Comnicate Blog – Online Newsrooms

The concept of subscribing is becoming less about receiving annoying junk spam, and more about quick delivery of specified information and Facebook updates on our nearest and dearest. In fact many good marketing campaigns rely on a stable subscriber list to have their best impact.

Comnicate has a few easy tips on building a subscriber list that will go the extra mile for your business:

Just Ask. One of the most important aspects of a subscriber list is having readers who want to be there. Using your social member outlets is a good way of getting the word out about your search for subscribers, and rather than using sneaky tactics to get their email address, they can volunteer the information and you are well on your way to a loyal subscriber list!

Be Selective. It is important to know your key buyer personas, using this information you are able to better target your best potential subscribers. Reach out to them through channels they are familiar with and connect with your industry peers. Having a full understanding of your industry is key to having an influence part within it.

Have an Incentive. Encouraging people to subscribe can always be sweetened with a nice freebie or welcome gift. Make sure your incentive is in keeping with your company products and services, as obscure gifts can send mixed and confusing signals to potential clients and subscribers.

Be a Subscriber. By subscribing to other newsletters, and generally having a finger on the industry pulse will ensure that your publications are of better quality. This in turn, is crucial to expanding your own customer base. Understanding your audiences and what content will work for your newsletter will ensure your message sticks.

While being recognised as the experts within your market is the ultimate goal, it does not happen overnight. Owning your niche takes time, knowledge, respect and learning, a lot of learning! First you must establish your niche, who are your commentators and where do you sit in the pecking order?

Here at Comnicate, we have been thinking about niche markets and how important they are to business, and growing your company. So we have put together a few things you can do to begin the building blocks of being the expert of your niche.

Build an Internet Presence

This might seem obvious, but it is absolutely one of the best, most cost effective ways to build your niche reputation, even if you are a bricks and mortar business. Starting a blog and filling your website with useful content is key to showing off your expertise and building a strong, loyal customer base. Social media is also a great way to expand your network and customer base.

Publish Articles or Newsletters

Once a subscriber list is created you can share useful industry-based articles, publish your own newsletters or send out offers to your clients. Articles are also a great ways to get your company name and knowledge out there. By building your credibility through useful and interesting publications, you are also building your business, your expertise and your potential to dominate your niche.

Give Speeches

Nothing screams expert more than a useful and well-heard speech. There are always plenty of opportunities where you can offer your services to speak free, but choose your venues carefully and ensure it relates to your niche market, it is always important that your engagements enhance your integrity and credibiltiy. Once your reputation of expert is established you can begin to charge for your speech-giving services.

Another important element of stakeholder communicate is social media, which provides enhanced engagement, especially when it results in change and innovated thinking. Think of your social media channels as the busiest of your Spokes, and how you can use them to to benefit and humanise your main Hub.

• Twitter is a useful conversational medium and website promotional medium that can drive traffic back to your website and newsroom. It enables the stakeholders that are Twitter savvy, to follow you via a medium that suits them. Twitter is a particularly valuable tool for handling communications, enabling your organisation to monitor and react to critical or problematic situations, and do so quickly.
• Facebook is great for small updates, back links to drive traffic to your website and newsroom, and other updates of use to stakeholders; it is is a secondary platform to Twitter for stakeholder dialogue and issues management. But it has other areas where it is well suited such as for competitions, polls and similar engagement activity that will suit some businesses.
• YouTube for video, and Flickr for photos, are very useful repositories for digital assets to push to your Facebook and Blog.

A key part of your communications strategy should be to build adatabase of social media followers with the aim of broadening your corporate profile and lifting your brand. There is no doubt that social media does enable an organisation to tap into a broad section of the marketplace and demographics and to do so at a low cost.

Remember that it is important that your social media platforms always drive traffic back to your main Website (Hub) where you can engage with stakeholders without all the distractions (ie banner advertising etc) that occur on social media sites. If you are still not convinced, check out 5 reasons your Hub needs social media Spokes.

Organisations that utilise social media will need to find a balance between how muchdiscussion and dialoguethey can comfortably handle, and the extent to which they want to broadcast their own news in a controlled manner. In the social media world, it all about balance.

When devising a communication strategy, it is important to look at the possible communication elements of the organisation. If you think of your Website as the Hub and the central domain, then you can begin to organise and prioritise your other platforms as the Spokes.

With your Website or Newsroom as the Hub, your spokes could then be made up of your company blog, social media, press releases and or Podcasts etc. It is then necessary to consider the role of each platform:

• Website / Corporate Newsroom Hub- The Newsroom area of your Website should be the trusted source of breaking news where journalist and stakeholders go to or subscribe, to get the latest information about your business. It is the control tower for your communications strategy, and the central location from where authentic company news is released. It should be the trusted source of all company information that you release externally.
• Blog – Your Blog is an auxiliary website or web location, where your opinions, ideas, or recent activities can be shared in a less structured way. It is also a good place for sharing ongoing thought leadership and insights that may be of interest to your stakeholders.

The starting point for devising a communication strategy is to think about the role of your Website. This is important because your Website is your property that your business has ownership of. Then consider how your Website fits with the various social media platforms that your business might seek to use such as Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube and more which we will discuss in Part 2.

What communication channels are right for your business? Which are the most popular? How can we get our communications and messages to stakeholders and followers? These are questions we are often asked here at Comnicate.

As a result we investigated the digital media approach for a wide range of organisations worldwide, and it is clear that there are four (4) popular communications channels used by businesses. They are the Company Online Newsroom, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

Let us consider each of these channels and the benefits of each.

Company Online Newsroom

The Online Newsroom was originally deployed by major companies like IBM, BMW, SONY etc. and is now used by medium to large businesses alike. It is usually found on a company’s website under a menu button called ‘News’. The Newroom is the place where businesses can ‘aggregate and then send’ all media communications to journalists, stakeholders, and social media channels. The better newsrooms include a library where documents, photos, videos and podcasts can be found.

Online Newsroom benefits include:

• Company press releases and news announcements are easily distributed. Newsrooms drive greater traffic to the main company website, and thereby increases SEO.
• Provides news distribution via social media sites, RSS feeds, Email, and direct download. Shows that the business is serious about communicating its news.
• Other capabilities include Crisis Management, Industry News Re-Broadcasting for thought leadership, news tracking, and more.
• Provides links to the Stock Exchange, News Distribution Services and similar gateways.

Negatives – Online Newsrooms are more for medium and large businesses as they needs to be kept up to date with fresh content.

Facebook

• Facebookers can share their interests and thereby promote a company’s products and services.
• Very good as a fan page for businesses where this is useful, allowing discussions and comments by followers.
• Can be used for gauging feedback and opinions from customers, and to share that information with others.
• Can be used as atoolfor driving promotions, polls, competitions.
• Allows paid advertising of a businesses products orservicesto consumers.

Negatives – It is less suited to B2B companies, its embedded advertising can detract, and there are continuing concerns about privacy.

Twitter

Twitter is an online social networking service that enables users to send and read text-based messages of up to 140 characters. It is successfully being used as a pure commentary platform. It is a great tool to use to show the human side of your company. Twitter is also useful for opinion polls, and as a back channel talk-tool at events to feed and collate questions to speakers.

Twitter benefits include:

• To provide customer service information to customers, and communicating with the public.
• Providing answers to specific company products and services.
• As a listening tool to hear what others are saying about your company, and competitors.
• Raising the profile of key staff members, and as a beneficial consequence, raising your company profile.
• Excellent calling card to increase an executives’ one-on-one connections and to open doors to new relationships.

Negatives – More of a specialised communications tool, limited capabilities of 140 character messages, not a fully-featured communications platform.

LinkedIn

LinkedIn is a large professional network that connects business people to other business people. By linking together professional people, it provides useful information about companies. In that respect it is a great tool for finding information about people and companies. It is an excellent networking tool. It is less effective in helping businesses to promote their products and services.

LinkedIn benefits include:

• To help executives and team members increase their connections, and lift their professional profile.
• A tool to advertise your company jobs.
• Useful to learn about your competitors organisational structure.
• Has an excellent ‘Groups’ capability where people can share information, dialogue, and learn from other professionals.

Negatives – Can give competitors an insight into your personnel and company structure. Seen as a weak business communications tool.

Google+

Google+ is a new player and the obvious question is where does it fit in?

