1. Clear objectives. Effective websites are built with goals in mind. What do you want your website to accomplish? Sell, educate, encourage contact, provide timely information, build community, or a combination of a few? Regardless, clear objectives should guide everything your website does and contains.

2. It’s about the visitor. Too often websites are populated with what the company wants to say and not what the visitor needs or is interested in finding out. Position messaging and content based on what will make it easy for a visitor to understand what you can do for them.

3. Communicates who, what and why. Visitors to your home page will make an evaluation of your organization faster than it takes them to decide what pair of socks to put on. Make sure the home page clearly states who you are, what you provide, and why it’s important. The Blogger homepage is a good example of effective communication.

4. Keep it simple. Providing concise and well-written content is critical. Any content taken from existing marketing materials should be chopped in half and then take half of that. Most website visitors skim content and read less than twenty percent of the content on a page. So, keep it short—there is a better chance what is read will be relevant.

5. Prioritized and predictable navigation. Once the main sections have been established, do not deviate from how navigation is presented. Keep things in the same place and in prioritized order so visitors always remember where stuff is accessible through navigation. Main navigation should be prominently displayed whereas sections of tertiary importance should be relegated to the header or footer.

6. Consistent design. Good websites need only use a handful of different page templates and always maintain standard design elements throughout. A good example is the Apple website—their design is starkly minimalist but elegantly effective. Standardize the use of colours, heading types, fonts, table formats, picture treatments, link styles, form fields, etc. so that they are consistently used throughout the website. Make sure these same design styles are also applied to the content.

7. Makes use of multimedia. The ability to produce and post video, pictures, audio, slideshows, animations, etc. has become affordable for even the sole proprietor. If your website is for a large organization it is likely there is a stable of media assets you can be converting for use on the web to provide a more engaging experience for visitors. The Landing TV website utilizes a free, third party video player that can be easily embedded in any website. Also, providing content in multiple formats addresses the fact that all visitors are not the same; some prefer to read, others like to watch, and some like to listen. Use different media to communicate more effectively.

8. Compliant with web standards. The best way an organization can compete well on search engines, ensure their website behaves as intended, is accessible to the handicapped, and produces as few errors as possible is to ensure it is developed in accordance with accepted web standards as defined by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). Different web developers adhere to W3C standards to different degrees, so it’s important to know what your web developer’s standards are.

9. Regularly reviewed. Shift happens, markets change, business models adapt, and products/services evolve; the website should follow. Conducting regular audits and tests of your website is a quick way to assess how current it is and what sections may need updating. A website should be perceived as an evolving entity—it can be easier and more affordable to make incremental changes as opposed to leaving it static for years and then begging for the budget to give it a complete overhaul.

10. Built by a web development expert. Ok, this is a plug for zu, but unless you have an experienced web developer on your staff the website, if handled internally, will likely get built by the same people that maintain your computer’s hardware and software (if and when they have time). A website is a communications vehicle not IT inventory. An experienced online communications agency is your best bet for getting a website that exhibits best practices.

twitpitch: He’s been there, done that. Now @zutweets @HarleyRivet shares 10 things that make a rock solid website. http://twurl.nl/vme6eh

Value
Given reduced budgets and tighter cash flow at most companies this year it was understandable that attendance at both conferences was at its lowest in years. NIRI had around 700 attendees and CIRI had about 200. The proportion of vendors to IR professionals was fairly high since the drop in IR professionals was more pronounced than the drop in vendors. I believe the lower attendance has both pros and cons; on the pro side it makes for a more intimate experience and the people attending are serious about being there due to having to justify the expense; on the con side there is less opportunity for networking and the challenges for vendors like zu are obvious (we made the most of our investment by pre-booking as many meetings as possible anticipating exhibit hall traffic would be fair at best).

Both conferences shared some similar topics but due to NIRI’s larger size they had the edge over CIRI because of more sessions on more topics. After what has been a bitter winter and cold spring in most of Canada, I think most would agree going to south Florida outweighs the cool Canadian west coast. Given the larger breadth of learning opportunities and chance to soak up some sun I found it most surprising that attending NIRI was cheaper than CIRI. If I had the choice to only go to only one conference based on budget, the decision would be simple. In fact, there were a number of eastern Canadian IR professionals attending NIRI for this exact reason—value for the money. Early bird registration and exhibit fees were lower at NIRI compared to CIRI (excluding exchange rate).

Relevance
I was thankful for the handful of sessions that were provided at both NIRI and CIRI regarding web disclosure and technology; they also appeared well-attended. But as far as the importance of the conferences and the opportunity they provided attendees, I think both suffered from a lack of interesting program offerings. I’m biased, but I think the recent events surrounding web disclosure, XBRL, and the evolving role of media to engage investors more effectively by better utilizing technology could have been better addressed. I noticed a large shift moving to the IRO’s responsibility as the Internet’s role regarding real-time information distribution becomes more powerful. There is an increased sense of urgency for IR professionals to deal with issues along with more and more regulations that are counter productive to being more responsive. It’s a difficult position to be in and traditional methods of communications may no longer suffice. The need to be transparent, provide investor’s value by being a resource, and taking a proactive, progressive approach with communications are key to gaining the trust of investors and good fodder for session topics.

