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How to create an Online Press Room for Your Business
Written by: Mark ShapiroArticle Overview: Your Press Room site should be an important component of your PR, sales and marketing plans. Unlike your staff, your online press room is open and working for you 24/7. Editors and writers often work late at night, on the weekends and holidays when your PR and marketing teams are not available. Your web site and its press room have to be able to provide all the info needed. Over my 25-year career as a journalist and PR consultant, I have seen many sites that just did not work for the press. Wearing my writer hat, I have experienced too many sites that made me turn away in frustration, unable to find the information that I needed.
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How to create an Online Press Room for Your Business
Six Steps to Have an Effective Online Press Room
Does your web site work for the press and analysts that
visit? How much time and money does your company spend promoting your web site,
your business, your services, technologies and products to the world? What
happens when an editor comes to your web site and tries to find information?
Can they find what they need or instead, do they click away, instead going to
one of your competitors’ web sites to get the info they need?
Over my 25-year career as a journalist and PR consultant, I
have seen many sites that just did not work for the press. Wearing my writer
hat, I have experienced too many sites that made me turn away in frustration,
unable to find the information that I needed.
Your Press Room site should be an important component of
your PR, sales and marketing plans. Unlike your staff, your online press room
is open and working for you 24/7. Editors and writers often work late at night,
on the weekends and holidays when your PR and marketing teams are not
available. Your web site and its press room have to be able to provide all the
info needed.
So what are the Top Six Steps to Have an Effective Online Press Room
First off, make your Press Room easy to find – you
can put a link on it from the front page – labeling it as News, Press or even
Press Room. I have seen too many companies that bury their press rooms three or
four clicks away. The only reason that I as an editor persisted to find the
press page was that I knew the info was there somewhere.
Press Releases – Obviously you want to include links
to your press releases and announcements. However, make sure the list is up to
date. As soon as the release goes out, make sure it is also up on your web
site.
Please don’t require an editor to fill out a contact form to
retrieve your press releases. Not only does an editor not have the time for
that, they will probably just give you a fake name and phone number anyhow. I
have heard marketing folk say that they don’t want the competition having
access to the press releases. If you have distributed the press releases and
got some coverage, (which is the whole point of PR), those releases and info
should already be available on the web anyhow.
Don’t post your press releases as PDFs. Editors and writers
like to be able to easily cut and past information from your press releases,
data sheets and other online documents. Post them as straight text on the web
page. Do not convert your content into jpgs and images – make it easy for
writers to access and “borrow” your content in order to promote your products
and services. Not only does it make it easier for writers, it also makes your
site a lot more search engine friendly which means better “organic” or natural
search results.
Finally, you may have heard of the “Long Tail”. This applies
to press releases as well. Unless there is a compelling reason to remove them,
keep all your old press releases up on your site and available via a press
release archive. Also, as another reason to keep those old releases online, the
more press releases – the more content – the better SEO you will get for your
site.
And, if you have changed PR companies or PR contacts over
the years, make sure that the PR contact information on the old press releases
is current.
PR Contacts
You HAVE to have PR contact info. Make sure you list a PR
contact or two for editors who have questions. It should be easily found on
your Press Room page. If you operate in various regions, ie - US, EMEA, Europe,
then list the press contacts for each area. If possible, list local phone
numbers for each region. If your organization is very large with many divisions
and product areas, you may want to have a separate PR contact page to make it
easy to a write or editor to find the appropriate contact.
This is important. Make sure that there is someone available
to answer the emails or to pick up the phone for the press contact. I have seen
companies that list a press contact email or phone number which goes to an
answering machine somewhere that only gets checked once a week or so.
For good PR, you need to be responsive. If an editor or
writer calls, you should be able to respond within 24 hours or less. And, this
is important, if the editor asks for some info or a document that is not
readily available, respond back, tell them that you got the inquiry and that
you are working on it. Don’t leave them wondering if anyone is at home. This is
especially important for companies that use a pr@ address on their web site.
As part of the contact area, and maybe on other pages as
well, provide a RSS link and News Links so that the editors can sign up and get
automatic updates to the press room and/or to recent press releases. Also
provide an editor sign up form to enable editors, writers, analysts can sign up
to receive updates and new press releases.
Photos, Images and Video
Editors and writes love photos and images. Why do some many
web sites make it so difficult to find and download these images to use in an
article? If your press releases are product oriented, include a small thumbnail
with links to a choice of product images of various sizes and angles. Provide small gif or jpg images for web and
blog use. Offer a large 300 dpi image for print purposes.
You may also want to create and maintain a standalone image
library that includes company logos, company execs and managers, graphics and
charts, in addition to product shots.
Most tech editors prefer standalone shots of the product – without a person
holding it or using it.
Video is also becoming very important. If you are using
video in your PR and marketing mix, post a small thumbnail with a good
description with a link to the video. This can include videos of webinars,
podcasts, product demonstrations and b-roll, presentations and management
speeches, and even commercials for your product.
