If You Want Retail Investors, You Need to Be in Their Feed
Most IR strategies miss where today’s investors actually are. Discover how social media is now the key to unlocking visibility and market cap.
Retail investors now account for about 20 % of equity volume in the US. That’s not just noise, it’s influence. And it’s growing.
They’re younger, too. Most start investing at 19. They aren’t turning to broker reports or company filings. Instead, they’re watching videos, scanning feeds, and talking to each other in real-time, on platforms like YouTube, TikTok, Reddit, and Telegram.
According to Brunswick Group, 73 % of retail investors get their investment information online, and over a third lean on financial influencers to shape their decisions. On April 4, 2025, retail investors added $4.7B to US stocks in one day.
This audience is active, digitally fluent, and shaping capital flows at speed. But many small and mid-cap public companies still approach IR as if it's 2012, not 2025.
Why Traditional IR Alone Falls Short
Most public companies still rely on static content like press releases, earnings decks, and MD&As to inform the market. This content is essential for compliance, but it doesn’t engage the retail audience.
It’s written for analysts and institutional investors, not the growing segment of retail investors who consume information on mobile, in social channels, and in media-rich formats.
Retail investors aren’t combing through 100-page PDFs on their smartphones. They’re watching 90-second videos that explain earnings highlights. They’re looking for visual summaries, quick insights, and transparent commentary they can access without needing a finance degree.
Here’s the disconnect:
Companies publish once per quarter. Retail investors expect a weekly, if not daily, diet of investing content.
Most IR content is dense, long-form, and written in technical and legal jargon. Retail investors prefer short, visual, and conversational.
Company messaging lives in corporate website investor pages. Retail investors are on YouTube, TikTok, Reddit, and Instagram.
Disclosures are reactive and backward-looking. Investors want real-time narrative and forward-looking context.
This content gap doesn’t just limit engagement. It creates friction in trust. When companies stay silent or use formats that confuse or don’t engage investors, they turn to third parties for interpretation, or worse, they disregard your company and look for another stock. That opens the door to misinformation and missed opportunities.
The good news is this gap is entirely fixable. Companies that invest in more investor-friendly content, without abandoning compliance requirements, win the trust and attention of prospective investors.
Visibility Builds Value
Markets reward visibility. When companies show up in the right channels with relevant, engaging content, investors respond.
We’ve seen companies who embrace this shift generate significant growth in measurable ways, whether that’s increased daily trading volume, higher liquidity, broader investor awareness, or lower capital costs driven by stronger demand.
But this isn’t about hype. It’s about trust.
An always-on, well-managed social media presence builds credibility. It opens the door for two-way engagement. It offers a platform to reinforce your story through real-time updates, milestones, and thought leadership that meets investors where they are.
The point isn’t to entertain. It’s to be seen, understood and most importantly remain front of mind for when the investor is ready to buy.
Where Investors Actually Spend Time
YouTube leads for long-form stock analysis, explainers, and interviews. It’s the platform most used by retail investors seeking financial content. TikTok is surging with the Gen Z audience (the so-called ‘digital natives’ born between 1997 and 2012), whose financial literacy is increasingly based on short videos, not traditional investor relations channels.
Reddit, Telegram, and Discord are hubs for idea sharing and sentiment signals. LinkedIn and X (Twitter) still matter for professional updates, especially for more experienced investors.
The channels vary, but the behavior is consistent: investors want accessible, digestible content from trusted voices.
And when companies participate in those spaces, they don’t just improve awareness, they actively shape their market narrative.
From Content to Capital
A more visible company is a more investable company. But the leap from content to capital isn’t accidental. It happens when strategy, message, and execution align.
That starts with understanding what matters to your audience and then delivering that story in formats that investors favor:
Short video explainers
Visual updates on key financials or milestones
Data visualizations and infographics
Earned media placements amplified via social
Searchable, shareable content tied to upcoming catalysts
It’s not about overwhelming investors with information. It’s about making it easier for them to believe in your company story and take action at the right time.
What This Means for IR Leaders
If you're leading IR at a small or mid-cap company, this isn't a call to abandon fundamentals. It's a call to modernize them.
The market is moving. Retail participation is shaping price action, liquidity, and long-term value. Yet many companies are missing this audience entirely because they’re not showing up where the investors are, and where the conversation is already happening.
This isn’t just a comms problem. It’s a strategic one.
You don’t need to become a media company. But you do need a content plan that supports your IR strategy, and a comms and promotion engine that turns that content into measurable reachand investor acquisition.
