Here is a fabulous article
we have discovered, written for Museum Marketing Tips, but
certainly relevant to all kinds of tourism businesses! Enjoy…
Is Your Website Journalist-Friendly?
How to Make Sure Your Site Meets Journalists' Needs
by Katherine Khalife
When journalists visit your website and look for information they
would need in order to write about you, can they find it? The
answer -- whether yours is a million-dollar site or one designed
by your
board president's 14-year-old nephew -- is a resounding "Probably
not." And as a result, your organization may be missing
out on valuable media opportunities.
As I surf the Web doing research for articles I'm writing, I'm
constantly amazed at how many sites bury necessary press information
or omit it entirely. PR contacts, basic facts about the organization,
press releases -- even phone numbers -- are sometimes impossible
to find. And particularly when I'm on a deadline, my decision of
whether to include an organization in a story is often influenced
by the information available on its website.
Lest you think I'm the only one who feels this way, studies conducted
in the past year by both Vocus and
the Nielsen Norman Group confirm
that I'm not alone. According to the Vocus survey, more than 90
percent of print journalists feel they waste half their time sifting
through a website's contents trying to find what they need. And
60 percent say that not finding it can cause them to pass over
a company they might otherwise write about.
With nine out of ten journalists now using the Internet to gather
material for stories they're writing or to do follow-up research
on pitches and releases they've received, it's imperative that
your website help, not hinder, your organization's PR efforts.
Lisa Bousquet, director of marketing and public relations at Roger
Williams Park Zoo in Providence, Rhode Island, knows this first-hand.
The zoo recently revamped all the press information on its website
because, Lisa says, "I had many a journalist complain that
he/she couldn't find what they needed. The overhaul has definitely
paid off for us."
It's also lightened the load on the zoo's small PR staff. Journalists
can now choose photos online and flesh out leads received in
news releases. "The press room has also made fact checking much
easier," Lisa adds. "I've had reporters tell me they've
used the site after covering a story to double-check admission
prices, dates of events, animal facts, etc. -- something they
used to have to do with a phone call."
To make sure that your organization's website is meeting writers'
and editors' needs, follow these important tips:
Include a Press Section
Whether you call it Press, Press Room, Press Releases, Media, Media
Information, News or News Room, a clearly labeled section of
your site should be earmarked for journalists. Ideally, a direct
link to that section should be available from your home page
and from every other page of your site as well. If that's not
possible, then at least be sure to provide a link to it from
your Information or About Us page.
And yes, even small organizations should provide a press section
on their sites. With so many reporters and writers out there in
cyberspace writing on so many different topics, the chances of
one happening upon your website at some point are a lot better
than you might expect. And you need to be ready for them when they
do.
Put the Emphasis on Information and Navigation
Journalists judge your press room by the quality of the information
it contains, not by how many bells and whistles it has. In fact,
state-of-the-art technology can actually work against you here.
Many writers are freelancers who, like me, use older computers
with older browsers and dial-up modems. Huge graphic files and
multimedia presentations are the bane of our Internet existence,
taking forever to load or crashing our computers in the process.
If you don't want to frustrate us, keep it simple.
The
Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza, and the Norman
Rockwell Museum at Stockbridge are two examples of institutions that "get
it" in this regard. And once journalists land in these press
rooms, they're not left stranded there. (Believe me, it happens!)
Links are provided back to the home page and to other parts of
the site for further information.
What Your Online Press Room Should Contain:
Complete PR Contact Information
Include your PR contacts' names, phone and fax numbers, e-mail
addresses, pager numbers if available, and your organization's
street and mailing addresses. This seems like a no-brainer,
doesn't it? But the number of websites that neglect to include
important
contact information is astounding. The Nielsen Norman Group
study found that although one of reporters' main reasons for
visiting
websites is to get a PR contact's phone number, 45 percent
of the time they can't find one. Many sites, in fact, include
nothing
but a generic PR e-mail address such as media@xyzmuseum.org.
To a journalist on a deadline, that's shorthand for "Somebody
here might get around to checking this mailbox in the next week
or two, and if you're lucky we may get back to you." In
other words, it's useless. You must provide a phone number.
