Right now, while you're reading this, reporters might be at your company’s web site without you knowing it, snooping around to see if the company is interesting enough to warrant a story.
If they don't like what they see, they'll bail out, never to be heard from again.
Lots of people believe that one of the secrets of promoting yourself online is to have online media kit. That's true. But before you develop your online media kit, it's important to make sure that your base web site is ready for traffic. Only after that's done is it time to get the online media kit up and running.
Here are some of the most egregious sins at corporate web sites that confuse, offend and generally turn off visitors, including the media:
|
|
- Home pages with big, clunky photos that cause sites to load too slowly.
- "Wallpaper" backgrounds usually made up of the company’s logo repeated in row after row. Then type is slapped on top of it. It’s like reading print on top of as picture, and often it’s illegible.
- Hard-to-find addresses, phone and fax numbers and e-mail addresses. I once found a web site for a public relations company that had the phone number buried three layers into the site. Don't hide this information under a "Contact Us" key either. Post it right out there on the home page, or better yet, on the footer of every page of the site.
- Information that makes the site look outdated. For example, the phrase "We can deliver in time for Christmas!" should only be on your site during the last few days prior to Christmas, and certainly shouldn't be there after December 24th!
- Poor-quality electronic photos. You can post images to the web in other than the 72dpi format that most web-based image files are set at. However, because of the compression incorporated with the various formats for web-based images, they aren't ideal files for print media. If you want to make print-ready images available at your site you should link to a high-resolution version of the image that will only download to the visitor’s system once they've clicked the link.
- Things that flash, make noise, move back and forth and generally distract the reader. This technique was interesting when first introduced. But so many companies abuse it that their home pages look like a carnival midway. And it’s annoying.
Once your site is generically ready for the big time, then it's time to get your online media kit up and running.
Here's a special report that shows more information on how to prepare your site for media visits and how to create your own online media kit.
How To Create an Online Media Room- and Keep the Media Coming Back
Posted June 23, 2004
More Public Relations / Publicity Comments:« Public Relations Disasters: A Dozen Press Releases From Hell and How to Fix Them
Public Relations and Publicity Blog
