Publicity Solutions: Avoid These Five Common Blunders in Your Online Newsroom
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Publicity Solutions: Avoid These Five Common Blunders in Your Online Newsroom
by Marcia Yudkin
When TEKgroup International surveyed several thousand journalists in 2009, nearly half said it was often hard for them to find a company's online newsroom. More than half complained about not being able to find the name of a typical company's media contact and how to reach him or her. Clearly, companies are not doing a good job of helping reporters find the information they need to produce articles or broadcast stories.
To maximize your chances of getting media coverage, use these tips to avoid common pitfalls in setting up a special area of your web site for reporters, researchers, authors and producers.
Problem #1. When at your site, they can't find your newsroom.
Media people who come to your site look first in the main navigation links for something called "News," "Press" or "Media." If you can't manage to create that, post the information needed by the media in the "About the Company" section of the site. Do not use creative labeling for the link to your newsroom.
Problem #2. They can't find your newsroom from search engines.
Check to make sure that when someone types "newsroom yourcompanyname" into a search engine, links come up that lead them to the media section of your site. If your newsroom is nowhere to be found on the first page of the search engine results, work with your webmaster or a search engine optimization firm to make that happen.
Problem #3. You prevent them from getting freely into the newsroom.
Do not force reporters to register to gain access to your online newsroom. Many will simply go on to the next company instead of opting in. Why? Because they may not want to be on record as having researched your company, because they don't have time to wait for the registration to be confirmed, because they're seeking information that should be fully public, or because the barrier gives the impression that your company doesn't want to cooperate with journalists.
Problem #4. In your newsroom, they can't find your company's media contact.
Journalists are constantly on deadline. To serve them, provide the name, email address and telephone number of the person who's in a position to help them right away. They are not willing to submit a web form to reach someone who may or may not get back to them promptly. They also don't want to send an email to a general address like "pr@yourcompanyname.com" because they are not confident it goes directly to a person who is responsible for getting back to them quickly.
Problem #5. They can't find basic facts about your company.
When researching the history of a Fortune 100 company, I was amazed to see no reference whatsoever to its founding from a division of a previous company. I had to look up that information in Wikipedia instead! Reporters and fact checkers should be able to find bios of your company executives, a history or timeline of the company, the location of its headquarters and other fundamental facts in the online newsroom.
Eliminate the five problems above and you have a much better chance of enjoying press and broadcast coverage from reporters who feel good about having visited your web site and want to return and give you even more news exposure.
Publicity expert Marcia Yudkin is the author of 6 Steps to Free Publicity, third edition, Publicity Tactics, and 13 other books. She has engineered coverage for herself or her company in the Wall Street Journal, Entrepreneur, Success, Women in Business and dozens of newspapers around the world. Get free access to a one-hour audio recording in which she answers many common questions about using press releases and obtaining media coverage at Publicity Ideas from Marcia Yudkin, Author of 6 Steps to Free Publicity .
by Marcia Yudkin
When TEKgroup International surveyed several thousand journalists in 2009, nearly half said it was often hard for them to find a company's online newsroom. More than half complained about not being able to find the name of a typical company's media contact and how to reach him or her. Clearly, companies are not doing a good job of helping reporters find the information they need to produce articles or broadcast stories.
To maximize your chances of getting media coverage, use these tips to avoid common pitfalls in setting up a special area of your web site for reporters, researchers, authors and producers.
Problem #1. When at your site, they can't find your newsroom.
Media people who come to your site look first in the main navigation links for something called "News," "Press" or "Media." If you can't manage to create that, post the information needed by the media in the "About the Company" section of the site. Do not use creative labeling for the link to your newsroom.
Problem #2. They can't find your newsroom from search engines.
Check to make sure that when someone types "newsroom yourcompanyname" into a search engine, links come up that lead them to the media section of your site. If your newsroom is nowhere to be found on the first page of the search engine results, work with your webmaster or a search engine optimization firm to make that happen.
Problem #3. You prevent them from getting freely into the newsroom.
Do not force reporters to register to gain access to your online newsroom. Many will simply go on to the next company instead of opting in. Why? Because they may not want to be on record as having researched your company, because they don't have time to wait for the registration to be confirmed, because they're seeking information that should be fully public, or because the barrier gives the impression that your company doesn't want to cooperate with journalists.
Problem #4. In your newsroom, they can't find your company's media contact.
Journalists are constantly on deadline. To serve them, provide the name, email address and telephone number of the person who's in a position to help them right away. They are not willing to submit a web form to reach someone who may or may not get back to them promptly. They also don't want to send an email to a general address like "pr@yourcompanyname.com" because they are not confident it goes directly to a person who is responsible for getting back to them quickly.
Problem #5. They can't find basic facts about your company.
When researching the history of a Fortune 100 company, I was amazed to see no reference whatsoever to its founding from a division of a previous company. I had to look up that information in Wikipedia instead! Reporters and fact checkers should be able to find bios of your company executives, a history or timeline of the company, the location of its headquarters and other fundamental facts in the online newsroom.
Eliminate the five problems above and you have a much better chance of enjoying press and broadcast coverage from reporters who feel good about having visited your web site and want to return and give you even more news exposure.
Publicity expert Marcia Yudkin is the author of 6 Steps to Free Publicity, third edition, Publicity Tactics, and 13 other books. She has engineered coverage for herself or her company in the Wall Street Journal, Entrepreneur, Success, Women in Business and dozens of newspapers around the world. Get free access to a one-hour audio recording in which she answers many common questions about using press releases and obtaining media coverage at Publicity Ideas from Marcia Yudkin, Author of 6 Steps to Free Publicity .