If you don’t have a newsroom on the Internet, you may be missing the big picture. With social media more mainstream, newsrooms are becoming essential for both public relations firms and corporate public relations departments.
Newsrooms are an online version of a traditional newsroom. This is where news is generated and developed. It’s a great vehicle to get added exposure for your brand or your client’s brand. Once the media starts to use your newsroom and find it worthy, they will keep coming back for more stories. But until then, you need to build up your online community first before getting any play. If not used right, the traditional and online news media and bloggers may never see your release or information about the company or brand.
Many large, small businesses and not for profit organizations have free standing newsrooms while others incorporate into their existing web site. Ford Corporation, for example, has a newsroom incorporated into their web site. But, Ables Moving Service, has their own pressroom where journalists can easily find information and news on the company. The site is a standalone site that has a journalist sign in page for RSS feeds on more news about the company.
The South Dakota tourist bureau has an interesting newsroom, which is part of their existing web site. The newsroom includes photos, featured stories, polls and surveys, and even virtual downloadable brochures. What I like about this site is they incorporate their Twitter page with the newsroom giving them the ability to connect and microblog to their community.
Public Relations firms are also using newsrooms to share information with reporters and consumers. Accolades PR in Austin, Texas does a great job with their newsroom. Using WordPress as their “free” provider, the firm created an interactive web site/newsroom.
The newsroom is linked to all of their social media sites. In addition, there is a comment area for news media, bloggers and consumers to post comments and responses to their news releases. Although the site is cluttered, I do like the functionality and commend them on their effort.
Here are some steps to getting more exposure for your newsroom:
• When you have a news story, tweet it out via Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Plaxo, etc. These social networking sites are a great way to target media both online and offline.
• Remember to keep your tweet, post, update, etc. to only 140 characters. This way the news media gets a quick view of what the story is about and can determine if it is something they are interested in.
• Send out your tweet more than once. Make sure that the news media and bloggers see the story.
• Direct the news media to your newsroom on the tweet. Make sure to add a link with a tiny URL.
• Keep track of who is entering your newsroom by looking at the Google analytics or any other analytic program that can tell you how many viewers clicked on your links. You may want to add a subscription to the newsroom.
• Make sure to have various tabs for industries or topics and a great search feature so that the news media can quickly find what they are looking for.
• When you feel you have a lot of content in your newsroom, send out an email reminder to your contacts to check out the site. In addition, tweet out that there is new information as well.
• Make sure to have the site interactive and have an ability to leave comments.
Interestingly today it’s not only important to attract news media to your newsroom, but it’s also important to attract bloggers and interested consumers. Both bloggers and interested consumers can help virally spread your message.
In addition to the tips above, I would also suggest having an interactive newsroom where you can have consumers and bloggers post comments about the story to get your audience more engaged.
The public relations industry is changing and with it comes the distribution of press materials. The newsroom is a perfect venue to put all of your press releases, feature stories, and backgrounders from your clients. And tweeting is perfect for the news media and bloggers because it’s quick, it’s easy and they know what the story is about in 140 characters or less!
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If you don’t have a newsroom on the Internet, you may be missing the big picture…..