Netflix, Inc. (NFLX), Tesla Motors Inc (TSLA): It Just Got Easier to Follow Your Favorite Stock — Sort Of

In theory, a company could post one earnings release on its website and the next on MySpace. I doubt that things will go that far, but you can see the challenge for investors.

Tesla Motors Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) CEO Elon Musk highlighted the problem just last week, when he announced a “Really exciting @Tesla Motors Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) announcement coming on Thursday” via his personal Twitter account. The stock jumped on the vague announcement, but most investors were probably searching for the cause of the pop unless they happened to be following Musk on Twitter and were on the site at the time.

Social networks such as Twitter and Facebook might be nice tools for investors, but you can see why even those well-known sites could be problematic for company announcements unless the SEC sets appropriate guidelines.

Two worlds collide
A ruling allowing companies to use social media was bound to happen eventually, but the details surrounding it are troublesome. Investors now have to figure out which social networks companies may be communicating on along with signing up for regular email alerts. What were supposed to be convenient social-media tools just made investing a little bit more complicated.

The article It Just Got Easier to Follow Your Favorite Stock — Sort Of originally appeared on Fool.com and is written by Travis Hoium.

Fool contributor Travis Hoium has no position in any stocks mentioned. You can follow Travis on Twitter at @FlushDrawFool, check out his personal stock holdings or follow his CAPS picks at TMFFlushDraw. The Motley Fool recommends and owns shares of Facebook, Google, Netflix, and Tesla Motors.

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