TG Therapeutics shows how easy it is to be social media compliant
Thursday, 22-January-2015
It has now been almost two years since the SEC put out very clear guidance to public companies and their CEOs about how to be compliant when using social media, yet most are still not active online. This is especially the case in biotech. Why is that?
While corporate preference is certainly one reason, another is that many executives who otherwise would like to participate are not aware of how easy it is to play by the rules. Nobody wants to run afoul of regulations, yet the reality is that there is nothing to fear.
As I described in this Xconomy piece after the guidelines were originally published in 2013, executives can actually participate in social media without any restriction at all as long as they do one small thing: put out an 8K alerting investors to what social media addresses you intend to use.
In fact, that is exactly what one biotech company, TG Therapeutics (Nasdaq: TGTX), did this morning for their corporate accounts. Here is what TG's 8K says:
"Given the SEC’s guidance regarding the use of alternative channels to announce material information, we are notifying investors, the media, and others interested in the company that we might choose to communicate important information in the future via social media. Since it is possible that such information could be considered material, we encourage all those interested in our company to review the information we post on the websites listed below."
·TG Therapeutics Facebook Page (link)
·TG Therapeutics Twitter Feed (link)
That’s all there is to it. Harmless, right? Make that disclosure once, and you are in the clear to tweet or communicate on Facebook as much as you want.
Social media is such a great place for companies to shape their own message, yet very few are taking advantage of it right now. As word gets out about how easy it is to play within SEC's rules, hopefully more will follow TG’s lead and start to get active online.
Who Am I?
I'm an individual investor from Kansas City. My focus is on biotech stocks, but I enjoy investing in all industries. I'm an old-school, buy and hold investor who believes the best way to outperform and grow capital is to own innovative companies with good management teams over the long-term. more>>