I recommend putting full PR contact information right at
the top
of your press section's main page. Why make journalists hunt
for it? If you have a large PR department and need a separate
contact page in order to list everyone, then put a prominent
link to that page on the main page. Including contact information
for other organizations in your area can also be helpful.
Monterey Bay Aquarium's contact
page, for example, lists
the local Convention
and Visitors Bureau and other marine science resources.
Press Releases
In the Vocus survey, respondents ranked press releases as the
most important resource to include in an online news room.
When you
post yours to your site, here are some important things to keep
in mind:
Post them in HTML, not as PDF files or Word documents that have
to be downloaded in order to be read. Journalists don't care
about fancy formatting. They do care about finding information
and finding
it fast. And they'll often want to browse through a number
of releases, especially if they're gathering background information
or trying
to get a feel for your organization. Don't hinder that process
by expecting them to take the time to download each release
they
want to look at. They won't do it.
Make the title of the release a link to the full text, which should
be located on a page of its own. And be sure to include the original
date of the release next to the title.
The most recent releases should appear at the top of the list.
If you issue a lot of releases on different topics, consider grouping
them in categories. The Chicago
Botanic Garden and the National
Gallery of Art are two organizations that take this approach. When
determining which categories to use, keep in mind that reporters
cover different beats. Lifestyle editors and travel writers are
looking for different information than business reporters are.
And if you're planning a major new exhibition or a building expansion,
it makes sense to group all the related releases together.
If you distribute a release through a wire service, be sure you've
posted it -- and any supporting information -- to your own site
before the release goes out. That ensures that interested reporters
won't read the release, go to your site to do follow-up research
and feel like they've walked into an empty bakery.
Don't remove your old releases. Press release archives are a wonderful
resource for anyone researching an organization's growth and evolution.
That's one of the reasons why every release you post to your site
needs to have a date on it.
Backgrounders and Fact Sheets
In order to write about you, journalists first need to understand
who you are, what you do, and how you do it. Backgrounders and
fact sheets are the best way to relay that information.
Provide basic facts about your institution such as number of employees,
members and volunteers; annual attendance figures; number of objects
in your collections; and total operating budget. Also include a
brief overview of your collections, programs, facility and community,
a short history of your organization, and interesting bits of trivia
about your operation. All of this helps writers and editors put
your organization into context and identify the things that make
you unique and newsworthy.
You need to present this information in quickly scannable chunks,
not as an essay. Subheads, bullet lists and liberal use of white
space are good solutions. Journalists just want the facts, so keep
flowery brochure-talk to a minimum. And since they may not be fluent
in museum-speak, use laymen's terms. Here are a few good examples
of different types of pages you might want to include in your press
room:
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum: Fact Sheet
The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza: FAQ
Henry Ford Museum & Greenfield Village: Did You Know?
Sometimes, of course, using technical language and terms that
may be unfamiliar to reporters is unavoidable. The Canadian Museum
of Nature does a great job of addressing this with its palaeo-speak
page, Tips
for Science Journalists.
Image Availability
In the years 1995-1998, the annual Middleberg/Ross Media in Cyberspace
study found that fewer than 30 percent of journalists used
the Internet to find images. By 1999 that number had climbed
to 52
percent, and it's still rising. In fact, last year's Nielsen
Norman Group study found that downloading images to use in
stories is
now one of the top five reasons journalists visit company websites.
So it's important that your online press room contain information
about image availability.
Lisa Bousquet's recent experience confirms this. "Perhaps
the most used feature of our press room so far is the photo
menagerie.
Tis the season for summer travel guide requests -- a time when
many publications contact us asking for general "zoo" photos.
We've been referring them to the menagerie -- they choose what
they like from the low-res versions, then I send along high-res
versions."
The Norman Rockwell Museum at Stockbridge handles the image availablity
issue in this same way -- providing photo sample sheets in the
press kit resources section of its press
room. Monterey Bay Aquarium's
photo
library carries it a bit further. A sophisticated online
catalog of 60 images available in various resolutions and formats
is provided, with clear instructions for ordering by e-mail.
What else should your press room contain?
