Despite the recent emphasis in the IR profession on a deep understanding of finance, investor relations is fundamentally a communications discipline, so as technology evolves new ways of communicating, IR professionals must understand the new opportunities and constraints. Unlike earlier communications innovations such as fax and e-mail, social media’s challenge isn’t simply one of learning to use a new technology that grants improved speed or accessibility. Social media is unique in that it has the potential to externalize the messengers and democratize the message. For IROs who are used to controlling the message, this can truly be unnerving. Nevertheless, social media enables a new “many-to-many” conversation with enormous potential to alter the delivery of the IR message.