The primary change that we made to Q4 Web to make these Widgets possible is to move to JSON feeds for the delivery of all investor and financial content (news, events, presentations, reports). Previously, content would come from the Q4 Web CMS and be displayed using a module and HTML. Q4 has always been the anti-template solution, offering a high degree of flexibility and customization. We have now taken this to an unprecedented level among IR focused providers

Now with JSON feeds, all of this content is pushed out of Q4 Web as a structured data feed – which means web designers can use any aspect of this data and create new ways to display it for the desktop, mobile, apps, etc. In addition, because the content all comes in a JSON feed, clients continue to be able to easily manage everything from the Q4 Web CMS.

JSON feeds + Widgets provide total flexibility with design combined with complete content management control – a perfect combination.

Using JSON Feeds as the source, we then created a JQuery Widget Library that is completely extensible. Which allows our web design partners to create and share new and interesting Widgets for all types of corporate website content.

Our initial release includes Widgets for Financial content such as news, events & SEC filings and social content such as Twitter, YouTube and Flickr. You can also just use an external RSS feed. This is only the beginning, as each time a new widget is created, they are added to the JQuery Widget Library and made available for use by all clients and designers!

Finally, we made Widgets embeddable not only on the company website, but also on 3rd party sites like blogs. Controlled entirely by the company, the embed code for any widget can be shared and used to embed on any other website or blog. We’re very excited about this and look forward to our clients’ widgets being embedded across the web. With all content being all controlled from their Q4 Web CMS instance.

Check out the Live Demo on the earlier post or the new Widgets page on the Q4 product website.

We’re super excited about this release and look forward to working with our many web design partners and our clients in 2012!

Related posts:

1. Q4 Announces Financial Content & Social Media Widgets for Corporate Websites We are pleased to announce the launch of Q4 Widgets,...
2. Q4 Web – RSS Feeds Did you know that yesterday (May 1st) was RSS awareness...
3. Barrick Gold Goes live with Press Release RSS feeds Barrick Gold (TSX, NYSE: ABX) officially launched Q4′s RSS feed...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Q4 Widgets have been created to give public companies and their web designers complete flexibility in how they design corporate and investor websites, while continuing to maintain complete control over content publishing via the Q4 Web CMS.

With this release, using JSON feeds as the source, Q4 Web has integrated a JQuery Widget Library that is completely extensible, and allows for virtually any type of content to be rendered and displayed. This means investor and financial content such as press releases, events, reports and financial data are no longer connected to a specific display, but instead are published as structured data, that can be literally designed in any layout and interactivity.

The new Q4 Widgets provide unmatched flexibility among IR website vendors for designers to integrate financial content and social media into corporate and investor websites.

Widgets are now available to all Q4 Web subscribers and include a complete set of IR financial content, all major social media sites and any RSS feed. Content can also be “mashed together” to create new ways to display content for website and mobile users. Widgets can also be embedded into any website or blog by a simple embed code. Just like embedding a YouTube video. See a live demo of a Financial Reports Widget at the end of this post.

Darrell Heaps, Q4′s co-founder and CEO had this to say about the new widgets:

“Over the last year we’ve worked with hundreds of clients and their design agencies on corporate and IR websites. We asked them how we could take Q4 Web to the next level, and these new feeds and widgets are a result of a collaborative effort to put these tools in place.  I’m very excited to see such great work coming out of our clients and their design agencies and I’m looking forward to what they’ll create with these new tools.”

Widgets are available in the following 3 content types (JSON feeds are also available):

Financial Widgets
Financial Widgets are available for Press Releases, Events, Presentations, Financial Reports, SEC Filings, Quotes, Charts, Fundamentals, Institutional Ownership and Financial data. Each financial widget is 100% configurable in terms of how it is displayed, what data is displayed, and what level of interactivity is provided.

Social Widgets
Social Widgets allow clients to aggregate social content from across the web. Supported channels include: YouTube, Vimeo, SlideShare, Flickr, Twitter, StockTwits and Facebook. Each Widget can be configured with a specific user account, tags, search terms etc., allowing for unlimited freedom in how social content is integrated in the corporate website.

