The NASDAQ OMX Communications Suite team yesterday presented a webinar on “The role of the online newsroom in the age of social media”, highlighting an ever-increasing need in Corporate Communications for such a media hub.
The webinar was hosted by NASDAQ OMX VP, Sam Phillips, who gave us an industry background of an ever-expanding media universe and brand conversations, and also an increased need for companies to be transparent and accountable. Part of that means readily available information and resources, and in a social media driven environment, these must be easy to find and share. We were also fortunate to be joined by Stacy-Marie Ishmael, writer, blogger and former FT journalist, and Hector Marinez, Senior Corporate Communications Manager at global technology company, Nvidia, both of whom shared some excellent insights into how best to achieve this.
As a journalist, Stacy-Marie focused on the ever-increasing time and resource pressures on media publishers, and how we, as content publishers ourselves for our companies, can make journalists’ lives easier. There is no longer the traditional next-day deadline – all journalists are now like wire journalists, argued Stacy, with copy being filed on-line first with very quick turnaround. Few outlets also have the luxury of a picture desk, yet readers are keen for a rich media experience.
A media center can help journalists by centralizing all of a company’s resources (whether IR or PR), with easily downloadable hi-res images and B-roll video to embed. Crucially, the media center must also have named PR contacts and direct email addresses, as generic ‘info@’ and contact forms to fill in rarely bring timely results (if at all). Mobile numbers are always helpful as copy is often filed outside of office hours, and pdf attachments were strongly advised against in emails – keep any text within the body email, and embed images and videos as necessary. Finally, Stacy’s advice of ‘don’t be creepy’ on social media translates into not ‘friending’ journalists on Facebook, or following on Twitter using anonymous or misleading accounts. As ever, transparency and accountability are key.
Hector took us on a tour of Nvidia’s new media center, and its transformation from something fairly static and dry which previously took 48h to update, to a dynamic, multimedia content hub, updatable within minutes. He described the newsroom as being a “vehicle to serve journalist needs in a timely manner”, something which is evident from the center’s homepage:
Journalists can quickly find Nvidia’s latest press releases, top stories, and social media and blogs aggregated. An ‘In the News’ section allows journalists to see Nvidia’s recent media mentions, fully searchable by keywords and categories. The multimedia gallery provides easy to search and download multi resolution images, and broadcast-quality video (something which will soon replace slow and expensive hard copy delivery to journalists).
Integrating all of Nvidia’s social media feeds allows journalists to quickly find relevant user conversations around the brand and individual products with keyword searching, all without leaving the newsroom. The integrated blog allows moderation control, and being owned by PR within the newsroom, ensures consistent brand messaging across channels. Finally, the newsroom lists all of Nvidia’s official social media channels, something which is increasingly useful to clarify as unofficial spoof and protest social media accounts proliferate against high profile companies.
What’s clear is the ever-expanding number of touchpoints an organization now faces, with social media driving the agenda. ‘Traditional’ influencers such as journalists are under more pressure than ever to find and deliver relevant content and stories around your company, and ‘non-traditional’ influencers on social media are keen to read and share your content amongst their niche audiences. The media center has become less of a static repository to more of a dynamic content hub, with us, the communications professionals being the key gatekeepers of this content creation and delivery.
NASDAQ OMX group designs, delivers, and manages corporate newsrooms across all sectors. More information around the webinar is now available for download, and if you’re interested in seeing how we can help, and understanding some more best practices across your industry, please feel free to reach out to sam.phillips@nasdaqomx.com +44 (0)207 033 7543 and we’d be delighted to help.
