses head-on concerns that companies might have regarding setting up electronic shareholder forums. We've seen the SEC encouraging companies to implement e-forums, so now it is refreshing to see a legal opinion also promoting the benefits for companies and shareholders (while at the same time, advising companies of where they need to be cautious).

I especially like Brendan's conclusion: "If thoughtfully structured and operated, a public company's electronic shareholder forum could provide an exciting addition to its investor relations program. Promotion of social networking by, with and among shareholders could well provide a public company, particularly one operating in a fast-moving technology field, with an innovative and cutting-edge way of distinguishing itself from its peers and competitors."

iMiners Continues Strong Momentum!

eShareholderForum continues to generate a tremendous amount of interest: Next month Abe Wischnia (IR Consultant for our first client, Oxygen Biotherapeutics) and I will be organizing a panel discussion for the San Francisco NIRI luncheon (topic will be "Electronic Shareholder Forums and Blogs"). We'll also have a feature story in an upcoming issue of IR Update. And this week I was interviewed by Compliance Week for an upcoming column on e-forums. Finally, PR pundit, best-selling author, and speaker David Meerman Scott blogged about us last week:
http://www.webinknow.com/2008/09/social-media-fi.html

It's been only about 90 days since the NIRI Annual conference in San Diego. It's very exciting to reflect back on the tremendous amount of progress we've made in such a short period of time: Starting to build a sales team, signing reseller agreements, getting lots of PR, enhancing our products, and finally, growing our client base! We are all looking forward to what we can accomplish in the next 90 days, and the 90 days after that!

Here Come the E-Forums!

It was nice to see we got a couple of mentions from some well followed IR bloggers regarding eShareholderForum in the past couple of days. Broc Romanek of TheCorporateCounsel.net and InvestorRelationships.com mentioned us in his 9/4 post called "Here Come the E-Forums" here: http://www.thecorporatecounsel.net/blog/archive/001888.html

Also, Anil Dilawri of Hill & Knowlton in Canada has an IR blog called "Taking Investor Relations to the Next Level", and his 9/3 post called "Not Your Father's IR Department" was about iMiners and eShareholderForum: http://blogs.hillandknowlton.com/blogs/anildilawri/archive/2008/09/03/not-your-father-s-ir-department.aspx

Lastly, and most significantly, we have been asked to participate in InvestorRelationships.com's January webcast event titled "The SEC's New Corporate Website Guidance: Everything You Need to Know – And Do NOW". I'll be contributing to a panel discussion with other experts and pioneers in the area of e-forums and blogging, including the Dell IR team, an IRO from Cisco, and representatives from ISS and Broadridge. The session is called "The Future is Here: E-Forums and Blogs". Go here http://www.investorrelationships.com/webcast/2009/01_14.htm and scroll to the bottom of the page to see the panel participants.

In summary, you'll be continuing to hear about iMiners and eShareholderForum in coming weeks and months. As Anil says in his 9/3 blog post "Leaders in the IR space are already blazing trails when it comes to evolving their investor communications practices to include meaningful and innovative digital communications. The followers are bound to follow."

Building a Sales Organization

One of the most fun and rewarding parts of working for an early stage company is having the ability to build the sales organization from the ground up. I had the opportunity to do this at my previous company (most of the team is still intact and I still keep in touch), and now have the opportunity to do it again at iMiners. I am thrilled to have Leslie (Knutson) Reilly and Michael Roach joining me to help iMiners introduce our new and innovative products into the marketplace! I hired Leslie at Shareholder.com in May 2003 and she worked with me through the launch of the company's corporate governance products, and then moved to Houston and became the Account Executive for Texas. I hired Michael in September 2005 as my Inside Sales Manager and he played a key role in helping us build a very successful Inside Sales organization. There's no better feeling than to get to work again with people who I know and trust; people I hired once before and had success with. Looking forward to continuing to build a world-class sales organization!

IVVI and GOCH go live with iMiners' Press Releases By Type

Companies continue the rapid adoption of our services: Ivivi Technologies (Nasdaq: IVVI) and Geeks On Call Holdings (OTC: GOCH) both went live with iMiners content on their IR sites in the last 24 hours. IVVI is using Press Releases By Type and Event Chart (see http://www.ir-site.com/IVIVI/pressbytype.asp and http://www.ir-site.com/IVIVI/eventchart.asp). GOCH is using our Press Releases By Type page: http://www.ir-site.com/goch/pressbytype.asp

Electronic Shareholder Forums gaining momentum

Electronic shareholder forums, also known as e-shareholder forums (like what iMiners announced in June with our turnkey solution eShareholderForum: http://www.eshareholderforum.com/) continue to gain momentum and visibility as a truly viable way for companies to engage in dialogue with shareholders using "Web 2.0" technology. Our own solution has already been positively received in the market, and yesterday on its earnings conference call Broadridge CEO Rich Daly announced plans to launch an "investor network" linking all "validated shareholders" with companies they are invested in (for more information visit the IR Web Report blog here http://www.irwebreport.com/daily/2008/08/15/huge-social-network-for-us-shareholders-planned).

The SEC's encouragement of companies using new technologies to facilitate communications is finally starting to take off, and we think that in the not too distant future shareholder forums will become standard on many company IR websites (at least for those companies not afraid to embrace new technologies, and not afraid to have a dialogue with shareholders).

Since the late 1990s most companies have maintained content on IR websites where they deposit information for investors (and prospective investors) to read/view. What has been lacking in IR websites is a two way dialogue between the company and shareholders. But electronic shareholder forums are already beginning to change the way IR websites are viewed. No longer just a depository for information, IR websites will be a place for any shareholder, prospective shareholder, employee, supplier, etc. to come and engage in a dialogue with a company, virtually real-time, and the flow of information will be streamlined and "democratized" (in the words of Rob Williams, Sr. Director of IR at Dell, in his description of Dell's IR blog called Dell Shares).

Companies have been searching for ways to lure investors from financial portal sites to their IR sites so they can tell their own story in their own words (several studies show declining use of company IR websites over the past few years). Company sponsored electronic shareholder forums represent a new and unique "hook" for companies to drive traffic to their IR site, by promising to engage in a dialogue with investors. Who would go to Yahoo! Finance to view company financial information and a third-party message board (where anyone can post anything they want, and the company does not participate) if a company provides unique content on their own IR site PLUS a link to their electronic shareholder forum where the company engages in the message boards, posts to a blog, conducts online Q&A with shareholders, and conducts real-time polling of relevant issues to get a quick pulse of what is on shareholders' minds?

We welcome these continued developments, and look forward to introducing eShareholderForum to as many companies as are willing to engage in this type of online dialogue with shareholders!

Methode Electronics goes live with Press Releases By Type and Event Chart

Through our new partnership with PrecisionIR, today Methode Electronics (NYSE: MEI) went live on their IR website with our "Press Releases By Type" and "Event Chart" pages. See the links on the navigation bar here: http://www.ir-site.com/methode/corporateprofile.html