Business White Paper - For Management and Boards

Online Newsrooms A Social Media Solution

by Anthony Bodin, Comnicate Media

Introduction
There is a growing awareness by business of the importance of social media and the need to engage with key stakeholders via Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, RSS feeds, Audio Podcasts, Video and more. This paper has been written for boards and management to understand how businesses can successfully deploy a social media program, by adding a Social Media Newsroom to the company website. Everyone is aware that the traditional media channels are being re-defined. Traditional media was about controlling information to audiences often via communications such as press releases, and whilst they still have a place, traditional media is being realigned because of social media. Social media enables organisations and their audiences to engage in 2-way communications, without involving an intermediary. Today's audiences prefer to connect and participate in conversations, and be able to provide their views. Businesses must therefore embrace this new form of media or lose their audiences to competitors that do. The question is, how much is your business benefitting from this new way of engaging with stakeholders that we call the social media? Has the management team addressed this question? If not, then the board should be asking the question 'why not'? The problem with social media is that it has been perceived as a personal tool rather than a professional tool. This was certainly the case when social media first appeared, but most business leaders now accept the idea of social media. There are now many successful businesses leveraging the social media, and their numbers are increasing with the uptake of Smartphones and iPads.

An Opportunity
The social media allows businesses of all sizes to communicate directly with stakeholders in a variety of ways, resulting in faster and more efficient communications, improved stakeholder interaction, and better engagement. It is a powerful tool for promoting a business and its brands, at minimal cost. Many B2C businesses already know how the social media can or could contribute to their success. They know that customers who recommend products and services to friends are a powerful force. These businesses can benefit from a strong social media presence by keeping their customers and referees well informed. On the other hand, B2B businesses have been slower to adopt the benefits of the social media. This is unfortunate because the social media is successfully being deployed by innovative B2B companies with great success. The easiest way to appreciate the benefits of social media is to look at how other businesses are using it. Let us start by looking at how 'thought leading' companies use social media for significant commercial benefit. Whilst our examples focus more on larger organisations, these same benefits apply to smaller businesses just as well.

Social Media Drives Business

At Cisco Systems, Jeanette Gibson is the Director of Social Media Marketing. Her team is responsible for defining the strategy used to expand the company branding, and how to increase customer connections through the power of social media. Her team is charged with putting in place the social marketing strategy and success metrics, as well as governance

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and best practice programs. Gibson herself is an active blogger and says that Blogging is about creating conversations with customers, partners, employees, and the public. Cisco likes to use every element of social media communications. The company often follows key executives with a camera to capture the message, for subsequent onward distribution to stakeholders. An example is when CEO John Chambers speaks at an event, it can later be watched on Cisco's website. Twittering is another tool that Cisco uses and you can find Twitter links on their website. The company Chief Technology Officer Padamsree is a great example of a senior executive using twittering. One way that she uses Twitter, is to gather ideas for her speeches. As an example, she sent out a question on Twitter asking What is the future of collaboration? She got an overwhelming response to her question and she incorporated this feedback in her talk. Global product launches can be very expensive to stage, Cisco however, uses social media to their advantage by 'doing more with less'. Cisco uses virtual events driven by new media and social channels to minimise travel budgets and leverage their social media standing. It is worth visiting the Cisco websites' newsroom where media announcements are initiated and then broadcast to the social media. Websites by BMW, Phizer Pharmaceuticals, and Coca Cola also feature a newsroom. Social media is not limited to just large organisations. It is just as valuable to small and medium sized businesses that want to grow, and that want to lift their brand awareness. As an example, a 10 person business that is a client of the author, wanted to enter the North American market to rapidly grow their business. By innovative use of social media WEB 2.0 technologies, they rapidly gained traction in the competitive US market and did so profitably. They 'punched above their weight' and did it very successfully. Like David and Goliath, smaller businesses are now able to do what was impossible in the past, by harnessing the power of their websites and the social media. Social media has definitely created a level playing field, and smaller businesses can now compete with large organisations on the world stage. And with the internet as the dominant communication platform, large organisations can no longer use the power of big advertising budgets to edge out smaller competitors. The social media is therefore a real opportunity.

