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A

Analyst Report
A financial report assembled by a financial professional who has expertise in evaluating investments in publicly traded companies. Often an analyst report will recommend a 'Buy', 'Hold,' or 'Sell' status pertaining to a specific security. Analysts are typically employed by brokerage firms, investment advisors, or mutual funds. Analysts usually specialize in specific industries or sectors to allow for comprehensive research.

C

Company Representative
A person given authorization by a member of the company's executive management to act on behalf of the company and/or to formally provide answers to questions posed on the Investor Awareness Index Questionnaire related to the company's investor awareness initiatives, activities, and strategies. Please visit The Index's Submitting Company Agreement for more information.

I

In-House Investor Relations (IR)
Representation by an investor relations professional who is an employee of the company. In many cases, in-house IR reps have prior experience working in an IR firm.

In-House Public Relations (PR)
Representation by a public relations professional who is an employee of the company. In many cases, in-house PR reps have prior experience working in a PR firm.

Inbound Links
The links found on other websites that point back to your website. Inbound links are very important to search engine visibility.

Institutional Investor
Institutional investors include banks, insurance companies, mutual funds, universities, and hedge funds whose purpose is to invest its own assets or those held in trust by it for others. Institutional investors typically invest very large volumes in the securities markets.

Institutional Ownership
Institutional Ownership refers to the amount of a company's stock held by organizations that invest large sums of money, such as pension funds, mutual funds, hedge funds, endowment funds, and insurance companies, among others.

Investor Awareness
Knowledge the investment community has of a publicly traded company. If a company has "good" or "strong investor awareness," then it's likely that the company is engaged in a variety of activities and initiatives designed to increase awareness of its stock in the investment community. If a company has "poor" or "weak investor awareness," then it's likely that the company is not engaged in many of the activities and strategies used to create visibility. 

Investor Awareness Index Scoring Logo
The Official Investor Awareness Index Scoring Logo contains a company's official score. The Scoring Logo can be freely placed on a company's website, in press releases, in company profiles, in newsletters, in RSS feeds, in internal communications, and on other company literature.

Investor Awareness Initiatives
Services, activities, and strategies undertaken by a company in order to increase or create awareness in the investment community. Examples include investor relations representation by an IR firm and/or company employee whose specific role is to perform investor outreach and other investor relations activities, media coverage, quality and quantity of homepage content, quality and quantity of inbound links to company website, public relations representation by a PR agency and/or company employee whose role is to perform media outreach and other public relations activities, analyst coverage, availability and quality of investor related information on company website, access to news releases on company website, proper website optimization, and Web 2.0 initiatives that enhance content distribution, such as RSS, blogs, social bookmarking, and podcasts.

Investor Conferences
Events held by brokerage firms and other organizations in which management teams give presentations about the investment merits of their companies to audiences consisting of institutional and retail investors.  Two sites that list investor conferences are www.vall.com/vc/index.asp and http://iiconferences.wordpress.com/.

Investor Relations (IR)
The practice or act of communicating information required for investment judgment to stockholders and investors.

Investor Relations Firm/Agency
A firm that specializes in helping public companies communicate with investors, analysts, retail brokerage firms, and institutions, among others. IR firms can provide strategic counsel to companies seeking to expand their access to the capital markets. Many IR firms also initiate contact and maintain relationships with financial media.

Investor Relations Website Page
The specific 'Web page' on a company's website designed to provide investor related information to users. Information contained on this page could include company news releases, a short corporate profile, IR contact information, corporate filings, analyst reports, media coverage, investor FAQs, email alert sign up, and a stock quote.

L

Liquidity
The ability of a company's stock to be easily and/or quickly bought or sold without affecting the price.  Liquidity is often characterized by trading activity or volume.

P

Public Relations (PR)
The practice or act of promoting a company and/or its products and services in order to create a favorable relationship with customers, investors, and prospects. Activities or events that help enhance a company's image, create buzz, and/or advance the sales of products and services.

Public Relations Firm/Agency
A firm that specializes in helping other companies create awareness with their targeted audience(s). PR firms can offer a multitude of services designed to build awareness, such as media relations (publicity), tradeshow and conference support, strategic counsel, composition of press releases, crisis communications, and media training, among others.

R

Representative of Submitting Company
A person given authorization by a member of the company's executive management to act on behalf of the company and/or to formally provide answers to questions posed on the Investor Awareness Index Questionnaire related to the company's investor awareness initiatives, activities, and strategies. Please visit The Index's Submitting Company Agreement for more information.

Retail Brokerage Firm
A brokerage firm that primarily caters to retail or individual investors rather than institutional investors.  Often, retail brokerage firms will maintain an extensive branch network. Registered representatives who work for these retail brokerage firms are expected to market their services directly to individual investors and typically offer investment advice.

Road Show
An in-person presentation intended to create interest in a specific company.

RSS Feed
RSS stands for "Really Simple Syndication."  RSS enables a company to offer a feed of constant information to shareholders, potential investors, customers, and partners so they can stay informed.  Instead of bookmarking a site and remembering to go back to it, users can subscribe to a company's feed and automatically receive the latest press releases, product news, price changes, updates, and other relevant information. Every time new content is added into the RSS Feed, subscribers will automatically receive the information.

S

Sell-Side Analyst
A sell-side analyst is a financial analyst employed by a brokerage firm to research and analyze the financial performance and investment merits of a public company and distribute an investment recommendation to the firm's clients.

SEO
The process or act of "optimizing" Websites or Web pages to rank well in the search engines.  SEO is very important, as search engines are the most important source of NEW visitors to Websites.  (Over 20% of Web users use a search engine at least three times a day, and approximately 35 million Americans use search engines every single day.)

Sole IR Practitioner
A one person IR practice operated by someone who, typically, has had prior experience working in an investor relations firm.

Sole PR Practitioner
A one person PR practice operated by someone who, typically, has had prior experience working in a public relations firm.

W

Web 2.0 Initiatives
Activities and practices (RSS, blogs, social bookmarking, wikis, and podcasts) that push and increase the distribution of company content.

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