Who’s Looking At You? The Reactive Side of Online PR
As a sizzling online PR agency, C&M spends its collective life pimping up websites, putting peachy content in people’s faces and creating a stir in all sorts of social spaces. This proactive approach is how most PR people see their jobs, but how do we fare when potential ‘coverage’ comes looking for us?
‘King of Usability’ Jakob Nielsen has published a useful article on press usability, taking the findings of three different studies to illustrate how poorly some websites are catering for incoming media enquiries. It’s all fairly obvious stuff when you think about it, but by populating their online presence with tons of marketing spiel and little else, companies are missing out on valuable coverage from time-short journalists who need the facts fast.
Nielsen’s recommendations for making websites more media-friendly include:
- Prominently displayed, flexible press contact details (check out C&M’s Contact page for some forward-thinking examples)
- Links to external sources to validate any subjective claims
- Easily locatable company information (free from ‘marketese’)
- Well-organised, easy-to-scan pages
In the words of Nielsen: “Why spend a fortune on outbound PR (trying to pitch journalists) when you neglect simple steps to increase the effectiveness of inbound PR (satisfying journalists who visit your website)?”
Hats off to Jakob for bringing yet another common sense solution the party.
Further reading:
Jakob Nielsen’s Alertbox newsletter
Article on creating media-friendly websites from The Side Road
Steve Rubel (Mirco Persuasion) on journalists’ frustrations with PR sites
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