It is expected that Google+ will be a successful social media tool in the future, although it still needs development to get the ‘user experience’ right. Google+ Pages is meant for use by business and at this time appears more for B2C. Its ultimate value as a business communications tool is still to be determined.

Adoption rates of Google+ have been moderate, as most people are already experiencing social media overload with their existing platforms, and the idea of learning another social media platform is causing some resistance. Also the existing social media competitors are fighting back aggressively, and Apple, IBM and Microsoft are also trying to undermine Google’s drive in the marketplace. Consequently Google+ may take longer to become entrenched, and its ability to erode market share away from the competition will be interesting to watch.

Summary

So which of these channels should you use for your business? This question is really business specific and difficult to answer without analysing your business environment and future needs. However, the sooner you start to use these communications resources the better off your company will be. As per the adage, the sooner your company sows the seeds, the sooner your company will reap the rewards. So do not delay. If necessary – seek outside help – but do not let your competitors gain a tactical advantage.

About Comnicate – Comnicate Media provides Online Newsrooms with full social media integration. So regardless of the communications channels that you decide to use for your business, our Online Newsroom called NewCentre will automatically populate all your communications channels – and in just one-click.

This week at Comnicate, we have been thinking about recent PR misjudgements, blunders and all-out disasters. Some that spring to mind are the Australian Labor Party or the collapse of AirAustralia. While these may be extreme examples of damaging public relations, no company is immune to a bout of bad PR. There are endless ways, of course to avoid the defamation of your organisation, these usually begin at the grass roots.

However if you do happen to find yourself in a spot of PR bother, it is important to have a well-thought out plan to combat further damage to your reputation. As with most companies, your website may be the easiest route of access to your business, and in this situation must be used to your biggest advantage. This is where your newsroom can be your most important asset.

Depending on the severity of your PR calamity, good judgement and advice should be fostered to decide on your response. Often companies make the mistake of hoping the storm will quickly blow-over, and their reaction is either too little, too late or non-existent. This is a dangerous situation as it can often cause already angry customers, to become even more furious.

Crisis Management is one of the most important tools of your newsroom, and should be able to submit a detailed and specific response to PR errors, or all-out disasters. Not only can you use it to quickly engage your social media channels but it is also a professional and considered point of reference to smooth over those blunders.

The growth of the internet and online news outlets means that the realm and everyday work for journalists is becoming increasingly web-centric. According to a recent survey, around 97% of journalists use online corporate newsrooms to keep up to date with company portfolios and company information.

Comnicate believes that without an online newsroom, your company is potentially missing out on crucial media coverage and publicity that it could be much more effectively leveraging. By ensuring that your public relations contact details are accessible around the clock means time saved for your company and for journalists, who will not have to wait for opening hours to call and request these details.

It is important that your newsroom also speaks volumes about your credibility and professionalism. Added published media articles will give journalists a complete overview about what other journalists have said about your company and provide a solid company synopsis.

Our newsroom is a good example of a media room which gives journalists and PR professionals access to a number of multimedia and company information including, videos, PR contact details, images and press releases.

With many things, not just journalism, moving online it is important that your company has a positive and impressive online presence.

Looking for ways to promote your business better? Is there a tool that other companies are using to promote their brand, and one you are missing out? The answer is a nifty website solution called the Online Newsroom.

An Online Newsroom is of great benefit to any company, and key to any search engine optimization (SEO) efforts by your company to get the visitations that are so important. A recent study showed that journalists and site users (your prospects and customers) expect you to have an online newsroom as part of your website.

So what exactly is an Online Newsroom?

An online newsroom is a microsite that is part of your main website, dedicated to sharing your organizations news and information. With an online newsroom your business can self-publish news and announcements, integrate your social media, communicate with your stakeholders including customers, suppliers, supporters, employees, shareholders, business partners, industry thought-leaders, and more. The newsroom also enables journalists to track your organisation, subscribe to your RSS feeds and receive your regular updates. Its also your storage library for digital assets, including your public documents, photos, graphics, even videos.

A newsroom is valuable to businesses that want to build good relationships with their stakeholders and audiences. These stakeholders have a direct impact on the success of your business. And if a business is unable to give them the information that they expect, they may goelsewhere.

