LANE PR has worked on nearly 50 acquisitions for clients over a broad range of industries.  Recently, however, I had the opportunity to be part of the team on a very unusual deal that involved working with two foreign stock exchanges.  LANE PR was brought in by Infinova, a global provider of complete video surveillance solutions, for their $89 million acquisition of security and video surveillance peer, March Networks.

A U.S. headquartered company, Infinova has operations across the world and is publicly traded on the Shenzhen stock exchange in China. March Networks, also a global company, is based in Ottawa, Canada and is publicly traded on the Toronto stock exchange.

The acquisition required regulatory oversight and approval from regulatory bodies from the U.S., Canada, and China.  For me, the most interesting aspect of the deal was the opportunity to work with an international company operating across diverse cultures and countries.

Our team worked hand-in-hand till the late hours of the night with senior management of both companies to implement our acquisition strategy including timing, messaging, document generation, media outreach, and overall PR and IR council.

The result was a seamless and clear flow of information to all constituencies and media coverage to accelerate Infinova’s future growth.   I look forward to following Infinova as they continue to expand and bring innovative products to the market.

“It doesn’t matter how many Facebook fans you have.  It matters how many people are talking about your brand.”

NY Life’s Social Media AVP, Gregg Weiss, believes you can measure social media. 

First, companies need to get people talking about them, in a positive way.    Benchmark existing, relevant conversations online then have your company begin participating. Once you get the conversations going,  you can measure the impact by analyzing:

1.  How many people are actively talking about your company/brand?

     o  Utilize Facebook’s “people talking about” metric to help you measure conversations.
     o  Example metric: NY Life had 116,000 fans, 2,800 conversations going on and 2.4% of fans participating.

2.  What are people saying?  Do the comments, and the tone, indicate they think well of your company/brand?

     o Example metric: 1 Billion positive impressions about your company.

At a financial services communications event last week, I sat in on a talk from Citi’s social media guru, Frank Eliason, who has a book coming out entitled “At Your Service” in Spring 2012.

Frank caught my attention when he stated that social media is a perfect fit for banks. Why does he believe this?

• Banks were historically about communities.
• Social media is about being part of a community.
• Right now people believe the banking industry has lost sight of its customers. Banks need to build trust now.
• How can a bank build trust effectively?  Answer: Human interaction. Social media enables banks to do that.

Citi isn’t just using social media channels to address questions and have conversations about a customer’s banking needs and issues. Citi employees participate in social media in ways that have nothing to do with banking as well. The goal is to humanize Citi’s customer service reps, so you’ll see posts from Citi employees on sites such as weather.com.  Because everyone likes to talk about the weather.

As part of LANE PR’s increased focus on investor relations offerings, I have been attending classes at New York University, which provides access to industry experts with a wealth of IR knowledge and experience.

On Nov. 11, I had the opportunity to tour the New York Stock Exchange during the opening bell.  As it was Veterans Day, the Marines, who had just celebrated their 236th birthday, were being honored and rang the opening bell.

Along with other members from the NYU program, I explored the enormous rooms of the Exchange, talking to traders, watching active trades, and bumping into media moving around the floor. 

Our guide informed us that with the advancement of technology, the total number of ‘designated market makers’ on the floor has dropped from 3,000 to 1,000.  He was quick to add, however, that even with technological innovation, there will always be a need to have a human designated market maker to control the stock and implement regulation.

It was a very insightful tour and it was an amazing feeling to be at the center of the financial world for a day.

As the 10-year anniversary of 9/11 approaches, many of us will remember back to that day, recalling where we were when we heard of the tragedy and thinking of those we lost. As a New Yorker I remember the day vividly — I was walking into my midtown office under a crystal-clear sky, thinking how lucky I was to have a found a job right out of college, with the dot-com crash looming, and how wonderful it was to be able to start my adult life in a city so full of energy and opportunity. I left work that day feeling lucky to be alive, and lucky my friends working in Manhattan were all safe.

The 10-year anniversary of this tragic event has reminded us to seek out ways to commemorate those lost on 9/11. LANE PR is honored to participate in one special program — the NIRI-NY 9/11 Logler Internship Program. This program, initiated and overseen by the New York chapter of NIRI (the National Investor Relations Institute), was established to honor NIRI member Beth Logler, who lost her life in the World Trade Center. Through the program, NIRI partners with public and investor relations agencies and in-house investor relations and communications departments in the tri-state area to help children who lost parents on 9/11 start their careers.

As a member of NIRI, LANE PR is proud to have completed its first year of participation in the Logler Internship Program. Our agency was connected with a college student who lost her father on 9/11 while he was at work in the North Tower of the World Trade Center. Though her story is overwhelmingly sad, the employees of our New York office feel fortunate to have spent the summer working with this bright, enthusiastic student and to have had a positive impact on her future career path.

If you are seeking ways to assist a family or individual affected by 9/11, please visit the NYC government website to learn more about the many organizations helping these victims: http://www.nyc.gov/html/doh/wtc/html/services/9-11orgs.shtml