How Does Your Online Media Room Rate?
by Shannon Cherry
Setting up an online press room
on your website is an important way for you to show the media you mean business.
The simple task of dedicating an area of you site specifically for the media can
save you the expense and time of using postal mail, help reporters and producers
to conveniently meet their deadlines, and impress your target audience and
potential clients.
The following is a list of items you should include in an online press room:
*Contact information. Offer specific and accurate contactinformation to make it
easier for reporters, producers, and editors to reach you.
*A link to prior press releases. Demonstrate your credibility by posting press
releases that either you have written or has been written about you.
* About the company. In the online press room, offer briefly the mission of the
company and remind them what it is that your business can do for them.
* Bios. Present to readers background information about you as the owner of the
business and mention degrees, accreditations, or awards.
* Company fact sheet. A fact sheet offers the basic information about your
business that clients and media outlets would want to know.
*Facts concerning your expertise. Offer findings and statistics to demonstrate
and reinforce the importance of your field and how those facts are newsworthy.
* FAQs. Listing frequently asked questions can help address what reporters and
clients want to ask about in addition to their concerns without wasting the time
of exchanging emails.
* A photograph. A picture can be used by reporters or producers when quoting you
as an expert source and also creates a source of familiarity with clients over
the vastness of the World Wide Web.
*Client list. Mention clients that you have dealt with in the past. This can
reinforce the success of your business with its obviously long client list or it
can present known names that generates a boost of credibility. * Story ideas.
Listing story ideas in your field of expertise can give reporters topic ideas to
cover. This list is especially helpful when journalists have to meet a close
deadline.
*Articles. Including articles that you have written shows and proves what you
can do. Also, with your permission, these articles can also be used by media
outlets to republish.
Almost as important as the content of an online press room is the way in which
the content is presented.
Follow these tips to finalize the creation of a great media room:
1. Make sure your media room is easy to find. Always include a link that is easy
to spot. It can be called a 'media room,' 'press room,' or under 'about us.'
2. Use the HTML format on regular web pages. Keep things simple to read and easy
to access with a basic format that won't discourage visitors.
3. Include downloadable files. Always offer a link to past articles,
photographs, or press releases to be used electronically or for print. 4.
Remember that the World Wide Web is global in search. Unless your company is
only interested in generating business within the United States, try to use
words that are universal so that it can come up in searches made
internationally. Do not include cultural slangs or American terminologies.
About the Author:
Shannon Cherry, APR, MA helps
businesses, entrepreneurs and nonprofit organizations to be heard. Subscribe
today for Be Heard! a FREE biweekly ezine and get a FREE special report. Go to:
www.beheardsolutions.com/pop.html Source of this article:
www.goarticles.com
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