Stakeholders
Stakeholder engagement should be the primary driver behind social media for any business. But who exactly are these stakeholders anyway? This is where we need to broaden our thinking because a stakeholder is anyone who can positively or negatively affect the business. They are the press media, online journalists, customers, future customers, employees, shareholders, subcontractors, service providers, business partners, suppliers, bankers, governments, competitors, industry thought leaders etc. Social media however, does have a flip side. Online social channels allow disgruntled stakeholders to easily and instantly post negative feedback about your business on the WWW. Fortunately though, such complaints can be tracked and managed, allowing companies to rectify them in a positive manner. It also represents 'opportunities for improvement', as businesses can use the comments to fine tune their client satisfaction.

Press Media
It is important to consider the power of the press media when we think about social media. Whilst the printed media is changing, it is being successfully filled by online publishing houses that cover niche market segments. Examples in Australia are the Eureka Report that provides comprehensive investment analysis and reporting, and The Rust Report that provides ICT industry news coverage and was one of the earliest adopters of online publishing. One of the complaints by journalists is that it is often difficult to find credible news information on company websites. There is often no easy-to-find storage library with the authoritative information they need to do a story, with company facts, product facts, digital libraries with low and high resolution images, quick access to media contacts, journalist

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secure storage areas, and so on. This information should be easily accessible on the company website to enable journalists to engage with the business. The key 'take away' message here is that journalists require accurate and authorative information about a business to confidently write their articles. Unfortunately, most company websites are a mixture of sales promotional material intermixed with company factual data, and it is not the role of journalists to guess which is which. This is why businesses need a separate newsroom area on the website that is the primary source of credible and authorative company information.

Does Your Business Have Enough News?

Some businesses are concerned that they do not have enough news to populate their website newsroom and their social media sites. Here are some of the press releases and news announcements that companies are sharing with their audiences that demonstrate the possibilities: Press Releases of interest to the press and other stakeholders: New business partnerships or joint ventures; new distributor or dealer appointments; new overseas markets established; new product or services announcements; major product or services upgrades; significant customer contracts; senior personnel changes including appointments, promotions and retirements; recognition awards; stock exchange or investor announcements; independent research reports about the company; opening of new facilities. News Announcements of interest to stakeholders: staff awards; announcing training workshops; new company advertising or PR campaigns; case studies; customer testimonials; special promotions; press stories written about the company in recognised publications; company participation in exhibitions; industry news suitable for rebroadcasting to stakeholders; product clearances; business and technical white papers; polls and requests for client feedback or stakeholder feedback; new company logos or changes to branding; fundraising and donations to charity; new internal systems upgrades; new customer service offerings; company social events; announcing online webinars or other resources; employee milestones including marriages and new family additions; market research questionnaires; announcing company 'How To' manuals; sharing your views on government policies that effect the business; stories and photos of company staff events such as football matches, family events, and company conferences. Businesses can now share these important events and stories with their stakeholders who have an interest. Some of these announcements will be short and no more than 10 to 50 words but they will have significant impact nevertheless. Also consider video broadcasting. Video can be used with great success for the following: Company Introduction by the CEO or senior executive; interviews with department heads; recent presentations or speeches; tours of the company premises; recent presentations by company executives at seminars or conferences; interviews with independent consultants; discussions with industry thought leaders. Many of your stories and articles can be used to better engage your company stakeholders. It will however, require someone to be responsible to track and record noteworthy news or events and relay them to the appropriate parties. Most companies will have someone with the creativity and motivation to lead a program of this type. That person will have a high visibility role in driving the company's' awareness program that could help generate significant revenue increases.

Implementing Social Media

A lot of businesses are still unsure about how to embrace the social media. Where do they start and how do they bring it all together? A proven approach is to implement an Online Newsroom, also called a Social Media Newsroom or Corporate Newsroom. The terms can be used interchangeably and hereafter we will simply use the term newsroom. Wikipedia defines the online newsroom as: A website that contains information about a corporation or organization. The online newsroom was initially created for corporate communicators and public relations firms to target traditional media outlets, fundamentally newspapers, magazines, radio stations and television stations. Multiple public relations

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audience interests are now supported, including media relations, investor and analyst relations, community relations, and social media relations. A newsroom is the central control place where for all company news announcements are stored. It is a specific page on your company website where news announcements are uploaded and can be automatically broadcasted to numerous parties such as, press media, stakeholders and social media audiences. In other words, a newsroom is the central dispatch point for all 'company authorised' media communications, including audit trails.

