Most organizations have some sort of area on their Web sites dedicated to news. This may be a “Press Releases” section under the About Us area of the site. Or it may be a dedicated online newsroom that is managed by the communications department. Or it may be a site run by a PR or marketing agency that works closely with the PR department to manage news.
Unfortunately, many organizations are not leveraging this online news area as a way to increase awareness of their products and services within their industry. Over the past several months our company has interviewed top communications executives from Ford Motor Company, Vail Resorts, McAfee Software, Prudential and Curves to ask them how they are using their online newsrooms to help extend their reach and increase awareness of their organizations.
One realization that is becoming increasingly important is that the audience for communications is changing. “It used to be we only interacted with journalists at traditional publications,” notes Erica Coleman, senior public relations manager for McAfee Security. “Now there are citizen journalists that our customers are communicating with every day. Plus we’re talking directly with potential customers or investors through our online newsroom. It’s expanded the PR person’s role beyond a simple focus on media to really communicating with all audiences.”
Another area of significant importance is social media. Going beyond just providing simple sharing icons on your news releases, you can fully leverage your online newsroom to integrate directly with Twitter, Facebook and YouTube, giving you the ability to instantly publish your news to a huge audience. Amy Kemp, senior communications manager for Vail Resorts, looks for “interesting ways Vail can interact and engage with not just the media but other stakeholders. The online newsroom allows us to do that,” says Kemp. “We’re providing the traditional press release in conjunction with a related story on our blog and a quick headline on Twitter. Plus, the Twitter feed links back to our online newsroom.”
By integrating your online newsroom with a blog, a Twitter feed and your Facebook account, you can get your news directly in front of your customers.
Below are some additional tips to help you leverage your online newsroom to create more awareness and extend the reach of your news.
• Transparency is important not only to social media, but to your online newsroom as well. Don’t “plant” nice comments to your press releases or “swag” every blogger who writes about your industry. Keep it genuine.
• Attach a news blog to your online newsroom to provide industry insight from expert employees, monitor opinions and address rumors that relate to your company and its products.
• You are now in the publishing business. Make sure that you post news immediately to your online newsroom so that you are the one breaking your news story instead of somebody else.
• Engage internal stakeholders in the content development and distribution plan for your online newsroom—including legal, human resources, sales and marketing. It’s important they understand and share your vision for the site.
• Let journalists request specific types of news they want to receive from you. This not only reduces the clutter in their in-boxes, but allows your e-mail alert to be recognized as news of interest to them and their beats.
• Train everyone on your staff on the basics of online newsroom management, content publishing and crisis-site deployment. During crunch time, everyone must be a contributor.
• Provide subscription access to newly posted releases via Really Simple Syndication (RSS). This provides a more immediate method to share content with constituents.
• Post content links to Twitter through the online newsroom for wider distribution of you key messages. Retweets work.
• Think of YouTube as a video news distribution site that provides greater visibility to the digital assets you are already publishing within your online newsroom.
• Allow comments about your content within the online newsroom. This is, after all, the most precise measurement of stakeholder engagement. Treat that feedback to your online newsroom like gold—it simply means your readers care enough to say something. PRN
CONTACT:
Steve Momorella is an owner, founder, and marketing and sales director of TEKGROUP, an Internet software and services company. He can be reached at [email protected].