RSS Widgets
RSS feeds from any external website can now be pulled into a Q4 Widget and seamlessly displayed alongside corporate website content. This allows for external blogs, websites, news sources etc. to be easily integrated and displayed on corporate websites.

Visit the Q4 Widgets Product page for more information and client examples.

Live Demo – Financial Reports Widget

The live demo below is a Financial Report widget pulling content from our product demo site. (Thanks TVI Pacific for letting us use their content). Click on “Portait View” to see the 7 optional layouts that are being dynamically displayed in this Widget. This demo illustrates the level of flexibility of these new widgets.

Related posts:

1. Why Web Designers Will Love New JSON Feeds & Q4 Widgets Yesterday we announced the release of Q4 Widgets to our...
2. How Q4 Integrates Twitter and Facebook APIs with Corporate Websites IR Web Report recently wrote a blog post that explains...
3. How Q4 uses Facebook Social Plugins on Corporate IR Websites With Facebook now counting more than 600 million users, the...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Using the social media publishing capabilities of Q4 Web, our market leading website CMS and social media platform, we tagged the videos and presentations so we could seamlessly integrate the content from Vimeo and SlideShare into our website.

We have some new and exciting whitepapers and webinars in store for 2012 – and we’ll update this section accordingly.

Related posts:

1. SUMMER ’09 LAUNCHED – builds on IR Best Practices and gives Companies a Competitive Advantage in today’s capital markets Read the full release!  We officially launched our Summer...
2. Webinar Replay and Transcript: IR Website Best Practices to Optimize your Online Presence On March 22, Catherine Crofton, Q4’s VP Sales & Marketing...
3. Webinar Replay – IR Website Best Practices On January 14, Catherine Crofton, Q4’s VP Sales & Marketing...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Their new website was designed by Mentus, our agency partner based in beautiful San Diego.  It contains a number of great features that really illustrate that you don’t have to be a big company or spend a lot of money to have an impressive corporate investor website.

The first thing you notice about Pacific Drilling’s website is the large background graphic. If you wait for a few seconds, you’ll see the entire site change to a new “slide”. At the moment, there are 4 slides that rotate, if you have a moment, take a look: http://pacificdrilling.com/.

The homepage slideshow is quite striking and a great example of the flexibility of our platform. Everything you see in each slide is managed through the Q4 admin, so adding or changing an image or editing text literally only takes a few seconds.

Having worked with hundreds of agencies and designers over the last few years, we’ve learned a lot about what they want and need out of a corporate website platform. Including a system that is flexible and can work with their designs (no templates), as well as the ability to control the content, and not have to call our support desk to make a change.

Another benefit of Q4 is it can be used to run any portion of a website or the entire thing.  In Pacific’s case, Q4 is being used to run the entire site – not just the IR section. Running the entire site on Q4 allows Pacific to save the cost of paying for 2 systems (one for the IR site and one for the rest of the site).  It also cuts down on training and support costs.

As with every Q4 site, Pacific Drilling’s also includes a full set of automated IR content. So for example, Press releases, SEC filings, Stock Quote, Chart, Analyst Coverage, Email Alerts, RSS Feeds are all included as standard elements as shown in the image below:

An added benefit of using Q4 is that your website can have an unlimited number of pages. So you’re never stuck having to pay extra for the “Corporate Governance” section for example. So you can easily create as many sections and pages that you want for no additional cost.

The final and most impressive part of Pacific Drilling’s site that I wanted to highlight is the interactive map http://pacificdrilling.com/Operations/default.aspx, which has details on their global operations.  Not only is the map very nice to look at, it’s built using HTML (no flash!) and is completely managed through the Q4 system:

The Pacific Drilling website is a great example of how a small cap company can have a highly effective and impressive investor website, that is easy and cheap to maintain.

Have a look and let us know that you think!

