You’re the CEO or IRO of a public company.  You can’t stop talking to shareholders at conferences, on conference calls, and other personal settings.  You’re willing to expend tremendous amounts of energy to speak with shareholders one-on-one …. and then repeat those conversations over and over again as you march through your shareholder list but you’re afraid to go the last mile and utilize the efficiencies of the web.

George Tsiolis, CEO of online IR firm Agoracom, identifies four myths he believes may be keeping IROs and CEOs from communicating on the web. They are:

* That online investors are “crazy, loose cannons.”
* That communicating online increases reputation risk
* That regulations prevent online IR
* There’s more liability risk when things are public

Tsiolis ably dispels each of the myths. The way I see it, though, CEOs and IROs don’t honestly believe any of these myths. They use them as convenient excuses for not wanting to use the web.

The bottom line is that IROs and CEOs who are afraid of the web would be insecure and incompetent. People who wouldn’t be suitable and IROs and CEOs in the first place.

So I don’t for a minute believe that fear is a factor here. I think it’s all about favoritism. Big investors are getting preferential access to management, and the inside insight that management has. It might not be selective disclosure in the strict, legal sense of the term, but it’s still selective and unfair to those who don’t have the same access.

Until all private meetings with investors are outlawed, CEOs and IROs have no incentive to use the open, fair platform of the web as their primary communications channel.