[New Post] Make the Most of Your Online Newsroom with Multimedia

 

Blogs

Make the Most of Your Online Newsroom with Multimedia Emily Stulock Balancing strong content with rich multimedia is a necessity for any company's online newsroom. Not only does it set the tone for a captivating and informative user experience, assets such as PDFs and visual galleries can help you track interactivity through downloads, clicks and social sharing. Most PR professionals already know that including multimedia assets in press releases can boost visibility and engagement. However, it’s time to think beyond a single press release or image when addressing your visual strategy. Here are four ways to make the most of your brand’s multimedia in your online newsroom. Digital Press Kits Consider having a separate page within your media room for online press kits that serve as one-stop shops for journalists and other influencers. Housing digital press kits within your newsroom makes journalists' lives easier and helps you present a cohesive package of brand information. Unlike physical press kits, digital versions can be easily updated with minimal effort through media room editing tools. Ensure that your kits are downloadable, easily sharable and utilize responsive design for compatibility with different electronic devices. A well-crafted press kit should provide media contacts with all of the relevant information they need to write a story on deadline, such as your company overview, product information and recent media mentions. Include video footage, infographics, personnel headshots, product images, downloadable PDFs and other visual elements to diversify plain text and add appeal. Additionally, if you distribute press releases, most media rooms have the ability to auto-post release text and embedded images directly to your site via a feed. Of course, you can always manually add more multimedia to a release once it's been posted to your site. This option may be helpful for archival purposes or if you have assets that supplement your story’s primary visuals, but aren’t necessarily relevant to distribution recipients. Online Galleries A great way to add interactive visuals to your media room landing page is by displaying a slideshow as opposed to a single banner image. Whether you opt for a rotating timer or employ a manual click-through, slideshows can be enticing, informative features that enable visitors to see your newest, most important information within seconds. Consider embedding links to upcoming company events, annual reports and videos alongside traditional still images. Including a photo and video gallery within your media room is another option. When building your galleries, think about how they will visually appear on a webpage and how users will interact with them. Don't simply offer a thumbnail image or video link and call it a day; ideally, images should have interactive download options and videos should be embedded for immediate engagement. Enable registration securities on your high-resolution download options so that you know who has access to your high-quality images at all times. Don’t forget to include descriptive captions, attribution guidelines and other appropriate background information. Events and Presentations Adding a breakout box on a media room homepage is an easy way to increase content visibility. For instance, a breakout box can be used on an investor relations room to highlight a company’s next financial presentation or latest webcast. While the breakout box provides shareholders and site visitors with the essentials, supplementing it with downloadable assets like presentation slides will ensure audiences have all relevant context at their fingertips. Even if a webcast link expires, you can keep the event itself archived by displaying the pertinent documents. Breakout boxes can also be used to pull in content from other areas of your site on a rotating basis, such as recent press releases. Routine Updates Digital press kits, multimedia galleries and presentations are all useful tools to include in your online newsroom. Once you have these pieces in place, however, it's important to continually update them. Your media room or investor relations room is a living company asset that requires regular attention and upkeep. Online newsrooms can run into technological issues like any other website; check your media room daily to make sure links are working as they should, information is displaying properly and all subpages are navigable. Furthermore, update your multimedia accordingly as new webcast events are finalized, presentations are given, photos are taken and videos are released. Now that your online newsroom’s multimedia is pristine, download our white paper All Press Is Good Press: Best Practices for Creating Media-Friendly Content. Learn how to engage media contacts and get more tips that will increase your chance of editorial coverage. Author Emily Stulock is a product advocate at PR Newswire, assisting clients with MediaRoom and PR Newswire's other platforms. MediaRoom helps communications professionals share information and connect with multiple audiences through branded microsites. Visit here to learn more.

If you no longer wish to receive these emails, click on the following link: Unsubscribe