Every few weeks I find myself making the trek to different corners of the city: north for K&M Sewing, east for the Centre Mall SportChek, and south for Salon Twist. I’ll even tolerate downtown parking for The Cupcake Conspiracy.

Why? Because of the amazing experiences the experts at these businesses consistently deliver. I trust these experts because of what they do, what they know and how they understand that customer service is more than just fulfilling a need. They get what it means to be totally frickin’ amazing.

• Kim at K&M Sewing measures both leg lengths each time and delivers perfect euro jean hems – always with a huge grin on her face.
• Kris at SportChek patiently spends 2+ hours discussing running shoe arch, size and even colour, all to ensure my satisfaction each time I wear the chosen pair.
• Melissa, owner of Salon Twist, uses her UK training and sunny persona to craft precision cuts and ensure a pampered, relaxing escape.
• Christin, co-owner of The Cupcake Conspiracy , sells delectable treats within a lush décor. Her cheerfulness and mouth-watering cupcake goodness create an amazing indulgence that keeps me coming back for more.

Driven by a love for what they do, Kim, Kris, Christin and Melissa combine their expertise, consistent service delivery, and unique selves to craft an intangible magic that makes each interaction amazing.

At zu, we strive to not only deliver this same level of service to our clients but to also extend that experience to an interactive presence. We help businesses create amazing online experiences for their customers and that deliverable begins with our own customer interaction.

We want to give our clients the entire ‘zu’ difference, and to wow them each and every time with our expertise, consistency and passion for the interactive world. This helps build trust in what we do and in what we deliver. It’s all part of the magic that happens at 303 Pacific – we strive to achieve Job One so we can help you be totally frickin’ amazing.

The navigation drives home SIAST’s primary messages of diversity and workplace rewards suited to individuals. The primary needs of site users—viewing current opportunities, and finding SIAST careers—are also addressed at this top level.

With the site as part of SIAST’s “Total Rewards” campaign, the accompanying content was put at the forefront. Integral to the campaign are the stories and testimonials of current employees. Knowing that pages titled “testimonials” get very little traffic (users see them as inauthentic and overly promotional), we instead designed the site’s architecture around providing the stories as a primary part of the site design, available on every page. The implementation keeps the stories close at hand and avoids constantly overwhelming the user with text. Typical user apprehensions over testimonials are lessened by the sincerity of the stories, which focus more on personal growth than on marketing catch-phrases, and are augmented by the photography, which is professional but not polished and uses actual employees rather than unrealistic stock photo models.

SIAST’s stories of Total Rewards have been worked consistently throughout the site, with the diversity of experiences in the testimonials tying in to the overall message. Unlike many corporate careers sites, SIAST has kept the content fresh by adding new testimonials regularly, ensuring that anyone repeatedly checking career postings will see a new story every time.

Common to many institutions, SIAST is tied to an existing careers system that has been outside the scope of the website work to date. Job postings are currently viewed as PDFs, creating problems with searchability and reuse. An eventual reworking of this system will facilitate the spread of job postings to aggregators and allow individual job postings to be dynamically pulled to relevant areas of other SIAST websites.

In zu’s webcast Tuesday, Another Brick in the Interactive Wall, we discussed best online practices using a wide array of Canadian examples. But the interactive options – ranging from enhancing online services to incorporating social media – can be overwhelming. So where to start?

Here are some zu recommended engagement exercises your team can explore to build an interactive strategy to attract and support your students.

Complete application process with students: Walk through the online process with high school and current students. Are there any hiccups? Any reoccurring problem areas causing the students to quit? Do you have an online application or do you ask your potential customers to download a PDF, fill it out, then fax it back?

Encourage feedback through social media: Whether it’s setting up a Facebook Page or using a Twitter feed, open the discussion doors to allow student feedback. Ask students what they want you to deliver in an online presence. Then, when you launch a new initiative, you’ll already have buy-in from the same audience who provided you with the ideas.

Ask students to rank online services: This will help you leverage online assets that currently work and prioritize areas where there is opportunity for improvement. Again, this will help create early buy-in from valuing your students’ input.

