PRESSfeed, the socially integrated online newsroom, released the 2013 study of the Inc. 500 companies’ newsrooms. Despite the major changes that have taken place in the media landscape over the past 12 months, such as the increased interest in visual content from the public and the media, the Inc. 500 companies seem to be lagging at least a year or two behind.
4. PR Content Expands
Brands have many avenues where they can tell
their stories:
Blogs Social News Sites
Twitter News Feeds
Facebook Pinterest
Google + Instagram
LinkedIn YouTube
5. Methodology
2012 Inc.500 list -- evaluated their newsrooms using 15 factors:
• Do they have a newsroom?
• How easy is it to find the newsroom?
• Is the information in the newsroom current or stale dated?
• Is there a media contact on the main page of the online newsroom?
• Is there a contact name and telephone number on the press releases?
• Can you search the newsroom content?
• Is there content in the newsroom other than news releases?
• Is the news content organized or categorized?
• Is the news content available in news feeds (RSS)
• Are there icons that connect to the company’s social content?
• Does the newsroom content have easy social sharing options?
• Do they have an image gallery?
• Do they have a video gallery?
• Do they use images, graphics and/or video with their news releases?
• Do they offer embed codes for images and video?
6. PR Content Distribution
We also established what social media platforms the Inc. 500
companies are using for news distribution and telling their
brand stories:
• Company blog
• Facebook
• Twitter
• Google+
• LinkedIn
• YouTube
• Pinterest
12. Positive Changes
The biggest change has been in
connecting to the company’s
social content – a dramatic leap
from 12% in 2012 to 72% in
2013. (600%)
15. Lagging Behind
Sharing news content has been
identified as one of the major trends
to watch.
Almost two thirds of the Inc. 500 are
missing this vital component of their
marketing.
16.
17. Visual Content
Despite the explosion of the use of visual
material in the last year and the fact that images
and video get the most engagement, there has
been almost no increase in the use of visuals
with news or providing image and video
material for the media and the public to view.
18.
19. Getting Found
98% of journalists say they use search engines
when researching a story, so search visibility is vital.
The newsroom should show up in a search for the
company name as well as for the main key phrases
a journalist, blogger (or potential investor or
customer) might search.
At the very least there should be a link to the news
content on the homepage of the website.
27. Effective Facebook Pages
While 89% of the
Inc. 500 have a
Facebook page set
up, less than half of
them(48%) are using
it effectively to build
a community of loyal
fans.