Online Press Rooms …

Articles and Books By Ned Barnett, Barnett Marketing Communications

FAQ, Opinions and Observations

How did you get published?

It was actually fairly easy.  In each case, I conceived a book, then sought out the one right publisher for the book.  I was able to demonstrate the marketability of the project – and to publishers, that’s the bottom line.  My success here led to formation of a literary agency that I operated for several years.

Why is getting published important?

Being published is like receiving endorsements from a valued third parties.  It validates you, your views and your professional standing. 

This is less impactful if you are self-published; that can still prove beneficial, but it needs to be handled differently.  This is addressed later in our literary section.

How do you promote your books for maximum impact?

There are lots of ways of doing this.  Most of this came to my attention from hard-won direct experience.

1. Get a review written by an authority - even if you have to pay them. As an Adjunct Prof. of Marketing at UNLV, I've hired out to write a number of reviews on marketing-related books. Many pubs won't take the time to review a book, but won't publish a PR feed. But a review signed by a legitimate authority is OK.

1.       Create a PR website for the book with all the stuff you'd send out in a press kit - releases, reviews, sample chapters, author bio and pic., etc. Cuts down on mailing costs and lets you pitch with e-mail and a link.

3. Use something like Lorilyn Bailey's "Guest Finder" service to book your client on radio talk shows. BUT ALSO pitch all those shows that sell from an 800-line or website. Jim Bohanan pioneered this, I think (I know he does it, and it moves product).

4. Go after star-driven shows like Craig Crossman and Kim Kommando – they can be "challenges" to work with (your author will have to go to his studio in Florida to be on the show, but he's got great reach).

5. Everywhere your author goes, BOOK SIGNINGS. And publicize them locally, and on the Internet

6. Create an "affinity group" of book-buyers, with a web-page and a periodic e-mail newsletter. Think Scott Adams. Offer these folks incentives for referrals; turn them into pre-publication buyers of as-yet-unwritten books; sell them autographed copies; arrange for (paid) or (unpaid - as a reward for a referral, for instance) phone consultations.

7. Grab hold of "Guerrilla Marketing For Writers" (Jay Conrad Levinson, Rich Frischman and SF Lit Agent Michael Larsen – Writer's Digest Books).  This is a hugely useful resource – and at $14.99 new (probably less, used, on Amazon) how can you go wrong?

What are the roles of website press rooms?  What should they include?

For a client hospital in Indiana, I developed the following information on website pressrooms.  This information, though developed for a hospital, applies widely to businesses, trade associations and others with business-based websites:

Press Rooms – Key Elements in Promotional Websites

The media – local, national, trade or specialty – are important targets for any promotional website.  A well-designed, regularly-updated and comprehensive online press room can be a major asset in any promotion of a website, or the use of a website in the promotion of products, goods or services.  However, this feature is too often overlooked or just poorly done. 

Every success, every favorable review, every online or off-line honor or site award should became the subject of yet another press release – even if it's only a release that is posted in the press room itself. 

The use of a “press room” as defined here was pioneered within the HealthWorld Online website, subsequently refined and enhanced as appropriate.   HealthWorld's press room had several distinctive, effective features designed to meet the information needs of working reporters.  These included posting both press releases and links to substantial supportive documentation, including downloadable illustrations.  This depth of material, easily accessible by reporters, made it possible to generate coverage by distributing brief, provocative press briefings – an approach ideal for faxed announcements – rather than mailing out longer press releases and full-blown press kits.  Research indicated that, in addition to controlling the costs of press release distribution, this approach actually improved press interest – and coverage.

There is a very simple reason for this.  Reporters tend to be overworked, underpaid, rushed and impatient.  A pressroom that, by design and content, does much of their work for them, is a pearl beyond price.  Reporters are not, by nature, "lazy" – but they are loathe to recreate the wheel.  If you provide them with usable material, they will use that material.

Nonetheless, in spite of the limitations and shortcomings of most current online press rooms or media relations sites, the potential of the Internet in media relations is astounding – and to a large extent, untapped. 

Based on our extensive experience, some of the features recommended for a website's press room include:

·        Registration – if the press room is accessible only to "accredited" reporters, you have the opportunity to have them "register" and get information for future opt-in e-mailings and other communications.  Plus, you know how many reporters are using the site.  No "reporter" should be turned down – approval should be automatic (you never know what a freelancer does in "real life"), but the appearance of exclusivity will enhance the perceived value of the site – and the registration will provide additional useful information to the site-owner and the PR agency.  (Caveat - experience suggests that media registration be encouraged but voluntary - we do not want to be in the situation of turning away reporters who are reluctant to register).