Related posts:

1. PotashCorp: The Makings of a Best Practice IR Website – Part 2 This is the second part of an interview I conducted...
2. PotashCorp: The Makings of a Best Practice IR Website – Part 1 Through my involvement over the past 10 years as a...
3. New Rivel Research: Buy-side Perspectives on Best Practice IR Websites Rivel Research is well-known for their ability to gather, analyze...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

This is the second year in a row, that Agnico-Eagle has been recognized at the CRA for their best practice IR website, securing an Honorable Mention in the electronic disclosure category in 2010 – with first place awarded to Potash Corp., a winner in the electronic disclosure category multiple times.

Companies eligible for the electronic disclosure award were judged on specific content relevant to investors, navigation and usability, innovation, overall effectiveness and IR website best practices. This year, companies were also evaluated on how well they integrated social media into their sites.

Agnico’s long-standing commitment to continually improve the investor experience on their IR website is focused on achieving a global standard in best practices. An additional goal is to limit the effort required to update site content.

The strategy for the site evolved from a comprehensive IR website best practice audit of the Agnico site conducted by Q4 and provided to both the client and their design firm, The Works. This document detailed key recommendations, which were adapted in the redesign. A strong collaboration between Q4, The Works and Agnico-Eagle throughout the design and development of the site helped ensure that all key communications objectives were met.

What follows are some of the features that make Agnico’s site exemplar of best practices:

The Design

The talented team at The Works created a clean, progressive design that provides numerous ways for investors to easily navigate the site to not only find the information they are looking for, but to also ensure that they encounter the information Agnico wants them to see. For example, right from the home page the rotating images in the masthead highlight key content and events, and the drop-down main navigation prominently singles out one specific piece of content in addition to providing links to all sub-section information. The navigation also makes it easy for users to see where they are, where they want to go and how to make their way back. The site also brings key content forward by prominently displaying frequently sought information such as news releases and presentations, as well as providing lots of quick links:

Integrated Social Media Galleries

Agnico was interested in making their information more interactive and easily accessible – not just on their site, but in alternate channels as well. The multimedia galleries offer an extensive collection of Vimeo videos and Flickr photos, which Q4’s platform automatically pulls in from the social channels and integrates into their site. Some of these assets are also displayed elsewhere on the site in context with specific information:

Follow Us Page

The ‘Follow Us’ page on the site provides a number of ways to stay connected to the company such as email alerts, RSS feeds, Facebook, Twitter and Vimeo. In today’s multi-channel world, public companies must ’be where their investors are’ to stay connected. Prominently featuring ‘Follow Us’ as a universal link in the site header makes it easy for investors to find this information:

Quarterly Report Summary Page

Agnico’s quarterly summary page provides an aggregate view of all quarterly related materials in a single page. It includes the press release, conference call, webcast, report and financials. Agnico also provides a brief video of their CEO, Sean Boyd who provides commentary on the quarter. (Much of the information in this video is scripted in advance of the earnings call and Agnico’s video production company Silverpoint is able to shoot and produce the video to ensure that this information is on the site on the day of their earnings call.) The right rail in this section is entirely driven by tags. So each time the company reports their quarterly results, the tag on this page (for example Q22011) is updated to the next quarter i.e. Q32011. To address Agnico’s goal of minimizing manual updates, Agnico touches the content once and the information automatically aggregates on the quarterly page (and other pages, such as the Investor Briefcase, Presentations etc.).

Interactive Financial Data

The interactive financial data also called the ‘operational database’ on the Agnico site, is an innovative investor service that gives analysts a full set of interactive quarterly financials and fundamentals. Provided by our partner, Virtua Research the financial database permits customized charts, excel downloads and the ability to share content from the model through email and social networks:

This award underscores the commitment and effort Agnico puts into continually making their IR website an integral part of communicating their story to investors. Congratulations from the team at Q4 to everyone involved!

