GOOD ONLINE PRESS CENTERS: key to getting a reporters' attentionWritten by Barry Forward
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In addition to background information and fact sheets here are some additional suggestions for creating a "virtual newsroom" that works: * Offer real names and contact information including street addresses and telephone numbers right up at top of your online press center. Nothing drives a reporter crazy more than having to drill down into news section of a website only to find an e-mail address to some non-descript media center such as media@yourcompany.com * If you have a brochure or defined press kit make ALL of it available online. You'll be providing reporters with most of information they want and calls that do come through will be from informed reporters * Reporters love calendars of events. But they have to be updated regularly. If you're not prepared to make these changes weekly, if not daily, don't bother including a calendar section * An archive of news releases on a Web site sorted by date and title is extremely useful for journalists and customers, as it places news in context Now that you have your press releases online remember to make sure they get posted to your site before or at same time you release them using traditional methods.
Barry Forward is the Executive Vice-President of Reputations Inc and has an extensive background in public relations. He has also launched several companies, including high tech ventures and products. You can read more PR related articles like this one at http://www.prmadeeasy.com/freeforall/freeINK.asp.
| | The Search Engine BluesWritten by Jennifer Durocher
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The least technically important is graphic design aspect inasmuch as search engine indexing does not include look and feel in how they rank your site. However, from a surfer's point of view, graphics are probably most important. If you are focusing on repeat business as your primary income, then if it does not look nice, people just will not come back. This includes everything from images found on your site, to layout and usability (user-friendliness). Another brief topic of concern is importance of internet directories. Should one take time to submit their site to these directories? Does anyone actually use them? The trend seems to be going more and more towards usage of these "man-handled" search engines. Directories offer public a pre-categorized listing of searchable "channels" - far more organized than search engines. Human eyes as opposed to greatly feared "spider" sort most of these directories so they tend to be much more accurate. Directories also do not sort through pages of websites in same fashion. They do not rely on meta tags as much and do not "rank" sites they just list them alphabetically so there is no competition for 1st place. Website promotion is a HUGE responsibility and requires a lot of tweaking to only begin to view even smallest of changes. However, implementation of these few, very basic techniques will definitely make your site friendlier to internet community at large.
Jennifer Durocher Web Positioning Manager www.cityvu.com
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