Leverage Your Online Press Room
Online press rooms give interested journalists easy access to the information they need to cover your cause and organization. Well-managed online press rooms provide reporters with a frequently updated source for story ideas. They are also popular with internet users looking for updates on the topics they care about.
Your press room should be easily accessible from your website's homepage. Include a clearly marked link to guide journalists and other users who stumble upon your site from a general search. At minimum, your online press room should include:
- contact information
- recent and historical press releases (in printable and downloadable PDF formats)
- links to prior media coverage
- descriptions of your mission, program services, and advocacy perspectives
- high-resolution photos that depict the advocacy problem or solution
- executive and key staff photos and biographies
- company history
Consider syndicating your press room. This will allow journalists to subscribe to your posts through an RSS syndication feed and receive regular updates from your organization. Whenever you post a new press release, registered users will be notified.
You can improve your website's search engine ranking by optimizing the content in your press room. Be sure to use keyphrases in the URL, title tag, and keyword meta tag for each article or press release. Also use keyphrases in your image titles and descriptions.
The American Red Cross provides an example of a well-constructed press room (http://redcross.org/press/). Interested journalists are given the latest news stories involving the organization, a media contact page, leadership biographies, an updated annual report, compelling photos with easy-to-understand copyright use information, and a wealth of other resources. The press room makes it easy for media professionals to help the organization by providing ready-to-use television, radio, and print public service announcements as well as internet banners.
