When reporters come visiting your site, do you give them more than lip service? Interactive Media Services Manager Dave Wolkowitz, of PR21, Chicago, offers tips on how to make
your online press center more efficient and attractive, and stickier to repeat media visitors:
Aggregate key info. Company personnel often mistakenly assume that since the information reporters want is somewhere on the site, they will eventually find it. Wrong.
Frustrated journalists will leave. Make it easy for them to find the basics by posting an online "fact sheet" that offers a quick snapshot of the company.
Leverage database technology. Don't force a reporter to scroll through an endless list of chronologically stacked press releases to find the one that's germane to his or her
story. Bank your releases in a database that can accommodate topical searches such as new products, personnel, funding, partnerships, philanthropy, time-lined events, financial
performance, etc. Ideally, each press release should have a "related links" section to direct reporters to exec bios, especially those mentioned in the release, or for further
detailed technical explanations. Links are also appropriate to lead writers to Web sites of related organizations and to previous releases on the same subject.
Make the most of search tools. Search tools help visitors find the information they need quickly, but they can also help you optimize your site construction in accordance with
user interests. For example, robust search tools with advanced reporting capabilities, such as those offered by Logika (http://www.Logika.net)
enable you to track the most frequently searched terms and will reveal the reasons behind failed searches. It is also possible to flag certain users' IP addresses and record their
search histories. This means you can determine specific areas of interest for specific media outlets. For example, it would be useful to know if someone from The Wall Street
Journal searched your site for "lawsuit."
Set users free. Position your URL as more than a myopic corporate site. It may sound counterintuitive, but sometimes driving traffic away from your site can encourage media to
return. Offer hyperlinks to other industry trade association sites, government agencies and a broader trove of information. If yours is a publicly traded company, for example,
providing a link to the SEC site would be wise.
In this same vein, position your URL as a vertical market portal that can be used to aggregate industry information. Vertical search tools, such as Logika's FusionBot.com, can
help the media search for industry-specific information, while excluding the extraneous. For instance, a manufacturer of personal digital assistants (PDA) might want to enable a
reporter to search the Web for "chip" and get results back pertaining to computer chips, not "how to chip in the ruff" or "chocolate chip" cookies.
Let technology do the grunt work. How do you keep journalists coming back? Invite them to sign up for automatic notification of new releases that fit their selected criteria,
i.e., new product announcements or financial earnings reports. This will encourage repeat visits and help you determine which media outlets are most interested in your company.
Opt-in release distribution systems not only make reporters' jobs easier; they can take some of the burden off your in-house media relations department by allowing staff to focus
offline efforts on reporters who don't already have your company on their radar screens.
Create "elite" functions. For selected media, special treatment may be in order. Password-protected areas can be useful for limited sharing of information that's not yet ready
for prime time. Here you can instruct trusted reporters to follow posted embargo dates and the like. Password-protected sites can also make information transfers more fluid: avoid
transferring cumbersome documents via email by posting them to a specific reporter's password-protected area.
Savvy companies should consider offering "preferred" reporters the ability to schedule interviews online, thereby avoiding the often lengthy and painful process of scheduling
via phone tag.
EDITOR'S NOTE: Wolkowitz is welcoming PR NEWS readers to MarketSting, A Marcom Think Factory, by offering Web site evaluations for a nominal fee that can be applied to any
marketing communications services for six months. Visit http://www.MarketSting.com/PRNewsOffer for details
Corporate Web Sites Panned
Apparently web-weary reporters are treated as lab mice these days. According to a study from Vocus, Inc., nine out of ten reporters consider surfing corporate Web sites a waste
of time. Online journalists from 72 newspapers and magazines indicated that they find information they need on corporate sites less than 75% of the time. Survey results cited
press releases, 24-hour contact information and corporate backgrounders (including executive bios, statistics and company profile) as the top three "must-haves" in an online
pressroom.
The Nielsen Norman Group, headed by digital guru Jakob Nielsen (PRN, May 28) recently conducted a similar usability study and logged scathing verdicts of corporate press rooms
from participating reporters.
Visit these studies for more information: http://www.vocus.com/2001websurvey/ http://www.nngroup.com/reports/pr/