Throughout my blog I’ve been calling newsrooms that exist on the Web, online newsrooms and social media newsrooms. What’s the difference? The 2.0 social media newsroom is more enhanced with searchable databases, video presentations, podcasts, and to-the-point news releases. It covers the basis of everything multimedia and does so with precision. The online newsroom is more traditional, in the sense that is has the basics: contacts, search feature, backgrounders, current events (news releases) and maybe an image gallery or two; all downloadable, of course.
Ford Motor Company is an example of a fancy 2.0 newsroom. The page proves that smaller companies do not have an excuse to have sloppy organizational structure. If a large company was able to organize the vast information not just through news releases with text but also high-resolution photos and video, any company with the proper tools should be able to succeed in creating a well-designed and organized social media newsroom complete with bells, whistles and maybe some tinsel for extra glitz.
In Chapter 6 of PR 2.0 titled Interactive Newsrooms: How to attract the media, Ibery Woodall of TEKgroup International, mentioned her top three newsroom leaders one being the Ford Motor Company. While reading PR 2.0 I found it particularly interesting that the news was divided into corporate and consumer sections, catering to both the internal and external constituents. Going back to look at the site, I found no such segregation and was a bit disappointed, my high hopes for this social media newsroom was diminishing. It’s crazy how fast the Web can change, considering that PR 2.0 was published just a year ago. The next element Woodall mentioned was the Bio section, which not only gave background information on the executive members of the company, but speeches and quotes. Checking back today, I found no previous speeches or quotes just drawn out bio of the executive. Snooze. With two strikes against them, Ford Motors recovers with a layered organization of the brands under their umbrella. Each brand page has their own news page with links to specific news on a specific model. These pages are complete with news releases, photos and videos. Finally, a new element that I have not seen before in other traditional online newsrooms is the personal folders element or “briefcase” as it is commonly labeled. The briefcase allows the journalist or whomever to save what they have researched allowing them to revisit the site and immediately see their previously viewed new releases, photos, videos, etc. Never again will journalists have to bookmark the page on their computer or search the company’s site over and over again trying to locate that one article that now seems to be lost in cyberspace. Instead the briefcase saves only the items reviewed within the company, and all the journalist has to do is click the briefcase icon. Research made easy, and for journalists the easier the better.
The briefcase icon is labeled by the red arrow.
The following video is a great summary on what should be included in a social media news release and how it differs from the traditional news releases. While you watch focus on the number of ways readers can read, share and interact.
Social Media News/Press Release by RealWire from WebitPR
It truly is amazing at how fast the world of online technologies is changing. To me, it is strange that a book published a year ago is already becoming outdated, but the speed that tech experts are creating these new technologies is astounding. I had never heard of this new “briefcase” application that companies can add to their online newsrooms until I read your post. It is hard to believe that there are now easier ways to retrieve information on the Web than just bookmarking your favorite sites. Now journalists don’t have to worry about losing track of information they find on a company’s website since all they have to do is press a button and it will be saved for them. At this rate, by the time we finish this class and graduate there may even be a newer trend that makes retrieving information even easier.
With new technologies and tools available it seems as if everything a journalist wants is now at their finger tips. I couldn’t even imagine back when you had to make phone calls or search newspaper clippings and could not access a podcast from the top management! If I were a journalist I would almost expect to have an up-to-date newsrooms available to reference if I am working with a company. It seems like Ford has done an excellent job making everything available to journalists.