Online Press Room: One Stop Shop for Media
SEO isn’t just for your website but also your press releases (and distributing them online). I will reiterate why this is important — so that people, especially journalists, can find you online! Remember this one thing: people, even media, don’t know they’re looking for you until they find you!
This leads me to the next important element for your PR … your online press room. If you don’t have one on your website, you need to get one.
An online press room is an essential element for your website for many reasons, but mostly so that when media come to your site they can easily find your business’ latest news and contact information for an interview. Your story isn’t going to necessarily just tell itself with the basic information on your website.
Unless you paint it on your homepage, media aren’t going to know that you’ve finalized a merger, introduced a new product and more! Besides, the practice of having an online press room is becoming a mainstream practice and a necessity.
Here are some of the elements to include on your press room:
- All press releases
- Graphics – product shots, logo, CEO/president, interior of retail stores, etc.
- Company backgrounder
- CEO/president bio
- Video clips – gives broadcast media a chance to see how you speak and get a feel for how you’d do on TV
- Product and/or company fact sheets
- Any media you’ve received
- Contact information – the person a journalist should contact about a query
An online press room reflects professionalism, credibility and more importantly an understanding and respect of how media work. There isn’t one major corporation that doesn’t have an online press room news and sources. I suggest looking at some of them to get a feel for how you want to design yours and what you need to include as it relates to your business.
This is just another way of achieving positive PR for your business because some media may go to the press room, get what they need, download approved graphics and photos and run a story or mention without even contacting you. And this is why you need to take time each week to search your business online to see if there are any stories that have run, blog mentions or comments about your business on various boards, like Yelp.com.
Image credit: stroinski
After a stint writing broadcast news and working in radio and sports marketing, Jennifer worked for an impressive list of Fortune 500 companies, including Jim Bean Brands, Motorola, Maytag, Milk – Got Milk?, and Kraft.
With over 15 years in marketing, Jennifer opened her business in 2001 with the goal of showing small businesses how they can achieve the same kind of quality PR as the big boys do, but more affordably and efficiently. As a journalist, she enjoys telling the truly great stories of small businesses across the country, and creating the awareness they need to blossom into highly successful businesses.
Some of her clients have tripled or quadrupled their business in under two years using PR. She has achieved media placements in The Wall Street Journal, Associated Press, Reuters, The New York Times, USA Today, Chicago Tribune, Chicago Sun-Times, LA Times, Shape, Bon Appetit, Esquire, Fast Company, CNN, MarketWatch, “Today”, “Good Morning America”, and Food Network amongst hundreds of placements in newspapers, TV, radio, blogs and websites across the country.
Jennifer is a graduate of the award-winning William Allen White School of Journalism and Mass Communications at the University of Kansas, and guest lectures at universities in Chicago and small business groups on PR. She is often tapped by media as a PR and brand reputation expert, is a board member of IShouldBeInTheNews.org, contributor on Small Business Daily blog and Founder of Sip & Give Networking Benefit events.
For more: http://www.cascadecomms.com, http://cascadeeffect.blogspot.com, @SmallBizPRXpert
Loading ...
1 Comment