What exactly is an online press room? It’s the section of your website that you dedicate to storing the information that is created for the sole purpose of press. Items like press releases, your latest news, product launches, and new product info. They are not difficult to create. And actually, if you already have a media kit, which house items like your company fact sheet, frequently asked questions, and bios, you already have the building blocks for your Press Relations Media Kit.
Your online press room differs from from your hard copy media kit in that it supplies the most up to date info about your company. At least it should. This area of your site is utilized by journalist for research purposes to report on your company. The most important aspect is up to date. Nothing hurts more than having old and obsolete company information.

Your Online Press Rooms needs to have the traditional items a normal media kit contains. But since this is online you need to utilize all that being online affords. Items like, graphic content, interactive materials, and links to other items such as downloadable articles.

Another thing you can do to add more buzz to event or release that you deem newsxworthy is write your own news story regarding it. This way when a journalist comes across it, they can decide if it is truly newsworthy and when the do their own story they already have a structure to do their story and they are not starting from square one. Might be the added nudge for them to actually do press for you. Make sure to write it in a way that best shows your company’s view.

You have to make sure you are creating new content for every release. This will ensure your online press room is growing. After you have done this for a short time you will need to begin to organize the content by categories. Another good tip is to archive all the content you have created. This will make it easier and more efficient for journalist to sift through your info available. If it’s not easily retrievable for them, they are most likely going to move on to where it is.

Now we realize this looks like a lot of time and effort especially when there is no guarantee of any news coverage coming from it. Just keep in mind the companies that have developed their Public Relations Media Kit and have received news coverage are very happy and are reaping major benefits. There are benefits that are not directly related to news coverage that might entice you to put some efforts in. It will help in areas of SEO because of the keywords you will be using to link to your content. And it can be the final piece that a company reads when researching your company and deciding on whether to use your company or not.

In the end though, the main objective here is trying to receive media coverage. The only way to do that is to create your Online Press Room. It may take time and effort without results right away. But if you take the time to it right you should be successful in this objective. Being successful in this objective means major success for your company.