Investor Relations is a strategic management responsibility that integrates finance, communication, marketing and securities law compliance to enable the most effective two-way communication between a company, the financial community, and other constituencies, which ultimately contributes to a company's securities achieving fair valuation. An investor relation is managed by the public relations or corporate communications departments, and can also be referred to as "financial public relations" or "financial communications".

Today it is called investor relations and includes concepts like "word of mouth" to "viral marketing. The responsibility to respond to shareholders, stockbrokers, solicitors, investors, and others, all wanting to know what is being done to make the stock price go higher, presents a tremendous challenge for the executive. It is a difficult balance and one that is best left to someone knowledgeable in investor relations issues. This is why choosing the right investor relations firm is so important.

In choosing the IR firm, a corporate executive must clearly define his or her goals. Is the goal to help move the stock price higher, increase trading volume and liquidity or both? Or is it to help the executive raise money. Or is it to help the company manage the dilutive effects of overhanging stock? Techniques used by IR firms have changed over the years. Traditional cold calling for new investors has virtually ended with the "do not call" prohibition. many other techniques common in the past such as blast faxes and blast emails have been restricted.

The new all-in-one approach has an edge over the conventional multiple-point approach in terms of reducing costs associated with expensive Computer Telephony Integration middleware and higher operational efficiencies. In essence, technology has become the single most decisive differentiator for enterprises to thrive and grow in this intensely competitive world.