3 Ways to Make Sure Your Web Site is Useless to Journalists

I've just completed another one of those writing assignments that reminded me that some organizations need help making their Web sites useful to the journalists they're courting for coverage of their events, activities or services.

With that in mind, here are three ways to make sure you keep people like me from giving you priceless free media exposure:

1. Let your ad agency design your Web site. Ad agency-designed sites are often the worst sites when it comes to information-gathering. Sure, they're nice looking -- maybe even nice enough looking to win a design award. But they tend to have minimal content, what's there is hard to find and in teeny tiny type, and the information can't be copied and pasted into a Word file -- making it useless for those of us who need the info and don't have time to retype it (if we can find it...).
2. Include a "Press Information" button that isn't active.
3. Make sure there's no phone number -- anywhere -- that we can call for information when we don't find it.

What gets in your way when you're trying to do research using Web sites of smaller organizations? Tell me about it. Let's whine together.

Make Your Web Site Media Friendly -- Please!

How easy is it for a journalist to find a media contact person on your Web site?If your site is like most of those I clicked around this week while gathering information for a magazine article assignment, you're making it harder than it should (or needs) to be. As soon as you make a journalist's job harder, you're increasing the odds that you won't get that valuable free media exposure known as publicity. Try these simple changes to increase the chances that you'll help a journalist do his or her job in a way that leads to free exposure for your business or organization:

• Add a "media contact" name, e-mail address, and phone number to your "Contact" page. This is the person who is authorized to answer or faciliate media inquiries. When the organization is too small to have a public relations professional on staff, this is often the marketing director or, at a nonprofit, the development director.
• Include a contact name, phone number and e-mail address on all of the press releases in your press room. It's surprising how many organizations large and small don't do this.
• Get rid of the fill-in-the-box template for inquiries. At least give us an info@xxx.com e-mail address. It doesn't matter how frequently you're checking the messages we type into those annoying templates -- we think they're a black hole and we don't trust them.

When I can't find the right person to contact quickly when I need answers, I give up and go to the competition's Web site. If they've done a better job of making their contact information available to me, that's who I call. And that's who gets the free exposure.

So...with just a few simple changes, you're not only helping me do my job more quickly and easily (and I will like you for that!), you're also helping your business reach its target audience through the press. There's nothing wrong with both of us coming out of this as winners.