Related posts:

1. Q4 Client, Agnico-Eagle Wins Prestigious IR Website Award Today I’m happy to announce, Agnico-Eagle Mines (a long-time Q4...
2. Agnico-Eagle Chooses Q4′s Disclosure Products After a few short development weeks Q4 has rolled out...
3. Q4 Client, Ryder System Wins Three Awards for their IR Website We are pleased to announce that Ryder System, a client...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Let us know what you think in the comments!

Related posts:

1. New Aimia.com corporate website showcases the power of Q4 and social media Aimia (previously Group Aeroplan) is a global leader in loyalty management...
2. PotashCorp: The Makings of a Best Practice IR Website – Part 2 This is the second part of an interview I conducted...
3. IR Website and Social Media Best Practices Due to popular demand, you can now browse and download...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

While their surveys are typically geared towards PR professionals, I’d like to highlight an important finding that should also resonate if you’re an IRO: 98% of journalists said it was somewhat important (8%), important (24%) or very important (66%) to find PR contact information within an online newsroom.

This stat has relevance to IROs as you can easily insert ‘investor’ where you see the word journalist and ‘IR’ where it says PR. As it doesn’t matter who your audience is, companies should provide contact information for a ‘real’ person.

In a blog post, TekGroup says this about the finding:

What might be more telling is the difficulty with which this impossibly simple task is executed in online newsrooms across the web.

The aforementioned statement also supports research we’ve conducted on IR website best practices – i.e. it is not uncommon to find a generic email address such as info@company.com on a company’s website.

While we continue to see companies who do not provide the IR contact on their website, this practice is slowly becoming a thing of the past.  That said, I thought it would be useful to reiterate some of our thoughts on how to make your company more accessible to investors along with some company examples.

We are seeing a surge in more detailed ‘Contact Us’ pages.

For example, Chesapeake Energy (NYSE:CHK) offers explanations for why/where/who to contact along with links to resources:

We are also seeing companies provide complete contact information such as title, direct phone number and email address, along with a photo, like Bayer does below:

Aviva also provides a picture and a bio for their IR contacts:

Photos add a personal touch as they humanize the person behind the contact information.

Potash Corp. has incorporated a ‘Frequently Asked Question’ (FAQ) link into their Contact section and has segmented specific FAQ’s depending on the department you want to contact:

FAQs are often confined to the investor section but by incorporating them like Potash does above, can help reduce calls and help site visitors. Potash includes an aggregate of FAQs for Investors, Customers, Sustainability, Careers and ties this into their Contact Us page as well.

Providing contact information to a ‘real’ person on your IR website is one way you can help make yourself accessible to your investors.  It may seem like an obvious thing to do, but somehow it gets overlooked.  The examples I provided are a small sampling of some easy ways to help your investors contact you if necessary.

Related posts:

1. Tools to Aid Relationship & Brand Building with Investors on Your IR Website Today we are going to talk about some best practice...
2. PotashCorp: The Makings of a Best Practice IR Website – Part 2 This is the second part of an interview I conducted...
3. Q4 Announces New Upgrades Focused on Real-Time Integration of Social Media We’re excited to announce the release of a number of...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

A recent poll asked: ‘What role is your corporate website playing in your social media efforts?’. This question obviously piqued my interest I’m not sure if I can say if I’m surprised by the findings, although I can say with honesty, that they are a lot lower than I would have guessed:

• 42.86% said their website has “Follow/Fan Us” links to their social presences but with no strategy.
• 22.08% said there is no integration between their website and social presence.
• 18.8% said their website is a fully integrated component of their social activity, with the goal being to bring users from the social site.
• 12.99% said their website displays activity from their social presence and has “Follow/Fan Us” links.
• 3.90% said their website has “Follow/Fan Us” links that encourage users to promote their brand after following.

The results have the author (Jeremy Victor, who is the founder of Make Good Media and Editor In Chief of B2Bbloggers.com) ‘scratching his head’.

Although he’s speaking from a marketing perspective, his commentary speaks to the missed opportunity for companies to use their corporate website and social media in tandem to amplify corporate messages and increase their reach.

