PRSA part I

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9:22 AM

Door prizes for the early birds. Free stuff, delicious. I forgot to pick up a program. Oops. I guess I should have looked at the registration table. The President-elect is now reading sponsors, those who make it possible for us to be here. Amy is the first winner. She gets her pick of the door prizes. All pretty nice stuff. A woman who’s name everyone had a hard time pronouncing won the next prize and made some jabs about Portsmouth having museums, the room moans. Carol wins the Portsmouth museum passes. Select individuals in the crowd are making up for Portsmouth museums.

Now we have introductions and welcomes. Online newsrooms (is that a nice way of saying professional blogs?). Kelly Brighton, Director of Marking communications, is the first presenter, from Vocus (based in DC). She does web stuff and metrix. Their about us reads:

Our web-based software suite helps organizations of all sizes manage local and global relationships and communications with journalists, analysts, public officials and other key audiences.

Screech! Mic interference.

Kelly thanks us for being here, thanks to the coordinator, etc and then begins.

Topic: What journalists want to see on your website.

Some topics may be really obvious, but they might be missing from “your” website.

• What makes a good Online Newsroom?
  Surveying journalists about what they want to see and we are seeing a compilation of what the results are. About 1000 journalists were surveyed and then PR people were surveyed to guess what journalists want to see.
• Who has a online newsroom?(crickets…)Mostly news releases are posted. Most people (PR) think that new releases posted on the internet constitutes a digital newsroom. Journalists are wanting alot more. Online newrooms are
  1. difficult to locate and access
  2. they are inadequate in content.

  Journalists want to get to the newsroom from the homepage. They want new releases, bios and more on there and they want it all accessable from the homepage.
  Michael O’Laughlin, CFO Magazine:

“… only one in 5 sites contained basic name spelling, mailing information and phone numbers.”

• Make it easy to make news
  An online newsroom should be a online clearinghouse of information. It should be one-click from the homepage and should be easy to search and navigate. It needs to be self-containted for journalists or they will find another story.
  It can have a variety of names:
  • Online Newsroom,
  • Press Center,
  • News Center.

The biggest thing is that it must be kept current. If it isn’t current you could lose credability.

Kaiser Permanente does a good job.

They make it really easy, but it is geared towards filtering types of visitors. It is clear how to get to it though.

• Key elements
  56% say that no contact information is a pet peeve. They want real names, phone, email, after-hours information. Journalists hate a generic PR@mycompany.com, they think it’s a black hole (which it probably is). They want a phone number instead.Vanguard has a good example, it has titles, phone numbers, including cell phones. It also has tertiary levels of contact information.
• Question: What about cell numbers. Is that okay? What about calls afterhours, or funneling through a central line?
  Answer: Change your workflow, put the afterhours contact on your mainline.
• Research Data and Studies
  Journalists want validation, they are skeptical due to corporate scandals (yup) and they also validate your positions if you can use third party research. 99% of reporters want this information.Blue Cross and Blue Shield does a good job.They have data about costs, etc, good or bad, becuase the bad stuff can be used to show what you are working on.
• Corporate Background
  Most journalists want that in the media section as well. They want the vital statistics, number of employees, corporate financials, executives & bios. Avoid jargon! (duh!) Use non jargon, “… when you refer to the enterprise, are you referring to the aircraft carrier or the space shuttle?” (or the vessel piloted by Kirk (damn, he’s sexy)).
• Question – Do you duplicated your information that is already on the site? Answer – Yes, for the most part. They don’t need the investor relations information, they will need some of the basics, probably a sub-set of information.
  • A rabbit is sitting outside the window now. It drew everyone’s attention (all the people sitting around me).
    

Rohm and Haas does this (the screen shot got cut off, which wasn’t great)

• Press releases
  Journalists start with press releases, post them ASAP or you lose credibility. Make them searchable possibly by keyword. Catalog them so they are easily accessible. This could be where they start looking for quotes or stats.Arbitron has a pretty good example, albeit an ugly one. They are search able by title, keywords, type (executive, product, etc.) and by date range and year.
• Online Media kits
  93% of reporters want this. They want photos diagrams, illustrations, quotes, tech specs, experts video, it enhances the press release and gives them more for the story. If it’s online, you have a great 24/7 resource.Citgo does a good job. They have logos, photos. presentations (some PDFs).
• Past coverage
  26% of PR people think it’s important, but 87% of journalists want it. Include the positive and negative coverage. It gives them a way to shape their angle. These are from outside sources.
• Question – We can’t copy it, but how do we link?
  Answer – Link until the article expires. possibly get permission to get a PDF for your hosting. At the very least a mention is good.
• Question – PDFs, what do we do? News releases can be pirated.
  Answer – Not necessarily a good idea. make it part of the webpage, not Word Documents. Don’t send attachments!!! Huzzah! (PDF’s can be pirated…)
• Question – What about subscription based websites (i.e. Washington Post)?
  Answer – Link to it with a warning about passwords or copy it if you can (with permission).Goodwill does and excellent job. Post-Katrina they had a lot of information. They created a special Katrina section, which made it really easy.
• Executive Team
  91% of journalists say they need it. You need to include photos, bio’s and education. This helps position them as a thought leader.