Create blog-based student employment / projects: Hire students part-time to administer your social media accounts, such as a Facebook Page. Your students are already deeply involved in social media – why not use their online experience to promote your school? Also, consider substituting student blogs for required course reports? How can you transform course requirements into engaging, online assets that can be used to attract other students to your school?

Provide cameras for student lifestyle stories: Have students depict their personal school experience through photos or video. Post the photos on Flickr, the videos on a YouTube channel, and tag each asset with your school name. Through engaging students, you’ll create trusted and credible assets for your school’s online presence.

Conduct a website or online presence audit: Consider where your school’s online experience currently is and where you want it to be. Look at competitor schools and best online practices. zu can help you with this engagement exercise as we can provide a complimentary website audit for your school.

The school industry is increasingly competitive, considering the program, location and overall experience options students can choose from. Your main audience is online – that’s where you need to both reach and serve them. What can your school start exploring today to attract and support your targeted students?

We spent 18 months renovating a brick building located in Saskatoon’s old warehouse district. Originally built in 1929, the challenge was to bring it up to modern standards while still maintaining its original bricks, beams, ceilings and the like.

People would often ask why we put so much effort into the building’s restoration. The answer is partly because we needed more space as the company has grown substantially over the past ten years, but part of it was to contribute to the ongoing improvement of the Saskatoon community. The location suited zu because we wanted to be downtown close to our clients, close to transportation and close to amenities for staff. What we’ve brought to the downtown community is a staff who spends money in restaurants and shops, a smaller environmental imprint, an increase in property value and the transformation of an eye-sore building.

When we talk about community these days, it seems to be about social media communities. These social media communities are the new way to network, build brand recognition, increase sales and improve your company’s profile. These communities are growing faster than any form of media has in the past. You need to be using these tools to survive as a business.

As society continues to develop these electronic communities, we have increased our need to “be in touch”. Which brings me back to the Heritage Awards. zu, by moving closer to our clients and friends, has increased our participation in old school communities. You know, the communities where you meet in-person for coffee, lunch or a drink. This in-person community takes more time and effort to develop relationships than the electronic community does. But in-person communities are more rewarding both personally and professionally.

So, while you ask yourself what you should be doing with social media, make sure that you have the fundamentals of your business down. Remember that the community around you is important and will be affected by your presence and outreach. As your company moves forward, keep in mind that social media has a social aspect to it. Call up a few clients and meet them for a coffee in the neighbourhood before trying to reach them electronically.

CN, a North American railway, brings its business closer to its customers by providing live, updated information on every operational facet of customers’ shipments. It is an evolutionary approach in websites for customers who want it all.

About CN
CN is a leader in the North American rail industry. More than just a railroad, CN is a transportation company offering integrated transportation services including rail, intermodal, trucking, freight forwarding, warehousing and distribution.

Situation Analysis
The previous site design and architecture was outdated and cluttered. There was no existing database or content management system (CMS) and all content was built and updated in HTML. A current inventory of 2,500 pages was taxing to manage so content had to be condensed to 1,500 pages while maintaining multilingual communications in four languages. The functionality of the existing online customer tools (eBusiness) also required upgrades to establish a positive customer-centric experience. The CN website was mainly used by customers to carry out tasks regarding their shipments. However, it provided a confusing architecture to find information regarding how, what and where things could be shipped.

A complete redesign, reengineering and implementation of a third party CMS (RedDot) was required.

Goals
Due to the complex nature of the inherited assets in the existing site, the CN project required initiatives to be rolled out in phases. The infrastructure, navigation, appearance and usability of the website required immediate attention. Secondary goals addressed recruiting needs, investor relations reporting, corporate information and news, and customization of relevant target marketing messages. And finally, the eBusiness site required a redesign to better integrate with the new public site design.

Challenges
The true challenge of this project laid in the need for trust and transparency between parties in order to reach a common goal.  The zu team worked diligently with CN on coordinating a seamless project. Because the content was provided by CN, and the CMS integration was done by the CMS vendor, this created a need for zu to develop a strategy that would support third party CMS integration by acting as an intermediary between the CN web team and CMS vendor. zu Systems Analysts developed functional specifications that were  complex in nature and zu Developers had to undergo extensive training in order to clearly define the third party CMS requirements. Converting 5,000 pages of content required editing and proofing resources in four languages.

