Tuesday, July 10, 2007

PR Needs to Be Journo Friendly

I like many reporters/bloggers spend a fair amount of time reading press releases to stay better informed and to find things for me to write about. So in this era of corporate blogging and consumer-friendliness, why do some companies make it so hard for the media to contact them?

My blood pressure rises whenever I see a release from a company that I want to talk to, but they keep their contact information cloistered away from the very people who need to contact them. I still see countless press releases with no contact phone number and email address. That is inexcusable. Companies may have to deal with unwanted calls from "the great unwashed," but every writer who bails on sending an email because the company doesn't make it easy to contact them is a huge opportunity lost. While companies don't want to waste precious PR resources answering queries from the public, think of how happy consumers who get a response from a company will be? Isn't that a valuable communication?

Part of website optimization for any commercial venture should include prominent placement of a link for the media to contact the site. And that does NOT mean filling out some random form or submitting an email to info@blahblahblah.com. This means a real name, phone number and email address. Companies that want bloggers and scribes to cover them need to be accessible, and media coverage can do wonders beyond what keyword buys or a smartly designed website. So if you want coverage from this guy, stop barring the windows, and invite me in.

By John Gartner at 10:15 AM | Comments (0)

Post a Comment

Name:
Email:
WebSite:
Comment:
Remember Me
Subscribe