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Building An Effective Online Media Centre |
A Changing Media Landscape
Technology and the Internet have effected change on numerous industries in recent years. Perhaps no industry has been changed so profoundly as the news media arena; an industry that has radically reshaped itself in order to adapt to the much wider forms of information delivery. By association, this has also had impact on the practice of public relations; it has, quite simply, changed forever.
The global access to high speed Internet connectivity, the growing number of Internet users, the potential audience for a service or product and the evolution of numerous personal publishing and communications arenas, means that the practice of PR has to be geared towards influencing media, communities and audiences that exist on the Internet using online channels. Today, the Internet and information communications technology are not only important to the practice of public relations, they are an essential partner. Every year brings with it another newer window of opportunity with related communications channels to exploit.
So where do you begin? There are reputations and brands to manage, messages to control that can grow exponentially throughout social networks, managing volume, speed, geographical diversity and the fact that online also means two-way, direct communication with your publics.
An Online Media Centre
The first way is to get your own house in order.
The single facility that can impact on how a company is perceived and empower a PR professional to provide a better, more responsive online service to stakeholders, is an online media centre (also known as an online press office).
A good online media centre extends the capabilities of a traditional press office into the World Wide Web and, with the advent of new tools and techniques, can also leverage new channels to improve online communications.
Being effective in dealing with the media, is understanding and respecting the way today’s journalists and publishers work, and taking into account their evolving needs. As an industry, we have to face up to these changes and be prepared to cater for continually evolving online requirements.
Online media centres are used by journalists, online publishers (and other stakeholders) as an information resource – a place to go when researching a story. They are used by PRO’s as a way to communicate both interactively and electronically with journalists.
Online media centres provide a round-the-clock service, instant access to information, and can automate many aspects of the PR process. However, in order for them to be effective they need to be well planned and structured.
Content is King
It is important that the content for your online media centre is fresh and up-to-date or it will reflect poorly on you, the PRO, and the company itself. Start by thinking about the information that may be most helpful to someone writing a story about your company and then make it available online.
The key point to remember is that the provision of information should be very high compared to the journey to it.
Providing the following will get you off to a good start:
News Releases:
Journalists should be able to access all current and archived news releases and search the media centre by date, topic, keyword and type of file.
Facts & Figures
Include some corporate facts such as the company’s positioning statement, background facts, profiles (people and company), financial matters, links to other relevant, useful websites, key competitors, customer demographics and a calendar of future trade events and industry shows.
Images:Journalists need images and providing a facility to download images of varying resolutions from web ready to high resolution, print-quality images saves everyone time and effort. Jpeg (.jpg) images are the standard format for image files; they compress well requiring less download time.
Video/Audio:
The delivery of live or delayed sound or video broadcasts using web technologies will provide for broadcast media and enhance the online experience. Sound or video is captured by conventional video or audio systems. It is then digitised and streamed on a web server. Ensure your a video/audio gallery containing files is accessible in different formats (Windows Media Player and Real Player).
Downloadable Documents:
These may be groups of files analogous to a conventional press pack or single documents in .pdf or MS Word formats. Information packs are a handy way for journalists to get all the information they need in one quick, convenient package. Make sure you compress the press packs (using a tool like Winzip) to minimise download time.
Control & Management
Ensure you are able to maintain and update your online press office yourself. Relying on the in-house IT specialist or Webmaster can result in bottlenecks that sabotage your PR efforts. A well-constructed online media centre should have a content management system that allows any authorised person to update and expand it, without requiring web programming skills, such as HTML.
Getting in Touch
Journalists like factual information and need to learn, in one click, how to contact the PR department for information. A general email address and no contact names and phone numbers is not good enough. In cases where staff names and numbers are not made public, a direct contact number for the department should be provided. If you need to route enquirers effectively to other departments, a useful tip is to also provide names and numbers for consumer concerns. Do state that PR staff deal only with media enquiries.
Do invite browsers to “subscribe” to receive automated news alerts but please be considered how much information you issue. As you know, there is nothing worse than experiencing email overload. Much better to send brief, tailored news snippets with links to your online media centre for more information.
Free Access for All
Think carefully before forcing journalists to register for access to information. Journalists hate doing this, and when confronted with a registration screen, no matter how brief, are likely to go elsewhere for subject matter. If the nature of your business is such that you absolutely must have journalists register for access to content, for example high resolution print-ready images, try to keep the process as quick and easy as possible. Better still, don’t do it. The Internet has changed the expectations of both journalists and the public; they expect to go right to the source online and get the information they want. Shutting people out won’t make you any friends. Look on it as a great opportunity to communicate directly with your publics, bypassing journalists altogether!
An Integrated Option
Adding an online media centre to your PR arsenal shouldn’t necessitate a complete website redesign. There are benefits in having an online media centre that can be self managed and not impact on the capacity of the main site - in effect, a separate website with relevant features and functionality, with a simple link from the home page (perhaps labelled ‘Latest News’ or ‘Press Office’). It is important, however, that the branding and ‘look and feel’ of an integrated application matches that of your main website so that it has the appearance of being an authentic, official source of information.
Other Tools and Techniques:
RSS Feeds: Many online media centres and websites now include RSS (commonly known as Really Simple Syndication). These news feeds let you know when websites have added new content and are like an alerting service to which you can subscribe. This is favoured by journalists who wish to get the latest headlines and video in one place, as soon as it’s published, without having to visit the organisations’ website.
Podcasting: A portmanteau of Apple's "iPod" and "broadcasting”, is a method of publishing files to the Internet, allowing users to subscribe to a feed and receive new files automatically. The creation of excellent audio files that are loaded onto your own online media centre will enable you to podcast to your contacts. These should be accessible to download or save in a number of formats (MP3, AAC, Real)
Blogs: Consider blogs (web logs) as part of the online mix. Journalists now use blogs to research stories and as sounding boards to check out what people think about a certain product or announcement. They can view things blogs are linking to on other sites that they might not have spotted in the blogs themselves.
Toolkit:
Finally, don’t forget to add a toolkit – bookmarking links such as Digg, Stumbleupon, Furl etc., plus Print and Email this page are useful starters – and please comply with DDA (Disability Discrimination Act) requirements.
This article was first published by the Chartered Institute of Public Relations (www.ipr.org.uk)
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