NEW YORK-Ignoring the Internet as a news and information source isn't only negligent - it's missing a keen way of tapping into what consumers and journalists are learning about your company.
Keeping in touch with online journalists can be solved in some easy-to-execute and inexpensive ways. For example, set up an editorial board to find out what journalists need that can be Net-delivered or hold focus groups to find out what sites they're visiting regularly, says Don Middleburg, chairman and CEO of Middleberg Associates, New York. He spoke at the World Research Group's online communications conference here last week.
Middleberg has made a living out of tracking how journalists use the Internet and surveys conducted by his firm show that reporters' and editors' Net usage continues to grow. In 1997, 45 percent of journalists queried in a Middleberg study used the Internet once a day or more.
But sniffing out what news is on the Net isn't the only way of honing your company's online communications savvy or enhancing client service. Corporate Web sites - especially if your company is in the critical glare of the press - can balance out what information can be accessed online about your business.
Web sites are listed as one of the six leading tools used by major corporations (such as IBM and Gateway) excelling in global messaging, according to a just-released survey by the Public Affairs Group, Washington, D.C. The "Best Practices in Corporate Communications" shows Web sites were ranked with mission statements; goal statements; annual reports; stockholder reports; and corporate speeches.
But being schooled about what's happening online also requires that you regularly scout out popular sites frequented by all types, including disgruntled customers and your peers. Here's a sampling of some regular cyber stops offered by Middleberg:
- The ultimate magazine resource: http://www.enews.com;
- Think your company is in the news?: http://www.tvnews.vanderbilt.edu;
- Media outlets on the Net: http://www.newslink.org;
- Journalism associations: http://www.reporter.org;
- National Press Club: http://www.town.hall.org/places/npc;
- Reporters' Notebook: http://www.reporters.net
- PR Central: http://www.prcentral.com;
- The Newspaper Association of America: http://www.naa.org;
- Directories of listservs: http://www.liszt.com; http://www.tile.net; and
- PRSA: http://www.prsa.org;