Doing Digital Right: Ten Companies With Outstanding Online Newsrooms
The idea of a “brand newsroom” is not new. Yet in the current business landscape, many brands are realizing the value and importance of incorporating this tool in their marketing strategy.
Why Brand Newsrooms Matter
Conventional promotions and adverts are becoming rare in the digital space. They still exist, obviously, but consumers are looking for new ways to interact and communicate with the businesses they support. People want value, and content marketing is one way to provide that value through engaging mediums such as blogs, news feeds, social media, etc.
Many organizations already produce a wealth of original content in addition to press releases and big announcements. It’s a process that already exists. So, the leap forward to a full-fledged digital brand newsroom is not a big one.
A digital newsroom provides audiences with access to a wide variety of tools and information, all in one place. Additionally, this online space emphasizes positive audience experiences. Digital content improves exposure for the brand while building a loyal community or following.
Most importantly, digital content satisfies modern customer preferences for social, interactive and on-demand experiences. A digital brand newsroom also provides a separate avenue for customers to reach out to the company and provide feedback, share news with others and interact with like-minded community members.
This strategy translates well to mobile, which has become a preferred communication channel. About six-in-ten U.S. adults (58%) read news on a mobile device, which is higher than the 39 percent who read the news on a desktop or laptop computer. Why shouldn’t you share company news in the most viable way?
Ten Brands Doing Digital Newsrooms Right
So, we’ve established that digital newsrooms bring a lot of benefits. The next question is how to set them up correctly. What better way to learn than to look at brands who are already using their digital newsrooms successfully?
Lenovo has created a unique structure for their newsroom, choosing to divide it up into several segments. These digital communities are separated by internal and external targets: personnel versus customers.For instance, what is published within the internal community is not duplicated for the public, consumer-focused community.
This means that all Lenovo audiences can interact with the brand in this tailored digital space. Undoubtedly, this makes the job of gathering feedback easier for the Lenovo team.
Cisco honors a global and regional approach to corporate news, delivering content most relevant to the reader’s location. This makes sense, especially considering the company is involved in a wide variety of industries. