Online Media Rooms Should Appeal to Everyone - Not Just Journalists, Says Viral Marketing Expert
According to David Meerman Scott, author of The New Rules of Marketing & PR: How to use news releases, blogs, podcasts, viral marketing & online media to reach your buyers directly, the online media room (sometimes called a press room or press page) is not just for the media. It is one of the best ways to introduce prospects to your business.
Lexington, MA (PRWEB) May 8, 2007 -- The online media room, part of many organizations Web sites, is one of the most powerful yet least understood tools for educating buyers, says David Meerman Scott, online thought leadership strategist and author of "The New Rules of Marketing & PR: How to use news releases, blogs, podcasts, viral marketing & online media to reach your buyers directly."
"Most marketers and PR professionals know the online media room as the part of an organization's Web site that is created specifically for the media," Scott says. "But very few people understand something that is vitally important: all kinds of people visit online media rooms, not just journalists. The fact is, online media rooms are one of the most powerful ways to tell an organization's story to all constituents: customers, prospects, partners, even employees."
Scott says that buyers frequently snoop around organizations by visiting the media pages on Web sites. Why is that? Based on his research, Scott says that when people want to know what's current about an organization, they go to an online media room. Visitors expect that the main pages of a Web site are basically static (i.e., they do not update often), but they also expect that the news releases and media-targeted pages on a site will reveal the very latest about a company.
"For many companies, the news release section is one of the most frequently visited parts of the Web site," Scott says. "Marketers need to create an online media room that is for more than just journalists. I've reviewed hundreds of online media rooms, and the best ones are built with buyers in mind. The organization of the online media room should be based visitors needs, not on a company's egotistical perspective. This approach may sound a bit radical, but believe me, it works."
Scott suggests creating different links to targeted news releases in the online media room based on buyers (maybe by vertical market or some other demographic factor appropriate to an organization). The pages might be organized by geography, or by market served. Most organizations simply list news releases in reverse-chronological order (the newest release is at the top of the page, and ones from last year are hidden away somewhere). While this is fine for the main news release page, organizations need to have additional navigation links so people can browse the releases.
In his new book, Scott provides new rules for online media rooms. With extensive case studies and how to information, Scott shows marketers and PR professionals at agencies as well as those who work for companies, nonprofits, and other organizations how to reach buyers directly with online content that people want to consume. "The New Rules of Marketing & PR: How to use news releases, blogs, podcasts, viral marketing & online media to reach your buyers directly" will be published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. in June 2007. The book, featuring a foreword by Robert Scoble, Vice President Media Development at PodTech.net, co-author of Naked Conversations, and one of the world's most popular bloggers at Scobleizer.com is available for pre-order at Amazon.com, BarnesAndNoble.com and wherever business books are sold. ISBN: 0-470-11345-6
David Meerman Scott is an online thought leadership and viral marketing strategist. The programs he has developed have won numerous awards and are responsible for selling over one billion dollars in products and services worldwide. He is also an instructor for Pragmatic Marketing and he has lived and worked in New York, Tokyo, Boston, and Hong Kong and has presented at industry conferences and events in over twenty countries on four continents.
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