Solutions
The design and information architecture solutions were developed by zu and applied to the frontend of the new site. In order to create an intuitive user experience, simple and clean design enhancements were implemented and the information architecture was rebuilt to facilitate typical customer tasks and information needs. zu provided CN with the tools to update specific real estate in the website by assisting with the configuration of the CMS. This created more autonomy for CN to craft custom messaging when required and further eliminated HTML updates that once fell on IT. Customization tools were applied to the eBusiness components in order to create a customer-centric website which would enable the CN ecommerce sales channel to better achieve financial targets. zu created a strategy that enabled marketing users to insert tailored banners to communicate key information to investors and analysts.

Solution Summary

• New site design
• New site information architecture
• Technical strategy
• Functional specifications
• Development of cascading style sheets (CSS)
• Integration and support for third party CMS (Red Dot)
• Integration of third party data feeds and components
• Functional programming
• Reintegration of web analytics
• Content editing, proofing and insertion of 1,500 pages in 4 languages
• Integration of Google Search

Result
Despite an economic downturn in 2009, CN’s public website page views increased 25% year-over-year compared to its previous website. A service-oriented site allowing visitors and customers to quickly determine how, what and where they can ship was achieved.

Where You Fit In
The CN case study is an example of what zu values in a client-business relationship. The process of evaluating needs, providing strategic advice and working together to reach collective goals is what zu does best – regardless of a project’s size. With some of the freshest minds in the game, zu will find innovative ways to take your business to new heights. Combining captivating design with effective online tools will give your organization a fresh, new appeal.

“zu’s dedication, flexibility, creativity, and expertise made our project successful.” -Paul Clarke, CN eBusiness

Avoid big committees
Outside of jury duty, I don’t know where else these are genuinely useful, but they can be devastating to a website project budget. Long meetings combined with a dominant voice with little to say make it difficult for important information to be extracted to form any sort of web strategy.  If committees can’t be avoided, try to select one point of contact that interfaces with the agency, while bringing in committees during the early discovery phase and for major presentations.

Be committed
Understand that this is a team project and you are a part of it. Don’t be surprised if managing the website project is a full time position (or more).

Trust the team you hired
If you find yourself researching solutions or micro-managing the process, it’s probably because you don’t trust the agency or team you’ve hired. Do your due diligence to find a team that you trust in order to avoid second guessing during the project. Understand that your agency should be experienced in this sort of project and they might be suggesting solutions that will help to avoid cost overruns in the future.

Client experience matters
Having someone on your end who understands web development—or has experience on a previous redesign—will keep the project closer to budget. The more you can hit the ground running, the less time is spent on explaining and training. Rarely will an agency budget an exorbitant amount for hand-holding during a project, so these costs (i.e. additional meetings) usually come at the client’s surprise.

Rushed deadlines and last minute updates
Rushing a deadline for any reason will usually result in cost overruns. Whether from premium rates or pulling new people onto the project, you will have to evaluate the marginal benefit of a quick turnaround as opposed to working out a more realistic deadline. Last minute updates should also be avoided as much as possible. Even a seemingly innocuous change can require additional documentation, programming changes, and quality assurance checks that could be avoided if known in advance.

Details, details, details
The more details at the beginning of the project—even in the discovery stage—the better. Though many project details are preconceived before picking a vendor, most agencies will agree that being part of the initial planning stages and assisting with overall strategic planning and visioning results in a stronger end result.

Be an organized client
This is a simple piece of advice, but seems to always happen. From easily overlooked protocols like inconsistent labelling of files and lazy folder structures when submitting content, to arriving late for meetings, disorganization can turn the project into a puzzle.

Focus on doing a few things right
Scope creep is inevitable, so keeping it to a minimum should be your goal. It’s common that once the ball gets rolling, the client suddenly ‘gets it’ and new features are suggested late in the game. Ask yourself, ‘is it a deal breaker if we launch without this feature?’ Understand that there is life after the launch, so don’t be afraid to plan for and release new features later on.