For example, he states:

…43% of the responders have “Follow/Fan Us” links to our social presences but with no strategy. Let me get this scenario straight, a potential customer has landed on your website and you have given that user at least two links (Facebook and Twitter) off your website without any purpose (with no strategy).

I would add that a company that has not put any thought into a strategy to keep visitor ON their website is certainly missing the point of keeping someone engaged – especially if the visitor is looking for more information on the company to potentially become a shareholder.

I would go even further to say that if a company doesn’t see the value in keeping someone on their website, they likely haven’t put a lot of thought into the strategy behind their use of social networks. The following quote from the author illustrates this point:

…Right now I think that 22% of those that responded are confused. Harsh? Again, yes, I know. Here’s why: 22% of the responders have “no integration between our website and our social presence.” Then what’s the point? Aren’t you attempting to attract individuals that may be interested in your company from the social networks to your website – which is then designed to influence them to buy from you.

He goes on to say:

I am just not sure why you are involved in social media if it’s not to start relationships, generate interest, and grow your business by bringing users from social media sites to your website. I truly thought that was the whole point.

I couldn’t have said it better…..but would add ‘maintain a two-way discussion through continued engagement’. After all, merely signing up for social media and waiting for things to happen is not the right approach.  An effective social strategy entails consistently sharing information in all channels and linking back to your website.  It also involves monitoring the conversation to address questions when appropriate so investors will come to know this is another way that they can interact with company and access information.

Related posts:

1. Leveraging Technology: Online Communications and the Role of Social Media Last week I had the pleasure of speaking at Deutsche...
2. Corporate Social Media Best Practice: List Social Networks on Your Website We are currently working on our next research report on...
3. 100 useful ways to monitor your social media efforts Social media has enabled anyone to be an influencer –...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Thanks to the fine folks at Aimia for their tremendous work and their agency, Interbrand for the fantastic design. We look forward to helping evolve the site over time. Have a look at the video below or visit the site at http://www.aimia.com/ and let us know what you think!

Related posts:

1. New Goldcorp Corporate Website – Powered by Q4 Darrell walks viewers through the new Goldcorp.com website that leverages...
2. Q4 Announces Financial Content & Social Media Widgets for Corporate Websites We are pleased to announce the launch of Q4 Widgets,...
3. Which vendors help integrate social media into the corporate website? Back in January of this year a question was posted...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

A Report on Corporate Governance and Shareholder Activism: http://bit.ly/riETlU

OSHA updates Whistleblower Investigations Manual: http://bit.ly/odNVZ1

Analysis: What if people stop sharing? Facebook has the answer: bit.ly/p13GhY

3 Takeaways from Nielsen Social Media Report: http://bit.ly/pQYB2y

A public company without a corporate website is like: http://post.ly/3ODvl

Are Investors Too Busy for Annual Meetings?: http://bit.ly/pXb9tP

Why Email May Be Draining Your Company’s Productivity: http://bit.ly/o1JSP8

Netflix signs pay TV deal for Dreamworks animation: http://reut.rs/o170wY

Were Groupon’s And Overstock’s Mgmt & Auditors Stupid or did they Condone Improper Accounting Practices?: http://read.bi/rbAJGt

The Mobile Future Is About Much More Than Apps [Video]: http://bit.ly/pDZ3xW

Social media around the world: 2011: http://bit.ly/nGTLMV

Social Power and the Coming Corporate Revolution: http://onforb.es/q6ThjY

Introducing Amazon Silk: http://bit.ly/oAqmwJ

Mobile & Social Lead The Way In Ad Spend: http://goo.gl/zMeJP

Related posts:

1. Trending on Twitter: What Q4 is reading & sharing on social networks – week of September 19, 2011 Here is what we’ve been reading and sharing on Twitter...
2. Trending on Twitter: What Q4 is reading & sharing on social networks – week of September 12, 2011 Here’s this week’s roundup of what we’ve been reading and...
3. Trending on Twitter: What Q4 is reading & sharing on social networks – week of August 8, 2011 Social media has made the sharing of ideas and information...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.