As I've mentioned here before, it's vital that small- and home-based businesses take advantage of marketing and PR options now available thanks to the Internet. We've already gone over the importance of having a website and some of the sections I consider essential for the site, right? Let's focus on an area that is often seen on large corporate sites, but underutilized by small businesses: the press room.
First of all, make sure your press room area is professional and polished. As always, check for typos and grammatical errors. Some members of the media may forgive you a typo or two if your subject matter offers really great copy, but others will make a snap judgement that you aren't worth their time or an expert in your field if your presentation isn't excellent. It's rather like showing up at a press conference with your hair mussed and your shirt stained and untucked. A few "absent-minded professor" types may be able to get away with this, but the rest of us will make an unsatisfactory impression, whether we've got sloppy clothes or a sloppy press room.
Secondly, keep it up to date. Many members of the media are performing their research and investigation tasks online these days. A website that hasn't been updated in months (or worse, a year!) will tell a reporter that the information they are getting probably isn't the most current. Keep in mind that blogs can fall behind even faster. An active blogger will have at least one fresh entry every other day, while incredibly active bloggers will have entries daily or even several times a day. If your last post was a month ago, blogging may not be the most effective way to go. Consider sticking with updating the home page of your site each month instead.
Don't forget press releases! Be sure that your online press room has links to the releases you've sent out, even if you already used a release distribution service to spread the news about new products or services. Folks who are researching your company or industry don't want to dig through the archives at eight different free release agencies. They want, no, they need information at their fingertips. Use the title of your release as the live link to the page, that way reporters can find exactly what they are looking for. (One more reason to have snazzy titles that are also self-explanatory!)
There are a bunch of great tips for building an online press room over at SmartBiz.com, thanks to Drew Gerber of Press Kit 24/7. Go read his article, "Better Marketing with Online Press Kits", for some very important do's and don'ts. Then get started on your press room...and leave me a comment with the link to it when you're done!
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