Save up your changes
Good things come in bunches. That holds true for changes. If you can, save up your changes or updates and send them to your agency all at once. Sending a series of changes (and changes to your changes) in a combination of phone calls, meetings and emails results in reduced efficiency, and increases the chance that something could be missed, or that one change will unexpectedly effect another.

Keep the flow
Long breaks between approvals hurt the momentum. When projects restart after dormancy, it takes a while to get everyone back to working as well-oiled as before, which generally leads to things taking longer.  Your agency team may need to reacquaint themselves with the documentation on your project, review old code or design work to get their groove back, or may even be tied up with something else if the delay was unexpectedly long.

Understand what you’re in for
This isn’t so much a tip as a mindset you need to be in when starting a web project. Developing a website is an IT-style project, following much the same workflow process.  And while the IT manager mantra of ‘it’s going to cost four times as much and take four times as long as anticipated’ might not hold true for most web projects, it’s important to understand how quickly the entire process can unravel when the client and agency don’t have a consistent vision, clear strategy, and an understanding of what causes cost overruns.

Firstly, are you looking for a product company or a service agency? There is a difference and it may help to narrow the scope of your decision.

A product company will provide you with an entry level website solution. You can indentify a product company when the organization provides you with a quote without taking the time to understand your business as a whole. For a product company, the focus is usually placed on pre-designed templates and where your logo will be placed. They will not ask for your branding guidelines or about your long term objectives, or provide you with a maintenance schedule. The designer may also be the programmer. It would be like hiring your mechanic to be the interior designer of your home. I’m not saying mechanics can’t do interior design, I’m just saying they are not as specialized if they are a jack of all trades and experts at neither.

A service agency, such as zu, will take the time to understand your business. They will take the time to collaborate with your team, review all aspects of the marketing material, online and offline, and provide you with a phased approach for long term growth. A service agency will have teams of dedicated talent to ensure your story will provide the best results based on your desired outcome. However, they are more likely to cost more and take longer than your uncle’s nephew to build a site.

Secondly, what does your budget look like?

It might also be fair to say you just need an economic solution. You might simply need ‘something’ to get going and that is fine. But remember not to refrain from thinking big as your true focus should be the size of the impact needed to see results. Don’t underestimate the value of your website and what an exceptional user experience can provide to your bottom line. Finally, don’t underestimate how long it can take to roll out a successful project. Anything worthwhile takes time and if you rush the project you will be spending more money by repeating the process sooner than you think.

Thirdly, how is your website enhancing your marketing and communications strategy?

Websites have evolved to be much more than just a logo with business hours – although some companies still forget to add them. Whether it is selling sweaters, attracting investors or competing for tourism, making your website an effective tool for communicating your story should be a number one priority.

I would like to share a story which to this day surprises me. I was having a conversation with an individual who mentioned they had spent $20M on renovations to become a world-class destination in the tourism industry. They proceeded to tell me they allotted $6K to their website. That is a 0.0003% investment online to best reflect the entire renovation project. As many as 80% of their guests will determine if they should visit this world-class destination by viewing their website. If I were the owner of that company, I would want to ensure the renovation was best reflected online to maximize results. I don’t know of any top-notch web companies that could provide a great online solution with a $6K price tag. Yikes, sounds like a missed opportunity to me.

So before you run off to phone ten companies and request proposals, ask yourself what you want from an interactive agency. Take the time to research the companies you are interested in, compare portfolios, the size of staff, how long they have been in business and the differences in services. Compare apples to apples. Those comparisons alone will be key indicators in determining which agency is the right fit for you.

One of my favourite management books, John Heider’s Tao of Leadership, describes the importance of process. Here is a partial reading:

“Do not lose sight of the single principle: how everything works. When this principle is lost and the method of meditating on process fails, the group becomes mired in intellectual discussion of what could have happened, what should have happened, what this technique or that might do. Soon the group will be quarrelsome and depressed…When a person forgets that all creation is a unity, allegiance goes to lesser wholes such as family, the home team, or the company.”