Contact information, press releases, backgrounders and fact sheets,
and information about image availability are the basics of a good
online press room, but there are many additional things you can
include as well:
Press Kits for New Exhibitions
Turn a sub-section of your online press room into a press kit for
a new exhibition. Include press releases, a backgrounder and
fact sheet, biographies of the artists or subjects, a photo sample
sheet, and links to any articles available online that have been
written about the exhibition.
Tip Sheets
The Middleberg/Ross studies have found that more than 50 percent
of journalists now use the Internet to find story ideas. Roger
Williams Park Zoo posts a tip
sheet outlining upcoming photo
opportunities and ideas for news features and live broadcast
remotes.
Posting consumer-oriented tip sheets is also a good idea. Things
like How to Turn Your Next Beach Walk Into a Treasure Hunt, 6 Tips
for Preserving Your Grandmother's Quilts, or 7 Ways to Attract
Butterflies to Your Garden are great to include, for a couple of
reasons: They're articles that can be picked up and run verbatim,
and they also help journalists realize that your organization is
a good resource for all kinds of different stories.
Expert Sources
Reporters and writers visiting the Henry Ford Museum & Greenfield
Village press
room can find experts on everything from Christmas
carols to croquet. And the Canadian Museum of Nature's Need
an Expert? page offers a whole alphabet's worth of natural science
experts. From algae to zebra mussels, they've got it covered.
The
Middleberg/Ross 2000 study found that 76 percent of journalists
now use the Internet to find expert sources, so why not highlight
your staff's expertise?
An important tip: Your experts page needs to have good search
engine rankings so that journalists searching for experts can
easily find it. Using the word "experts" and the phrase "expert
sources" in the page title and again several times in the
body copy will facilitate this. The Canadian Museum of Nature,
for example, could title its page Expert Sources - Natural Science
Experts at the Canadian Museum of Nature. On the page itself, it
could add "expert sources" to each subject listing,
ie. Expert Sources - Algae, Expert Sources - Birds.
Press Clippings
Devote a sub-section of your press room to What the Press is Saying
About Us. Include links to any articles written about your organization
that are available online.
Advance Exhibition Schedule
Give the media a head start like the National
Gallery of Art does.
Post an outline of your upcoming exhibitions.
Location Filming and Photography Guidelines
Include your photography and filming policies. The United States
Holocaust Memorial Museum lists theirs on a page in the press
kits section of their press
room. Monterey
Bay Aquarium offers
a PDF download spelling out procedures and fees for using the
facility for location shoots of commercials, magazine ads, movies
and TV shows.
Other Important Tips to Make Your Site Journalist-Friendly
Having an online press room is only part of what's required. Here
are other important things to keep in mind:
Don't Require Press Registration
You wouldn't believe how many museum press rooms I visit that require
completion of an online registration form in order to gain access.
The thinking behind it, I suppose, is that registration will
keep the general public out and help build a media database at
the same time. But trust me on this: If you want to keep journalists
from writing about you, infuriating them with a required registration
form is absolutely the best way I know of to do it. Besides,
your press room should be available to everyone. Students, museum
professionals, members and potential donors may find the information
contained there helpful as well.
If you do want to include a form members of the media can submit
to be added to your distribution list, that's fine. Just make it
optional, like the registration
form used by The Sixth Floor Museum
at Dealey Plaza. And don't be disappointed if you don't get a lot
of sign-ups. At least you'll know that the journalists who do register
are truly interested.
Keep Your Press Room Up to Date
There's no point in having an online press room if it contains
out-of-date information. And no journalist visiting your
site in 2002 is going to trust the credibility of any of your
information
if they're greeted with "Coming March 1, 2001 -- A Major
New Exhibition: Highlights from the Highlands!" Keep
your press room up to date.
Respond to All E-mail Inquiries
Don't let any e-mail press inquiries go unanswered. Answer every
single one you receive in a timely manner. If you're not
able to accommodate a journalist's request or you're unable
to respond
before their press deadline, don't just ignore the e-mail.
Send an apology. And don't ever not respond just because you
don't
recognize the name of the publication or you don't think
it's "important
enough." You never know who else that journalist might
write for, or what major publication he or she might end
up at in the
future. Journalists have long memories. Make their memory
of your organization a good one.
