An effective IR strategy has many components.  Such as setting measurable short and long-term goals and objectives and developing strategic messages and tactics to deliver the program.  The plan must also be monitored to measure its effectiveness and fine-tuned as needed.
Short and long-term goals and objectives can include identifying investors who are interested in your sector and/or known to have invested in your peers to meet with over the course of the year. (Although making sure you also meet with your current investors should also be a priority).
Okay, so you …

The IR Magazine Canada Awards is being held next week at the Royal York downtown Toronto.  You can read more about the event here: http://bit.ly/wHEWtu.
Every year, we, at Q4 look forward to networking and the amazing show put on by @irmagazine.
We’d like to take this opportunity to congratulate our clients who have been nominated:
Grand prix for best overall investor relations – large cap (C$10 bn and over)
Goldcorp
Best investor relations officer – large cap
Goldcorp
Best IR by a CEO – large-cap
Goldcorp
Best IR by a CEO – mid-cap
Intact Financial
Best financial reporting
Goldcorp
Best investment community …

Here’s what we’ve been reading and sharing on Twitter this week:
Social network popularity around the world in 2011: http://bit.ly/sTfqkK
US Trails China in almost every mobile usage trend: http://rww.to/tTPwZG
Netflix lost 800,000 U.S. subscribers in third quarter: http://bit.ly/uJHlWg
Building a Community Around Your Blog From Scratch – Ten Steps: http://ow.ly/78jaC
5 Deadly Twitter Sins to Avoid: http://ow.ly/78oik
Time for Investor Relations Departments to go Social: http://ow.ly/78H0o
Although the Markets have turned hostile to IPOs, Now is the right time for companies to prepare for a Stock Market Listing: http://bit.ly/vggw92
Company Directors See Pay Skyrocket: http://bit.ly/s5XY72
12 Most Successful …

Through my involvement over the past 10 years as a panel judge in the ‘Electronic Disclosure’ category of the Canadian Institute of Charted Accountants (CICA) Corporate Reporting Awards, I have become very familiar with the PotashCorp website (www.potashcorp.com). In my work with Q4, I often refer to it as an exemplary model of best practices.
Recently I interviewed Tim Herrod, Director, Treasury (C.A.) and former Manager, Investor Relations with PotashCorp, who was instrumental in helping to plan both the award-winning former site and current redesign, which was launched in January of …

Social media has made the sharing of ideas and information easy.  Sometimes you may see a tweet that catches your eye  – but if you’re not fast enough it’s already been replaced with something else.  Add to that, the fact that sometimes there are not enough hours in the day to read everything.
That’s why we’ve decided to put together a list of some interesting things we’ve been reading and subsequently sharing with our followers for the week of July 18, 2011:
Is the SEC redefining Insider Trading: http://t.co/XMYHB2B
Google+, Investor Relations and …

A survey released yesterday by the Canadian Investor Relations Institute (CIRI) and Fleishman-Hillard found in spite of being mindful of the potential damage crises can cause to their sales, reputation and share value, few companies have an effective crisis management plan in place.
The survey polled financial analysts and investor relations officers (IROs) at companies across Canada and the United States on operational and corporate crisis preparedness. It also revealed the biggest mistake companies make during a corporate or operational crisis is lack of communication and transparency with their stakeholders.
Interestingly, the …

A lot of articles have surfaced as a result of the approval of ‘say on pay’ by the SEC in January of this year.  As I read through them, I decided to pose the question ‘How can IROs embrace the newly approved say on pay?’ as the topic for a recent #irchat session. You can click here to read the complete #irchat transcript.
What follows are ideas incorporated from the discussion (with direct ideas attributed where applicable) as well as commentary prompted by various articles (which will be referenced in the …

Polycom has whole-heartedly jumped into the social media pool.  They incorporate Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Blogs and LinkedIn into their communications strategy and have several accounts for each channel.  The company prominently displays this information on their website via a dedicated “Connect with Polycom using Social Media” in the newsroom section.

A review of how Polycom uses each channel revealed consistent messaging and current and up-to date information.  Some of the senior management team also regularly tweet and are active bloggers providing additional commentary on an industry-related topic or company specific news. …

Read the full release!
We are pleased to announce that we have partnered with Virtua Research to offer analysts and sophisticated investors the Interactive Analyst Center – a new standard of rendering a company’s financial data.

The Interactive Analyst Center was originally designed at the request of Agnico-Eagle Mines Limited with the purpose of providing investors and analysts the most advanced new suite of interactive financials and graphing tools, all embedded in a single, logical location — the investor section of a company’s website.
Some of the KEY FEATURES include:

Excel like Presentation – …

Earlier this year, I wrote a blog post that recounted a discussion that ensued on #irchat regarding one of Rivel’s research findings in late 2009 regarding IR’s role in a company’s valuation.
An interesting discussion developed when Dan Dykens, CEO of Meet the Street and host of #irchat asked “What do you think about Rivel Research’s buy-side survey which suggests that the valuation differential between good and bad IR is 35%?”
This question stirred up quite a debate, especially since no one had access to the methodology or a definition of what …