This is a good description of how the client-contractor team will tend to lose unity and become quarrelsome should it lose focus on the process by which sites are created.

This is why the process must be respected.

This was apparent to Lao Tzu in the 5^th century B.C. and still makes sense today.

So that’s why I find the new Domino’s Pizza campaign so good. It was genuine enough to pass through my B.S. filter, yet the message was bold enough to make me curious about what they were selling. In short, they said “you hated our old pizza – our bad. We took it personally, now try this”. I agree wholeheartedly. Having gone through four years of being a starving student, like many others I detested yet still depended on Domino’s Pizza for their cheap and stale pies.

Their new Pizza Turnaround campaign is backed with a simple but effective web strategy, complete with the extended commercial and refreshingly unfiltered tweets. Another thing I like about this campaign is that it’s not funny, proving that you don’t always have to use humour to make your point in advertising.

What’s the risk of admitting your old pizza was comparable to chewing on a used Band-Aid? Not as much as there is to gain. People love when companies admit their mistakes and will only look forward to better pizza in the future. It’s quite a bit different than Ford pseudo-admitting they made bad cars – there are still millions of people who own those ‘mistakes’. I’m curious to see how this campaign is received, but more importantly I’m interested to see if we can get the new recipe in Canada. I’ll keep you posted.

Then I recently came across a short but great blog post from Chas Grundy that discusses how this can effect your culture. “If people want to do something great but don’t have the tools, support, processes, or resources, that’s an infrastructure problem. If people don’t want to do anything great, or change at all for that matter, that’s a culture problem.” This employee had what normal organizations wished upon all their staff: pride – which is a side effect of culture. He wanted to do great, but couldn’t.

How should something like this be handled? I don’t have a definite answer, but for starters I think everyone can agree that it’s wrong. I can understand enforcing policy to reduce corporate misbehaviour or abuse, but cases like this should be reviewed separately as it effects culture and client satisfaction. Don’t expect to get it right the first time. Social media and its uses are always changing, so expect your policy to adapt while you actively monitor the costs and benefits of social media in your organization.

After the session, one manager from an unnamed government department came up and admitted that he just “does it” and deals with the wrath of breaching policy (or the non-existence of policy) later. I like his style.

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

What’s all the buzz about SMPR?
You could say that the SMPR began as a mere glimmer in the eye of content sharing and voting websites, social media networks, podcasts, and blogs. In layman’s terms, SMPRs are designed to drive news stories to online conversation forums and get the conversation going; they provide readers with the ability to disseminate information and multimedia along with bookmark and sharing tools. They are multimedia press releases that function more like a webpage than a static text document. SMPRs often contain images, video, links, and have distribution through online networks outside the traditional press wire.

Making a case for SMPR
Until recently, our marketing department channeled PR efforts through the traditional media streams of newspapers, magazines and radio—and like most organizations, we’ve garnered positive attention to our business developments by posting news releases on our website. From the outside looking in, there really wasn’t anything lacking in our existing marketing strategy that would give cause to jump on the SMPR bandwagon—except that my marketing DNA would win the battle and have me try anything bright, shiny and trendy.

Baiting the hook
I decided to bait the hook with the recent success and recognition of zuLabs TimmyMe and BucksMe iPhone apps. My involvement with production of the actual Marketwire SMPR was minimal; I crafted a text-based, traditional news release and sent it off to Jay, our Account Executive at Marketwire. I had to package up a few other details in order to build the SMPR, including creation of the following:
• keyword cloud
• video clip
• images
• Technorati tags
After a few emails back and forth, I proofed the document and it was distributed through Marketwire’s traditional and online networks. Access to the online networks is really the strongest benefit the Marketwire SMPR service provides.

Just the numbers
I set up Google Alerts and watched our SMPR take effect: we generated two interviews [including CBC Radio] and 18 online news stories in only a few days. We also observed a 60% increase in TimmyMe downloads during the two weeks following distribution of the SMPR. Collaborating with our resident SEO experts, I initiated some statistical research surrounding the traffic that was generated to our website via the online SMPR during a specific time frame: one month after distribution our unique visitor traffic stats increased 75% compared to our monthly average.

At the finish line
I would have to say that the SMPR is the BMW of news release distribution—it looks sexy and it performs. If you’re anything like me I fuss constantly over brand presentation and lead generation results, and the Marketwire 2.0 SMPR gave me both, loaded with options like: text, audio, video, bookmarking and tagging tools, content voting and sharing portals, keyword-optimized text and images. With one click, the reader can submit the SMPR to Digg, Deli.cio.us, Technorati and other social media content portals. The list of social media aggregation features in the Marketwire SMPR is long and impressive, including a social media newsroom that receives visitor feedback directly from a comment box in your press release.

There are cheaper entry point SMPRs on the market like PRWeb and PitchEngine that package up nicely with all the social media bells and whistles [I will leave the cost analysis discussion for another time], but from a marketer’s perspective, I believe the SMPR has more reach, is more functional and makes it easier for media people, analysts, bloggers and consumers to compile information for the articles they research or want to write. The SMPR facilitates this functionality by breaking down the content into logical sections in a way it can be easily scanned and used.

In my mind, the SMPR is not going to replace or kill the traditional press release any time soon. The SMPR is a tool, not a trend. And it simply improves upon the traditional press release layout, evolving and adapting to the 2.0 revolution. More people are accessing their news and information through web channels, so it only makes sense to meet them there.

For the past three years, we have heard that the newspaper industry is in trouble. In 2008, 40% of North Americans got their news from the Internet, compared to 27% in 2007. For people under 30, those numbers are higher: 59% now get their news from the web, compared to 34% in 2007.

What many people fail to look at is: why are printed newspapers declining? Studies show that the average person gets their national and international news from the web and get their local news from local newspapers and local radio. As newspaper revenues have declined the past few years, the newspaper industry has responded by cutting local reporters and replacing those stories with national features. So, in an effort to cut costs, printed newspapers have accelerated their demise by reducing what people are most interested in: local news stories.

As these newspapers slowly go bankrupt, there will be a huge opportunity for someone to start an online local news outlet. There are now thousands of qualified journalists looking for work. Setting up a local, online news site is inexpensive. It is just a matter of time before a few journalists figure out that they can make a good living doing what they love to do by reporting local stories.

For communicators, the declining role of traditional newspapers coupled with the increased number of people accessing news online should be a wake-up call. It’s time to alter those communications plans and go where your audience is, online.

This, of course, is good for your bottom line, as long as you’re not on the supply side of the displaced real resources. Companies slash print budgets while providing better access to libraries of materials, never to be printed in most cases, but read and appreciated by greater numbers. Customer service is improved when made 24/7, as long as good user-experience is applied, which appears to be “customer service” on the web.

This is also good for the environment: when we avoid the creation, disposal or waste of real things. It looks like the Internet may help save the world, unless we drown in mobile batteries and grey computer plastic, of course.

We have coined this research and development time as “zuLabs.” We started zuLabs about nine years ago when we thought of developing a content management system, which has now evolved into EasyUpdater™, and is used on about 70 websites.

Other experiments that have turned into products and services include: our online presentation software EasySlideShow (developed in 2001); our RSS feed creator (developed in 2003); mobile websites (developed in 2006); SMS campaigns (developed in 2006); Facebook applications (developed in 2007); iPhone applications (developed this week). In addition, there are hundreds of smaller ideas sprinkled throughout our clients’ websites as a result of zuLabs.

A number of zuLabs experiments have taught us better programming techniques, new ways of designing sites and how to improve the user experience.

At zuLabs, we meet every other Thursday over lunch for “zuCamp”, a voluntary participation session. At zuCamp we talk about new ideas, trends and how we can utilize them to make our clients’ websites better. Sometimes these sessions are headed-up by one person discussing a new technique, sometimes it’s a group brainstorming session. When you get 45 minds together cool things happen.

Some of the ideas that have arisen from zuLabs show up on the websites we do. Others are tweaked, re-tweaked and possibly used. Some never see the light of day. The work that zu does will continue to be progressive due to the experiments we do in our spare time at zuLabs.