A newsroom addresses this need and provides the perfect media tool to embrace your audiences. It allows company announcements to be sent to all stakeholders, in multiple digital formats, via multiple gateways, and viewed on different devices or appliances. It also provides an overall framework for managing your social media.

The great thing about an online newsroom, is that you dont need to design and build one. At Comnicate Media, we specialise in building newsrooms that will work with, and mirror, any existing website. Click here to see an example of a Comnicate Newsroom.

Some of the typical features of a newsroom include:

Permanent Library for Announcements, Photos, Graphics, Video
News & Press Announcements Dispatched with One -Click
Inbound Public News Feeds and Re-Broadcasting (Industry News Sharing)
Inbound News Feeds from your Social Media sites (back linking)
Secure News Area (For Journalists)
Email facilities for sending out your news
Access Buttons to Social Media like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc
Investor Updates and/or Stock Exchange Announcements
Employee News Management – Identification, Collaboration, Distribution
Inbuilt Video & Storage
External Video Access (i.e. YouTube)
Inbuilt Voice Podcasting & Storage
Crisis Management Communications
Analytics Information to measure the performance of all media communications
Google, Yahoo, Bing, Search Engine Optimisation
Hierarchical User Access Security Levels

The great thing about an online newsroom, is that Comnicate has made it very easy. Comnicate Media provides cloud-based newsroom solutions that will mirror your existing and future websites. In fact – you can have your newsroom up and running in a day. Remember, if you are planning to build a new website, dont waste thousands on unecessssary softwaredevelopment, just add a Comnicate newsroom to your new website. And we keep the newsroom software up-to-date with best-practice features and functions.

Comnicate is always keeping their finger on the Newsroom pulse, and with all this information we have put together a few of our Best Practices for online Newsrooms. If these few are not enough, make sure you check out the full version of our 21 Point Checklist Best Social Media Newsroom.

To begin with the basis of any media or newsroom is simple; make your content accessible and easy to share with others. Beyond this, there are a number of practices that can be used to leverage the aptitude of your corporate newsroom.

Here are our top 3:

1. Easy News Access – Making sure your media newsrooms is easily found is one of the most important things you can do for your company and its online presence. A clear and concise link to your newsroom should be prominently displayed on the main page of your website, we suggest a name that is easily recognisable with its function like Media Centre or Newsroom. You may also want to consider your SEO; your page should be able to be found from all major search engines, if youe struggling with your SEO strategy, check out our handy tips.

2. Fast Access to PR Contacts - Contact details for the Public Relations representative of your company should be openly shared and easily found. Some websites tend to be somewhat secretive with these details. Often you are confronted with a maze of clicks before you finally stumble across an email address, only to find an ambiguous, general info address. You may even want to consider listing the contact details of your PR rep on multiple pages of your newsroom, as well as a central directory.

3. News release in Optimized format – Your most recent media releases and posts should be the first seen by visitors to your newsroom. Professional newsrooms present each release with a headline, date and one-line summary. It is important that your releases are clear and labelled. It is also imperative that these posts can be easily shared and forwarded. Incorporating social media tools will ensure that the sharing process is smooth and seamless.

For some ideas of format and design check out our Newsroom.

In past posts we have looked at how social media humanises your business and how trends influence online marketing strategies. This year we have watched the growth in individualised marketing trends on a very micro level. Companies are using online platforms like Twitter to answer every beck and call of their humble customer. For example, when an avid customer of an American steak delivery company tweeted, wishing for a steak upon his arrival at an airport, his wish was granted by a tuxedo-clad employee.

Comnicate has been fascinated by a number of these stories that have come out this year and believe that it is the answer to many online marketing dilemmas of today. The internet opens the door to a huge network of people and information. It is easy to be overwhelmed by such immensity, and many businesses realise their insignificance among the vastness of online corporations. Success lies in reversing this trend and using the internet to reach out to customers on the most individual level possible, and really listen to them.

Small and large businesses alike, can benefit from engaging with customers online, here are a few more tips to get your creative juices flowing:

- Add a photo and tagline to your Facebook or Twitter account.

- Solve at least one customer pain point a week, even if this means seeking them out.

- Ask your customers questions, keep them relevant to your business, and you might be surprised where their answers take you.

- Put aside dedicated time each day or each week to focus on your social media platforms.

- Speak to customers as equals, not as a business and follow up on things that you discuss.