When it comes to online communications, a lot more is required than glitzy hype, technology grandstanding and PR that just - as the saying goes - gives you an online presence. What can make a difference in shaping a corporate site can be ingredients as readily available as placing online the full text of an executive's speech or maintaining a separate link for an area devoted to executive communications.
That's the call from the Washington, D.C.-based Public Affairs Group which last year took on the arduous task of examining the best (and worst) examples of online communications (it reviewed 308 corporate Web sites). It came up with 56 winners, including Boeing Corp., Kodak and Apple, according to Jared Thomas Skok, manager of corporate communications and media relations for PAG.
This year, however, PAG used that list as a baseline and it took a second look at the sites which ranked in the Top 40 in the executive communications category only last year. Now, it's releasing its sampling of stellar executive communications.
After comparing corporate sites against criteria it established, PAG released last week its top-four list: Intel Corp., DuPont, Freddie Mac and Novell.
The companies were singled out for meeting, or excelling in, these categories: providing a separate link to an executive area; providing copies of speeches; placing online synopses of speeches; providing executives' biographies; providing executives' pictures; having audio/video components; and ease of accessibility.
Only Intel was an overall winner last year, which shows that corporations can easily outdo themselves in some aspects of online PR but miss the chance to distinguish themselves in other ways.
Intel was cited for meeting all of the criteria, while the remaining three companies received ratings of 5 for fulfilling five of those criteria.
(DuPont and Freddie Mac both received 5s because they didn't provide any audio/video extras and Novell earned a 5 for not meeting the synopses portion of the checklist.)
Next week, PR NEWS will publish how each of the 40 companies ranked according to the criteria.
Among the reasons PAG cites for selecting Intel's site was that speeches by mid- and senior-level execs could be easily accessed because of a chronological listing of presentations or a listing based on a person and his/her title.
DuPont received kudos for including a one-page abstract that preceded each speech; Freddie-Mac for adding a "personal touch" to executives' biographies by including ancillary information such as their hobbies and interests; and Novell was given a pat on the back for allowing users to watch and listen to executives via streaming videos. (PAG, 202/466-8209)
So - How Did Other Corps. Rank?
Executive communications runners-up (PR NEWS includes whether they were overall winners last year in the Public Affairs Group's analysis of the best online communications) are:
- Hewlett-Packard (5)
- Northern Telecom (5)
- BellSouth (4) - An Overall Winner Last Year
- Boeing Corp. (4) - An Overall Winner Last Year
- Kodak (4) - An Overall Winner Last Year
- Lockheed Martin (4)
- Roadway Express (4) - An Overall Winner Last Year
- AT&T (4) - An Overall Winner Last Year
- Microsoft (4) - An Overall Winner Last Year
- Viacom (4)
- Apple (3) - An Overall Winner Last Year