Why do Corp websites put announcements on their webpage?

Factual Questions
1

It’s usually smaller companies, including the one I work for. But it will say 'company X announces partnership with unknown company Z" or “Company X announces unaudited 4th quarter financial results”.

Who is this directed towards? It seems that anyone who actually had a need to know that information would get it from sources other than the corporate webpage.

If it’s just chest thumping, then chest thumping towards whom? Who looks at small corp webpages other than job seekers looking for the careers tab? If you had a need for that companies services, you’d work with a sales guy, you’re not gonna make a decision because they just announced unaudited 4th quater finances or something.

2

It comes up in a Google search, or hopefully so :slight_smile:

Can we have an example? It’d be interesting to see. Thanks

3

Investors. Creating demand for the company’s stock increases the share price, which is the #1 priority for everyone at every company on the market.

4

Speaking as a journalist, if I’m writing or checking a story about Company X, I’m going to want the info directly from the company, not second-hand through another news source. Sure, I could phone the company, speak to their press office, get them to give me a statement or email me a press release, but it’s so much quicker if I can go to the “News” area of their website and find it straight away.

So, “because it’s useful”.

5

If you’re a job seeker you had better be looking at more than the careers tab if you want to make a good impression in an interview.

If you think you might want the company’s services or product, then you can look at what the company has to say for themselves before letting a salesman breathe down your neck.

If you know you want a service or product but don’t know who to contact to get that service or product, googling the service or product will get you information on a bunch of companies that provide it, which you can then use to start investigating who to get it from.

6

Not true. Whenever I research a company (either as a vendor or investment opportunity), I go their corporate webpage to look at their financial results and press releases. Getting a picture of who they acquire or create partnerships with often provides clues as to the general direction of the company. It’s not infallible information but can be used as another tool for judging the company.

For me, the “sales guy” is the last step in the process of research.

7

Investors
Lenders
Rating agencies
Suppliers
Employees

…just to name a few.

8

Although, in many cases, the employees will be more interested in a corporate intranet which is not public facing.

As has been mentioned, potential customers. Also, existing customers looking for support - if I have an NVIDIA based graphics card, I might simply start at nvidia.com looking for driver downloads (quick check - that will get you to the appropriate area in a couple clicks).

Or, for companies which make a product sold directly to consumers through retail outlets, before going to the store or ordering online. Garmin’s corporate site is full of rotating graphics touting their gadgets, for instance.

These days, corporate web pages seem to have evolved to having a lot of “creative” puffery on the front page, often heavy on flash, videos and god knows what else, together with some sort of tabs or menu bar somewhere allowing you to get at the specific area you are interested in, such as press releases, investor relations or product information. Those things can be hard to find for companies like banks or brokerages, which use the default content displayed on their most easily remembered url as a login page for customers using their online services, and advertise a lot of products and services on that page. Try to find the corporate stuff from schwab.com, for instance. You have to look down the page to find “about Schwab” in the content, rather than actually being able to get at it through the tabs at the top.

BTW, to find the corporate web pages, rather than simply googling the company name or guessing the url, you might wish to go through one of the financial sites which usually provide links to corporate profiles. The entry for a company on http://google.com/finance, for instance, contains a “Website Links” box listing the general corporate URL, as well as direct links to “investor relations”, “products”, etc. For instance, the info on “SCHW” links you directly to “aboutschwab.com”, rather than you having to find it from “schwab.com”.

9

Because companies want to look dynamic, not stale. Updating your website from time-to-time gives the appearance that you’re on the move: things are happening, rather than the same old stagnant page.

10

Putting stuff on your website allows you to say a lot more than simply announcing it. Let’s say I want to announce my 3rd quarter earnings. That will get me about two sentences in most financial roundups. However, on my own website, I can explain that my same-store sales are up because of the introduction of my exciting new product, and by the way, I’ve recently boughjt a competitor, and the sale will be finalized in the fourth quarter, which will drag that quarter’s earnings down, etc. etc.

11

My company makes large, expensive systems for manufacturing - we don’t make the frozen broccoli plastic packaging, we make the machines that make the packaging. (Geez, I sound like BASF.) Anyway, the manufacturers that are looking for systems like ours would check that information to see if we’re a sound bet before coming to us for a solution. Are they a solid company? Will they be around in the future when I need maintenance? Who else do they deal with, and who are their suppliers?

That sort of thing.

12

Also, search engine otimization. If new pages are continually added to the site, Google and Bing will index the site more.

13

I assume any announcements don’t show up just on the site, but also get sent out on PR Newswire or the like. But, yes, putting it on the site not only lets the corporation make it as long as necessary, but also lets them control the content. If you work for a big company, and compare an earnings report on your corporate site with coverage in the press, you might find them very different. For example, on the site “Line of Business X increased 20% in sales.” In a press report - Lines of Business Y and Z, which make up 80% of sales, dropped 20% while the new LOB X went up 20%.