Aside from the conferences’ agenda, I think that on-demand access to information via webcasts, local chapter events, and accessibility of information on the Internet is making the attendance to physical conferences less important. In order for these conferences to attract attendees, I think not only will the economy need to improve but both NIRI and CIRI will need to reconsider the value they provide and the format it is delivered in.

Summary
Given the size and location, I would tip my hat to NIRI09 as the more valuable and relevant of the two conferences. That said, I have a soft spot for my domestic associations and I appreciated the intimacy of CIRI09 and the quality of the conversations we had. We have more awareness and established relationships in the Canadian market so I’m sure this helped immensely, whereas we were only on our second date with the US market [she’s a bit reluctant, having just come out of a bad relationship, figuratively speaking]. Overall, I am confident both associations will make adjustments to attract back attendees by offering more value and providing more thought provoking topics in new and interesting ways. Afterall, the times they are a changin’.

During the #NIRI09 Conference, I attended a panel discussion that focused on XBRL strategies and the changing role of IROs. The panel included XBRL experts Michael Becker and Mike Willis.

Why is XBRL Relevant?

I learned from our panelists that XBRL is a business language that facilitates communication standardization. The current conditions often involve third party intermediaries that take your information, modify it, parse it, and/or reorganize it that is then distributed in a different form from the original. It can end up being inaccurate or presented in a way that can be misinterpreted.

XBRL prevents the modification of information by standardizing the way it is labelled regardless of naming conventions or nomenclature a company may use to describe things on the front-end in their financial reports. In addition, it mitigates effort to compile and review information since it’s already in a standardized format from the get-go.

What is Required? The SEC XBRL Mandate requires submission of XBRL formatted statements via an “XBRL exhibit” for annual, quarterly, and registration statements and is required to remain on the website for at least 12 months.

RSS feeds can be used to lower distribution costs and burden (SEC site and IR site). Allows users to pull the data and use it for their own analysis.

What is it? “Bar Code” for business information. Computer code that can be rendered and displayed to include a label, presentation, definitions, calculations, contexts, formulas, references, and taxonomy.

What is in it for an IRO? A Streamlined Review Process. The laborious assembly and review process is mitigated. Ultimately, this reduces costs and time to produce financial reports. If the XBRL is implemented as close to the origin of information then more savings can be realized.

XBRL will allow IRO’s to communicate more relevant information to their constituents in a timely fashion. Summarized reviews can be accomplished using rendering tools and used by investors to configure and automate information to display the most important data to them.

Standardized formulas and rules in business rules will allow collaboration among investors/analysts so that models can be created to work across multiple periods across different companies. Such tools already exist like I-Metrix; this allows for comparisons and correlations in a simple way.

SUMMARY
> More effective communications
> Streamlined compliance processes
> Lower cost & more efficient documentation preparation
> Better insights via social analytics
> Explicit relationships between materials across sources

Case Study: Selling the Stampeders Online

Can a great website fill a football stadium? Our numbers show it helped. This case study will show how we combined a unique audience expansion strategy with the smart use of social media and rich media elements to increase fan support for the Calgary Stampeders football team online. The example highlights how having a client daring enough to explore new ideas (even the players got on board) helps open the door to a major win online. As the old saying goes, “Offense sells tickets, but good websites win championships!”

I attended some excellent e-marketing seminars during the two-day event; here are some of the highlights I captured:

Design principles for non-designers – presented by Jeff White
Web is limited to five fonts: Verdana, Georgia, Helvetica, Trebuchet MS, Arial

• Georgia looks best when it is scaled big (headlines)
• Verdana looks best when it is scaled for small copy (body text)
• Helvetica is the preference of designers
• Trebuchet MS is the typeface of Web 2.0; it’s a modern font but does not bold well

Build your brand through online public relations – presented by Savior Young
Best practices for engagement:

• Be honest
• Be authentic
• Be mindful of tone
• Be timely and responsive
• Be providing relevant information
• Be willing to engage in meaningful conversation

Secrets of search engine optimization – presented by Rob Swick

• Do not try to trick the search engines; play by the rules and develop for standards
• Be consistent with page titles, content and meta data
• Concentrate on Google, Yahoo and MSN (Google is the hardest to please due to monthly updates to their formula)

FAIL! – Embracing an iterative design process – presented by Daniel Burke (Digg!)
Don’t be afraid of failure; take chances and don’t be afraid of things going wrong. Don’t try to make it perfect; release it and gather feedback. Repeat and listen to your users. User feedback and experience is important in order to improve and modify to meet their needs; however, don’t get overly concerned with the vocal minority.

• Step 1: Get it out there
• Step 2: Add sophistication
• Step 3: Gather feedback
• Step 4: Start revising (based on goals and priority) and measure success