Background Information
Your press room should as include links to white papers,
company backgrounders and corporate information, organizational history,
profiles of company leaders and management, a list of upcoming shows where the
company will be exhibiting or is available for interviews, etc. If appropriate,
include other technical documents, product descriptions, data sheets, etc.
If you wish editors and writers try out, review and then
write about your products and services, make it easy for them to find that
info. Also include relevant user and reviewer guides for easy download.
If you want to position yourself as the thought leader in
your industry, you may want to create and post articles, blogs, short columns,
etc. about the latest rends, developments and standards that impact your
industry sector. If you are in a highly technical space, you may want to create
and post your own wiki or a definition of terms important to your industry.
Think how powerful it is when an editor cites your company
as the source for info about particular technology or industry initiative?
You may also want to provide suggested guidelines regarding
your company’s position on key topics and trends. You can also include a
listing of various industry and standards organizations that your company
belongs to, as well as awards and recognition
Press Clips and Press Coverage Page
As a PR professional and as a writer, I really like to see
an archive of recent press coverage. As a PR pro, this vindicates the work done
and demonstrates that the editorial community is picking up on the news. These
press coverage lists can also be very useful to sales guys in the field to use as
marketing collateral. “Check it out, XYZ Magazine is saying wonderful things
about our company and solutions.” This
helps the sales process.
For writers and editors, the list of press coverage
demonstrates that other members of the community see the value of this company
and its offerings. This press coverage
page can include news articles written by third party editors and journalists,
press release coverage, as well as white papers and articles that have been
written by company representatives and then posted in important trade
magazines.
Do not go overboard in your press release coverage. If
possible, primarily feature the publications and writers that have written
something over and above what was said in the original release.
When you post a press release to one of the wire services,
it often gets picked up and posted by a number of sites, blogs and tweeters who
simply copy it. You do not need to list each and every one of them. List the
original wire URL and maybe one or two BIG NEWS sites that picked it up as
well. Please do not copy a google news search results list of press release
pick ups to your online press room.
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Article Tags:
media relations,
pr,
pr agency,
press release,
press room,
public relations
About the Author: Mark Shapiro
RSS for Mark's articles - Visit Mark's website
Over 15 years of successful experience in high tech PR and media relations. This includes the areas of Embedded hardware and software, telecom, eCommerce, storage, consumer electrpnics and internet services, SaaS, networking, wireless networking, zigbee, content delivery, internet and broadcast video, consumer video, etc.
I have worked with start-ups, small and medium companies as well as large international technology organizations. As a small operation, we are very affordable and responsive.
For help with your company's PR, please contact Mark Shapiro at 619 249 7742 or mshapiro@srs-techpr.com
Click here to visit Mark's website

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B2B = Business to Business - You are marketing to other businesses.
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Re: The Best Method for Online Marketing
- In order to write a press release, you must determine the subject of your story. It can be about an event that affects your industry, or it can be about a change in your company that will affect your customer base. Press releases are in all actuality ‘cookie cutter’. Once you get the hang of writing them, all you have to do is fill in the blanks. Press releases conform to an established format.
Kevin's Case Study #11 - A New Forum Category?
- Hi Everyone,
2009 is a new year and I'd like to create a new forum category to jazz things up! In the past, there's been some interest voiced about adding a "Social Media Marketing", "Online Marketing", "Internet Marketing" or "Online Promotion" category.
I'll implement [u:1g2tv6tf]ONE[/u:1g2tv6tf] of those new categories, but can someone first tell me what the difference would be between the existing "Marketing" section and one of those new options mentioned above?
Thanks
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- 1. The Best Business Books Ever: The 100 Most Influential Business Books You'll Never Have Time to Read
- this is a fascinating book about the history of Business theory, and I'd recommend it to anybody.
2. The Big Book of Small Business: You Don't Have to Run Your Business by the Seat of Your Pants, by Tom Gegax. Ditto.
3. PADI: The Business of Diving Book
Okay, so this book won't be of use to anyone who doesn't want to start a scuba store, but I did, and this book was of course invaluable to me in reaching that goal.
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About the Author: Mark Shapiro RSS for Mark's articles - Visit Mark's website Over 15 years of successful experience in high tech PR and media relations. This includes the areas of Embedded hardware and software, telecom, eCommerce, storage, consumer electrpnics and internet services, SaaS, networking, wireless networking, zigbee, content delivery, internet and broadcast video, consumer video, etc. I have worked with start-ups, small and medium companies as well as large international technology organizations. As a small operation, we are very affordable and responsive. For help with your company's PR, please contact Mark Shapiro at 619 249 7742 or mshapiro@srs-techpr.com Click here to visit Mark's website The three secrets of making an effective online video to promote your business Your Business How to Pick a Camcorder How to File an Insurance Claim for Business Losses Secrets of Marketing Three Reasons to Use News Announcements to Promote Your Business Internet Video Magazine adds five great new funny videos |
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