Yes, I’m riding the coattails of Jerry Maguire, but when it comes to marketing and communication sometimes we really do need to show management the money. After all, they’re running a business and we need to help them do that — whether that’s driving revenue or building our reputation (Shannon Paul has a great post on this topic Social Media and the C-Level). One growing area where all of us in B2B communications continue to learn is in the area of social media, and sometimes I think we forget that showing good examples doesn’t mean we have to create them.

I blogged on B2B Voices last year about the value of StockTwits as an investor relations tool. Well, once again the team over there has given another example of how to show the value of Twitter to monitor what is being said. Last month the company partnered with CNN Money to integrate a real time stock conversation widget powered by StockTwits. Check it out for yourself - CNN Money Real Time Tweets.

There are some key takeaways from this if you are at an agency working for a publicly traded company or work for a B2B company this is a listed company:

1. You should create an account at StockTwits and learn how to use the platform. As a side note, I often find the StockTwits platform more reliable than Twitter or Tweetdeck.

2. Send the CNNMoney link to your investor relations team. While they may not be using Twitter or may think that StockTwits is a fad they should see the value in CNN Money as a key source for the impact of Twitter and real-time conversations. It may spark an interest from them and give you a way to leverage an internal relationship to promote your efforts. I mentioned why getting internal buy-in for social media is important last year.

3. Keep looking for outside sources and third parties to build into your communication plan. We have a great relationship with StockTwits and continue to work with them to meet our objectives. Who are you using?

What are your thoughts? Do you use StockTwits? Have you partnered with outside resources? Tell us your stories.