Part
2
Is Your Website
Journalist-Friendly?
How
to Make Sure Your Site Meets Journalists' Needs
Contact information, press releases, backgrounders
and fact sheets, and information about image availability are
the basics of a good online press room, but there are many additional
things you can include as well:
Press Kits for New Exhibitions
Turn a sub-section of your online press room into a press kit
for a new exhibition. Include press releases, a backgrounder
and fact sheet, biographies of the artists or subjects, a photo
sample sheet, and links to any articles available online that
have been written about the exhibition.
Tip Sheets
The Middleberg/Ross studies have found that more than 50 percent
of journalists now use the Internet to find story ideas. Roger
Williams Park Zoo posts a tip
sheet outlining upcoming photo
opportunities and ideas for news features and live broadcast
remotes.
Posting consumer-oriented tip sheets is also a good idea.
Things like How to Turn Your Next Beach Walk Into a Treasure
Hunt, 6 Tips for Preserving Your Grandmother's Quilts,
or 7 Ways to Attract Butterflies to Your Garden are great
to include, for a couple of reasons: They're articles that can
be picked up and run verbatim, and they also help journalists
realize that your organization is a good resource for all kinds
of different stories.
Expert Sources
Reporters and writers visiting the Henry Ford Museum & Greenfield
Village press
room can find experts on everything from Christmas carols
to croquet. And the Canadian Museum of Nature's Need
an Expert? page offers a whole alphabet's worth of natural
science experts. From algae to zebra mussels, they've got it
covered. The Middleberg/Ross 2000 study found that 76 percent
of journalists now use the Internet to find expert sources, so
why not highlight your staff's expertise?
An important tip: Your experts page needs to have good search
engine rankings so that journalists searching for experts can
easily find it. Using the word "experts" and the phrase
"expert sources" in the page title and again several
times in the body copy will facilitate this. The Canadian Museum
of Nature, for example, could title its page Expert Sources -
Natural Science Experts at the Canadian Museum of Nature. On
the page itself, it could add "expert sources" to each
subject listing, ie. Expert Sources - Algae, Expert Sources -
Birds.
Press Clippings
Devote a sub-section of your press room to What the Press is
Saying About Us. Include links to any articles written about
your organization that are available online.
Advance Exhibition Schedule
Give the media a head start like the National
Gallery of Art does. Post an outline of your upcoming exhibitions.
Location Filming and Photography Guidelines
Include your photography and filming policies. The United States
Holocaust Memorial Museum lists theirs on a page in the press
kits section of their press
room. Monterey
Bay Aquarium offers a PDF download spelling out procedures
and fees for using the facility for location shoots of commercials,
magazine ads, movies and TV shows.
Other Important Tips to Make Your Site
Journalist-Friendly
Having an online press room
is only part of what's required. Here are other important things
to keep in mind:
Don't Require Press Registration
You wouldn't believe how many museum press rooms I visit that
require completion of an online registration form in order to
gain access. The thinking behind it, I suppose, is that registration
will keep the general public out and help build a media database
at the same time. But trust me on this: If you want to keep journalists
from writing about you, infuriating them with a required registration
form is absolutely the best way I know of to do it. Besides,
your press room should be available to everyone. Students, museum
professionals, members and potential donors may find the information
contained there helpful as well.
If you do want to include a form members of the media can
submit to be added to your distribution list, that's fine. Just
make it optional, like the registration
form used by The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza. And
don't be disappointed if you don't get a lot of sign-ups. At
least you'll know that the journalists who do register are truly
interested.
Keep Your Press Room Up to Date
There's no point in having an online press room if it contains
out-of-date information. And no journalist visiting your site
in 2002 is going to trust the credibility of any of your
information if they're greeted with "Coming March 1, 2001
-- A Major New Exhibition: Highlights from the Highlands!"
Keep your press room up to date.
Respond to All E-mail Inquiries
Don't let any e-mail press inquiries go unanswered. Answer every
single one you receive in a timely manner. If you're not able
to accommodate a journalist's request or you're unable to respond
before their press deadline, don't just ignore the e-mail. Send
an apology. And don't ever not respond just because you don't
recognize the name of the publication or you don't think it's
"important enough." You never know who else that journalist
might write for, or what major publication he or she might end
up at in the future. Journalists have long memories. Make their
memory of your organization a good one.
<< Back to Part One
Copyright © 2002 Katherine Khalife, www.MuseumMarketingTips.com
All rights reserved.
For reprint permission, please e-mail info@museummarketingtips.com
Katherine Khalife is a writer and consultant specializing in
museum and Internet marketing, customer service and heritage
cultural tourism. See the Services
section for information about her workshops and other services
or e-mail her at kkhalife@museummarketingtips.com