Newsroom
So what exactly is a newsroom? A newsroom is a page on your main website called News, Media, Press or similar. The picture to the left is an example. The newsroom is a permanent location for all the company's news and communications assets in one easyto-navigate library. It also broadcasts your news to the outside world via feeds and gateways. The newsroom is very important to businesses that want to build good relationships with stakeholders and audiences. These include customers, future customers, press media, online journalists, employees, subcontractors, suppliers, business partners, supporters, benefactors, shareholders, industry commentators, industry thought leaders, alumni, bankers, government and more. These stakeholders have a direct impact on the success of any business. And if a business is unable to give them the information that they expect, they will gradually shift their relationships to other businesses. A newsroom addresses this need and provides the perfect media tool to embrace your audiences. It allows company announcements to be sent to all stakeholders, in multiple digital formats, via multiple gateways, and read on different devices or appliances. It also provides an overall framework for your social media.

Features
A newsroom allows one-click uploading of press and news announcements, which are then automatically sent to stakeholders and the social media. Some of the typical features of a newsroom include: News & Press Announcements Dispatched with One -Click o Easy Uploading o Permanent Storage & Record o Time Stamping and Audit Trail o Distribution to Press Media o Distribution to Social Media Sites o RSS outbound Feeds to Subscribers o Embedded Graphics or Photos Permanent Digital Library Storage for Announcements, Documents, Photos, Graphics, Video Inbound Public News Feeds and Re-Broadcasting (Industry News Sharing) Inbound News Feeds from your Social Media sites (back linking) Secure News Area (For Journalists) Email facilities for sending out your news Access Buttons to Social Media like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc Investor Updates and/or Stock Exchange Announcements Employee News Management - Identification, Collaboration, Distribution Inbuilt Video & Storage External Video Access (i.e. YouTube) Inbuilt Voice Podcasting & Storage Crisis Management Communications Analytics Information to measure the performance of all media communications Google, Yahoo, Bing, Search Engine Optimisation Hierarchical User Access Security Levels Search Retrieval Function to find documents in the newsroom library

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A newsroom offers important commercial benefits to your business through its ability to strengthen your brand. In turn this will drive revenue growth in a number of ways: Drives Customer Actions You can add interesting content to your newsroom and distribute that content via RSS feeds and email to all your known customers and subscribers. This will drive them back to your main website where you can encourage actions (buy, sign-up, request for information, register, downloads). New Client Retention A new client should feel embraced by your business and they represent an opportunity of cementing a lasting relationship. This can be readily achieved by regular communications from your newsroom. Viral Power Announcements added to the newsroom are instantly forwarded to your social media sites like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube. This starts the viral effect with customers recommending your products and services to other prospective customers, ultimately returning them back to your main website where you can drive actions to buy or engage. Search Engines Rankings - Search engines gravitate to websites that are frequently updated with fresh content. This lifts your business rankings on Google and Yahoo search engine results, enabling clients to find you easily instead of your competitors. Increases Your Media Quantity The world has now changed. Previously a company could spend hours writing a press release, and even more hours preparing the 'company newsletter'. In the new media world we prefer to have more frequent but shorter announcements (posts) sometimes as few as 10-50 words, shared with audiences who appreciate the brevity and frequency of such information updates. Time Poor Solutions Every organisation is time poor. A newsroom allows for fast 'one click' uploading of news updates that take no more that 2-3 minutes to dispatch, meeting the needs of the company to do more with less. Historical Audit Control All media communications are fully logged providing historical control over your media traffic. This is important because the number of communications will increase exponentially with the social media, and you will need to know what went where and when. Press Media / Journalists - A newsroom that is easy to use will encourage journalists to visit time and again. Your website newsroom is the trusted and authorative place where journalists can find reliable information about your business to write their stories or articles. All journalist information is easily downloadable from the library, and prereleases can be stored in a secure location. The Newsroom gives the business full control over every aspect of media communications. Unfortunately, few websites today are designed for embedding a newsroom that will broadcast all news announcements in just one-click to multiple stakeholders, using multiple formats such as text/audio/video, and with multiple pathways such as RSS Feeds/Email/ On Demand Pull-down, that are readable on multiple devices including PCs, iPads, Smartphones, and TVs.

