Online Press Rooms

A friend of mine asked me today what I know about online pressrooms. I happened to have a load of links about this since I researched it last year.

There are a few trends that I think are most important for an online press room:

1. Add contact info. I think most people don't want to do this, or take contact info off, because they get unwanted calls from the general public. In my old job, I got tons of calls from people that wanted a free house, usually with really sad stories. Still, you need to provide the info. I think Hallmark's Pressroom does this well. Click on one of their press releases to see what I mean.

2. Make sure everything, including downloadable high resolution (3×5, 300 dpi) photos are easily available. Coca-Cola has an easy-to-get-to photo/image gallery, with links to it from each press release.

3. Make sure you can make changes to the site without waiting for IT. There is software out there you can use. One is iPressrooom, but I have never used it so can't recommend it. I am sure there are others out there. Post any that you know of in the comments section.

4. Consider adding an RSS feed. RSS syndicates your site so that you can add it to an aggregator. I use MyYahoo as my aggregator. That way, if a media resource covers you, they can add your releases to their aggregator. I use it to read my favorite news resources (such as San Antonio Express News) and blogs in one place. In other words, it saves time and the media will eventually figure this out.

I recently added RSS feed to Commuincation Overtones (today actually). To add it to your aggregator use the URL http://feeds.feedburner.com/communicationovertones. You can also click on the RSS feed button on the right and choose your aggregator from there.

In the meanwhile, there are a few free services I would recommend:

Feedburner (the one I used)
Software Garden (PRSA uses this one in its pressroom)