This chapter couldn’t have come at a better time.  Leigh Anne and I were just talking about this.  We need to update our ‘News’ page on our site.  It feels so old school and is really due a 2.0 update.

David opens the chapter with a very important message – “…all kinds of people visit your online media room, not just journalists.  Your buyers are snooping around your organization by visiting media pages on your Web site.  Your current customers, partners, investors, suppliers and employees all visit those pages.”  He goes on to say, people go to the online media room to know what’s current about the organization.  I totally agree.  If there’s no updated news does that mean the company isn’t doing well or is stagnant?  Maybe.

As we are about to take on a site overhaul, here’s some of the best practices David suggests that we’ll be implementing:

• Needs Analysis – Before the reconstruction begins we’ll be identifying persona of the people visiting this new media room.  Once identified we will then be sure to include content that meets the needs of each persona.
• Optimized news releases for searching and browsing – gone are the days of the aged list of press release headlines.  When updating we must always consider SEO best practices.  This spot has a wealth of good information, we’ll be sure to leverage this.
• Background Information that Helps Journalists Write Stories – This is often called a press kit and typically includes – company history, executive bios, investor profiles, board of directors, product and service information, analysts information/coverage and links to recent media coverage.
• Multimedia content – some like to listen, some like to read, some like to watch and listen.  We want to make sure we have what their looking for.
• List Executive appearances, conferences and tradeshow participation – we want to be sure the journalists know where we’ve been, where we’re at and where we’re going.
• Don’t forget the bloggers – all news releases going forward will include bloggers distribution lists as well.
• Avoid Jargon, Acronyms and Industry Speak – we’ve covered this in an earlier chapter.  Everyone sees through it and would appreciate us all just speaking in common terms we all understand.

Are we forgetting anything here?  All of these ideas are great, right?  For more ideas for a great media room, check out Hubspot’s Press Room.