Designing and Implementing a Newsroom

Some organisations may choose to design and build a newsroom into their existing website. This will require significant input from management including PR and marketing to ensure the design requirements, system features, and operational capabilities are well specified. The underlying WEB software technology is continuously changing as internet and social media innovations occur. Assuming it takes 6-9 months to implement a social media newsroom solution, then technology will have progressed further another 6-9 months. This means the project should work to a strict timeline, which will be a challenge for web development staff that are expected to design and build and install the newsroom project without any slippage. Whilst company websites are generally static and easy to maintain, the online newsroom is different because it is continuously changing. The newsroom is the central point for all social media and other communications, and must be kept up-to-date with interesting news content. Time is of the essence with any news announcements and any roadblocks caused by poor design will cause long-term problems. Therefore particular care should be taken to ensure that the newsroom is entirely supportable by only the newsroom administrators, and that is does not require web developer support once it is operational. In summary, building a newsroom from the ground up will be a big challenge for any business. It must be managed carefully, particularly in large companies where there are many internal stakeholders with differing priorities and needs. The last thing any business wants is a fragmented newsroom where departments argue over responsibilities.

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Is there a simpler ways to implement a newsroom?

Ready-Built Newsroom with Social Media Framework

For many companies the most effective way to implement a comprehensive social media solution, is to install a readybuilt social media newsroom. A ready-built social media newsroom enables a business to rollout a comprehensive social media solution very quickly and without the risks of a poor implementation. Ready-built newsrooms are flexible and can be modified to suit the individual needs of the company. They are rich in features and each feature can be activated as the needs of the business dictate. Some of the benefits are: Fast Implementation Substantial Savings, less than the cost Best Practice Design provided by PR, marketing, journalists Easy to operate with full documentation Flexible Design to suit different businesses Regular Software Upgrades A ready-built newsroom will work with your company's future website. This is important because your website may change at a later time, yet this will not affect the smooth flow of news announcements from your newsroom. A ready-built newsroom can be implemented much more easily because of the proven framework and methodologies gained from installations at other customer sites. These ready-built newsrooms provide the business with a high level of confidence for a successful implementation. It comes with the essential roadmap that a business needs to 'quickly and easily' install and manage a social media environment by following the guidelines as defined. As a result, they offer a clearer roadmap and each internal stakeholder or department will understand the implementation plan and its effects on them. The framework includes definitions, guidelines, controls, audit trail, and traffic performance analysis. Most companies will benefit from a pre-designed social media framework and implementation methodology that follows 'best practice' gained from experts in journalism, social media, public relations, and marketing.

Conclusion
In summary, it is important that boards and management embrace the social media. The starting point is to make social media a priority for your organisation if it not already underway. Where a business does not have adequate in-house expertise, it is recommended that a Digital Media consulting firm be engaged to help in defining the strategy and assisting with the overall implementation.

About Comnicate Media

Comnicate Media helps businesses to leverage the benefits of digital and social media. We help clients identify, develop and roll-out strategic social media solutions. We are also the developer of Comnicate NewsCentre, a ready-built Social Media Online Newsroom solution that works with any businesses' website and can be installed with minimal modifications. We also offer the hightraffic hosting domain www.newscentre.com as an aggregation site to enhance the search engine optimisation for our clients to give them better visibility. Come talk to us. anthony.bodin@comnicate.com M: 61 404 422 480 Comnicate Media Group Level 1, 177 Toorak Rd, South Yarra, VIC, 3141, Australia www.comnicate.com

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Example Newsroom

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