(the presenter is switching back and forth between Powerpoint presentation and IE… Come on! Get some screen shots, it gives you a better chance of getting what you want.)

• Other things to include
  Photographs and logos are really good. upcoming events, white papers (83% want), awards and recognition (72% want), speeches and anything else that sets you apart. Events are important, the media wants to be part of that, or at least know about it. Involvement in industry groups and community, etc.
• WHOA! Too much data on a slide!!! About 20 rows of text, three columns with numbers!!!, I’m sure it’s important, but GEEZ!
• Other communication channels
  Blogs, Podcasts, RSS (booyah!). PR is only beginning to embrace these technologies.
• Diagram (Old PR)
  Us -> Media -> Consumer
• Journalist (with cheezy stock photo)
  They are gatekeepers of information, they get to filter the information. It’s one directional, and centralized. Consumers don’t get to give feed back on information given to the journalist. To get a story out to alot of people, over news wires etc, can be really expensive.
• “Now we have the internet”
  Realtime inforamtion, citizen journalists, feed back is instantaneous. Connection is nearly ubiquitous. “No need for programmers or graphic designers.” (I beg to disagree.)
• Question - Is the media less effective? Are people more likely to just search? Answer – We’ll get to this.
• Web 2 dot Oh
  Um… Yeah! Wikipedia definition, blogging, podcasts, wikis, social media. Web 2.0 and PR Blogs, wikis, RSS, Podcasts, Video casts are all part of this user centric/audience specific PR. All of these things generate communication, awareness, trust and credibiltiy. It is complementary to old PR, and is more about the social powers of the internet.
• Diagram
  Showing a triangle between company, media, consumers with bloggers in the center.
  
• Media
  Todays press releases need to be designed for search engine optimization. Search, Search, Search! SEO, SEO, SEO!
  • Syndicated content (RSS) = Third party distribution. Brings more eyeballs back.
  • Particpation in blogs is important!
    Engage them! communicate with the blogs.
  • Links!
    Link to the photos, keywords, and get them to more about the topic, or order forms or back to the website.
• Question – Copying links is a pain. I have to take them out later… what do you think?
  Answer – Really there are two forms of communication, normal releases via email and then to blogger-ready form.
  • Podcasts (booyah!)
    Example – Vocus: Keywords link back to relative information. All of it is search optimized. Logos included, but not in their attached files section (shame, shame). Dynamic quotes, podcast links. Dynamic is fun! (not really a commercial for their company, but sounds like it… ) Podcast interviews are complimentary.
  • The Blog
    A website with regular posts about the same topic (huh?) chronologically ordered. Comments, track-backs, email. Some blogs are becoming prominent and you need to be aware of them.
• What can bloggers do?
  Search engine marketing, direct communication to your consumers. Relational marketing, (i.e. A CEO does a little call to the bloggers, the bloggers report about it and they can put good spin on things, where if you don’t contact them, you can totally suck!) Blogging is Niche! You can reach some really specific peoples. (i.e. Cigar company links to cigar blogs to reach their audiences). Blogging is another avenue for media relations, and it gives an expert position. It can work for reputation management. It can help spin and “manage your reputation”. Example – Blog from Vocus (or a guy who is close to them).
• Question - Who are bloggers?
  Answer – Not a clear answer. They have jobs, they do this full time. They use blogs to promote themselves. You find out about credibility over time.

Busch Gardens monitors 15-20 blogs and they have a variety of people, some experts, some are just hobbyists. Political blogs – Duh! Blogging directories! Again, Duh! You need to find them, there is no science to finding the “perfect” blog. But you need to pay attention.

• Example – Feedback stuff, trackbacks, comments. (the example uses typepad)
  
  
• Podcasts
  Podcasts give common person a voice in “real media.” Both blogs and podcasts are subscribe-able. A podcast is an MP3, usually radio show format, in RSS feeds.
• Why Podcasts?
  Complementary extension of existing PR. People can listen when driving (like I do). Niche audiences, people who want to hear more than read. A younger audience. and You can be a leader in a new medium with low costs.Example – PR Web (again), simple links. Looks like they have Podcasts and streaming as well.
• Questions abound about podcasting being compilentary and how they are done technically, how they are subscribed to, how they should be formated, etc. Most of the answers given are suspect at best. I think that this is such a new medium that the presenter is barely using them herself.If you are going to speak about podcasts, you need to know now to produce, how to put it out and how to listen. She’s talking about how its pretty simple to integrate it, but I don’t think that that is completely accurate. She’s now talking about using a webinar to record and convert to a podcast, which I guess is true. Finally! She says that “new media” is good for small non-profit and such! Talking about using traditional media methods to create “new media”. Eh. nevermind, I thought there was some kernel of genius.
• End of presentation…
  rah rah, come use Vocus. (I’m going to pass.)

We need to look at 37signals about their Customer Resource management software. I think that we could really use it to our benefit. Apparently Vocus has some major clients like Coca cola, Lowes. Interesting.

I didn’t win the next round of door prizes. Bummer! More sponsor information. And we are getting ready for a break. I had a talk with a woman behind me about the length of a podcast. The presenter said it should be no more than 5 minutes, which I totally disagree with! If you want to become a leader in the new media space, you get to set the standard. You can create a show and determine the length by listener feedback. Oh well.

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