·        Breaking news of national/regional or trade/specialty import.  This will require monitoring the news or licensing access from a news service to give topical reporters a second- or third-choice for information they want and need in order to keep their constituencies informed.  There are low-cost information feed services that can provide a core of information - this is useful to the media; and it gives users and prospects a reason to come back to the website.

·        New organizational and product/service-line press releases, along with all appropriate back-up and supporting materials – including bios, position papers, financial statements, transcripts or minutes of meetings, etc., and links to supportive documents and related websites.

·        Lists of useful spokespersons (within and without your organization) and contact information – this makes the reporters' "digging" job far easier, and wins them as friends.

·        Archives of all former press releases, grouped by topic – these are often useful for reporters wanting to back-track information.

·        Archives of all former press COVERAGE, grouped by topic – this provides a "balanced" counterpoint to the archived press releases, making this site a further benefit to reporters.

·        Research findings from third-party (or in-house – and differentiate between the two) researchers – from scientists to public opinion mavens – as well as press releases and backgrounders putting the research into a meaningful context.

·        Full background information, including locations, officers, balance-sheets (for publicly-traded companies) and other relevant information on the organization and the products/services – carefully cataloged for easy identification.  Again, if the reporters do not have to dig, they can do a quicker story (and will be subtly grateful for the assist, ensuring more balanced coverage).  Companies with something to hide are red meat to reporters; companies with full open-door websites are seen as reliable and not the target of exposes.

·        For public companies, 10k, 10Q and online annual reports, as well as for-the-record notices to stockholders and potential investors.  Make the site fully SEC-compliant and a one-stop location for those kinds of documents needed by reporters and others.

·        Bios of the site-owner's key players – top management, key research-and-development people, board members, etc. – along with downloadable photos, etc.  Include statements (quotable) they have made on key issues related to the product, the service and/or the industry.

·        Website survey “findings” – the website can and should ask, in survey form, provocative questions of web-visitors, then “announce” the findings (without necessarily mentioning that this kind of opt-in research has no meaningful scientific value, but still makes for great factoids).

·        "Kudos" – favorable comments from users/readers/customers/clients who have benefited from, and praised in writing (or e-mail) – and who's bylined comments can be reprinted without permission.

·        Graphic illustrations that can be downloaded – corporate and product logos, photos of the products and the people, and other appropriate illustrations.  If you have charts-and-graphs that can be reproduced (with credit) note that on the site – and provide for their easy download.  The same holds true for self-tests and other crowd-pleasing tools and gimmicks. 

Promoting the site is important – if reporters don't know about it or use it, the best press room site on the Internet is worthless.  A few ideas that work include:

·        Not on the site itself, but in promoting it, use e-mail “teasers” to encourage reporters to revisit the press room site to view the site's response to emerging or breaking news within the company or within the industry.  These can be distributed to opt-in e-mail lists.  Colorful postcards are also low cost and useful in promoting reporter visits to the website, especially when not tied to timely breaking news.

·        Another website press room promotion strategy involves producing weekly “potential story idea” sheets and distribute to the media by fax, e-mail or other means (and post in the press-room to catch reporter visitors).  Follow-up using usual PR response systems set up for handling media calls.

·        Related to that, but more individual, distribute individual or breaking story idea pitches to local, regional and national trades (ideally by e-mail to a standardized/customized opt-in list) to generate potential trade coverage.

In summary, online press rooms are inviting locations for reporters to visit, to use, and to help the client and the PR agency to better respond to press needs – and to generate more, and more favorable coverage for the website and the company or organization that is behind it.

·        Hospital Marketing:  Step-by-Step

·        Corporate Communications Guide

·        State of the Art in Hospital Advertising

·        Basic Guide to Hospital Public Relations

·        Finances for non-Financial Marketers

·        Big Five

·        It’s NOT Rocket Science – Using the Web for Product Line Marketing and Community Health Promotion

·        FAQ, Opinions and Observations

·        Website Press Rooms – Key PR/Promotional Tools

·        Releases (about Barnett Marketing Communications)

·        Press Clips (about Barnett Marketing Communications)

·        Articles and Books By Ned Barnett, Barnett Marketing Communications

·        FAQ, Opinions and Observations

·        Top Ten