Does Your Website Have a Newsroom? It Should

One of any organization's core public relations strategies is the creation and dissemination of your story. Every company has a story. What makes you different? Better? Stand out? Memorable?

And once you nail your story, you need to tell your story. You must share your story and publicize it to maximize its reach.

For your story to grow until everyone who needs to know your story knows it, you have to make your story highly accessible. From a public relations perspective, that means making sure that journalists have access to the information they need to learn about your organization and the people who run it.

One of the most important pieces to accomplish this also is one that is often neglected: the creation and curation of a newsroom on your organization's website.

More than a home for your digital press kit

A newsroom also needs to be done right. Newsroom is not merely a repository for news coverage about your organization. It needs to be a resource for those who want to write about you and your company or association.

Key foundational pieces that you will need to provide in a newsroom includes a digital press kit. This is where all of your messaging elements that tell your best story are collected. A digital press kit centralizes your core messages in one place, from straightforward fact sheets and intriguing bios to faqs and your corporate profile or history.

A newsroom is also home to your visual assets: logos in various sizes and formats, professional headshots and other photographs of anyone available for media interviews, images, and photographs that depicts your products and services, along with infographics or other graphical elements, as well as related videos and other rich media.

Finally, don't forget about samples of your marketing and customer educational collateral: flyers, ads, client success stories, and white papers are all candidates for inclusion.

Where will reporters start?

It is an imperative that your social channels are updated and complete with essential background information on you and your organization. Because the first place a reporter will often look, especially if they don't already know about you and your organization, is your LinkedIn profile. It must be current and complete with your story.

Reporters also are likely to check out all of your media channels. They will see how up to date your social channels are and what your customers say about you. It will also give clues to how actively you engage with your customers and get a sense of your corporate culture.

A Google search is virtually guaranteed, which means you also need a digital footprint that also tells your story. News releases and newswires are not dead. In addition to being a door opener for a conversation with a reporter, another primary benefit of a widely distributed news release is the digital footprint it creates. When a reporter, investor, or industry influencer goes online to learn about you, you need to make sure they are reading the story you created, not one that others created about you.

Benefits of a newsroom

Reporters work hard and often are not compensated commensurate with the efforts they undertake. If you help make it easier for reporters to do their job, it is almost always appreciated.

Creating a newsroom on your website that features a well-executed digital press kit can help reporters get up to speed about you and your organization more swiftly. Giving them a robust set of current digital assets – logos and high-resolution headshots – saves them a step in having to reach out and ask for one, and it saves them time.

Yes, it takes some effort to create a newsroom on your company or association's website and keep it fresh and current.

We also understand the reason a newsroom is often absent from a website is the organization is spending every extra minute of time focused on serving their customers. The WAV Group is guilty of this. It's hard to find the time – and reallocate development resources — to develop a newsroom. So, plan ahead (we are) for the times when client services are lighter (i.e., the December holiday season) and make a commitment to get it done.

It will prove to be more than worth the time and effort invested.

If the WAV Group can help you tell your story and construct your digital press kit for your newsroom, contact Myra and Kevin through wavgroup.com.

To view the original article, visit the WAV Group blog.