One of my recent clients was an
internet start up designed to support and give exposure to small to
medium for-profit businesses that had a significant eco-friendly and/or
corporate social responsibility component. The idea was to offer a portal where eco-conscious consumers could find and support such businesses, and those businesses in turn could have wider exposure to that consumer market.
From hipster cafes and organic
restaurants to architects building and designing with eco
principles, the startup profiled a lot of interesting companies. In
the process of helping write up and edit these company profiles, I
ran into many, many common practices among these businesses' web
sites that were simply frustrating from a media relations
perspective.
The thing to remember about media
relations is the 'relations' part of the equation. In short, that
means making any journalist or blogger or influencer's job easy for
them. Too many businesses without a trained PR or media relations
person on staff tend to overlook this area and instead build their
web presence to attract customers at the expense of ignoring
influencers.
Tweaking your web site to appeal to
both constituents is simple. While bigger businesses may have a
whole separate section on their site for media use (usually called
"Press Room" and/or "Media Kit") , but most small
to medium businesses don't need anything that dedicated. Simply try going through your site page by page and ask yourself, " If
I was a journalist, what do I need from this site?" You may be
surprised at what you discover.
After trying to write up over 100 small
businesses, here are the most common problems I found for some tips
to create a more media -friendly site:
1) Have an actual email address (and
other info) on your contact page. A surprising amount of businesses
only have a contact form. Yes, we all understand that you read
the latest marketing tips and you're buzzed about
capturing leads and the sales funnel, etc, etc, but a journalist or
blogger needs an easily available email address, phone number and
physical location to put in their article for their readers to reach you. As a journalist profiling you, I certainly want to contact you as well -- I think you'd want me to give a call. Put that info somewhere in text at the top or bottom of the
contact form.
2) Make your images downloadable (and
have hi res available too). Ironically, some of the most visually
compelling firms -- architectural firms, breathtaking restaurants --
load their images in a Flash or some other player, making it
impossible for a blogger or journo to save and download to use in
their article.
If I can't get a picture, I may not
write the story. More than once on this gig, I either had to write
the business and ask for photos, or go trolling through the company’s
Facebook page for pictures (huge time suck). If you had a
professional photographer take photos for you and you paid for them,
then there should be no copyright issues on the photos -- you own
them.
It's a good idea to have hi-res (300
dpi) versions on tap for print media as well. They can be
downloadable, or simply available upon request.
2a) A reproducible logo. Make sure
there's a standalone logo ( i.e., not part of a built up header
image) that’s downloadable. JPGs are preferable to PNGs for this
purpose, as some transparent PNGs may not embed well on other
blogs.
3) A strong "About"page. These are hit
and miss, but remember, journos are always looking to personalize
their stories -- they want the people behind the business. Make sure
you have good bios, a good story, and good bio pics (see #2, above).
4) Have your social media channels
easily accessible. I was surprised when on several occasions I had to
take a business name and Google them for their Facebook and Twitter
and Pinterest or Instagram accounts, because the company's social media links aren't anywhere on the website! some businesses have the share icons, but I need to see your social media channels as well. I want my readership to have
that info easily accessible in my article, so make sure those links
are upfront.
5) Keep your social media channels
current and consistent. I found several cases of conflicting
addresses and phone numbers between a company's contact pages and its Facebook info. Make sure everything is coordinated and up to date.
These are all easy steps, but will
save journos and influencers a lot of time and headache -- and the
easier you make it for them, the more apt they are to give your
business good coverage.
Get tweaking!
