Frustration with PR Sites Kills Media Stories, Usability Studies Say

In his latest newsletter, usability guru Jakob Nielsen studies corporate newsrooms and found that, generally, they aren't doing a good job to say the least.

"As 3 studies of journalists show, they use the Web as a major research tool, exhibit high search dominance, and are impatient with bloated sites that don't serve their needs or list a PR contact."

The most fascinating passage in Nielsen's report, though, is this one...

Another journalist described what he'd do if he couldn't find a press contact or the facts he needed for his story: 

"Better not to write it than to get it wrong. I might avoid the subject altogether."

The press, much like consumers with customer care reps, want to be able to get a hold of corporate PR contacts quickly and easily, otherwise they won't bother doing business. That should be a wake up call for most. Bloggers, meanwhile, all expect us to be present in their spaces and I suspect don't even bother going to our immaculate corporate PR sites. So PR pros increasingly need to be present and available all around.

If you think it's just big companies that are at risk here of being forgotten, Nielsen debunks that myth. Startups, he says, pepper their sites with buzzword-filled, fatty text. Also, he makes it clear most newsrooms are built for push not pull.

In the near future all corporate media/PR sites will need to emulate the more progressive customer service sites. They will need to showcase how someone can get a hold of you in a hurry, either via IM or Twitter and not just email or phone.

I bet we'll see IM boxes like the one below from Google Talk making their way into corporate newsrooms. Access to humans begets trust and many companies are not prepared to engage 24/7. SImply put, that's the way we increasingly need to operate in a globalized world.

Comments

[Bastian Scherbeck]

Hey Steve,

this is Bastian from achtung! kommunikation GmbH in Germany and socialmediaPReview.de - we met briefly at last years next in Hamburg. I'd love to hear your ideas about the first Social Media Newsrooms we put up in Germany, the newest one being http://www.tmcpro-info.de . Do you think that's the right way to go?

[Torley]

You won't hear the by-far-and-large-majority of visitor complaints because they come, get frustrated, then leave. It's an almost Heisenbergian thing to observe these "silent pains" if you don't hear about them, so whenever possible, it's important to invite the feedback which DOES bridge the gaps.

I'd like to see certain PR/media sites defining archetypes which are widely copied. Sure, there's been some of this already like RSS badges and Share buttons, but it can go further, in the same way that so many Mac utilities have lovely interfaces — not just in and of themselves, but their supporting websites do too, as influenced by Apple.com.

[Dee Rambeau]

Steve,Bank of America's MediaRoom (PR Newswire) was sourced visually on NBC Nightly News' story last night about the firing of the Merrill Lynch Chief Thain. The package actually used a screen shot of the B of A page showing the news release. Clearly the reporter had used the Media site to get more on the story.http://newsroom.bankofamerica.com/index.php?s=press_releases&item=8340

[Susan Kuchinskas]

Sure, it's possible to find press releases on most (but not all) corporate sites. What Steve is talking about is finding a live, knowledgeable, responsive person to help out with interviews, context etc for those of us who don't just regurgitate press releases.

I've always assumed that corporate sites didn't list media contacts because they didn't WANT to deal with reporters. Maybe NBC used the screen shot of the press release because they could get absolutely nothing else from BofA.

[Dan]

Steve - what are your thoughts on PR sites that pay-per-placed article, like http://www.publicityguaranteed.com I know it's slightly off topic, but curious to get your opinion. Thanks!

[Steve Rubel]

Dan, thanks I will take a look.

[Rheen]

check out this site and watch the video here's the link below:



URL: http://www.foxnews.com/video/index.html?playerId=videolandingpage&streamingFormat=FLASH&referralObject=3472956&referra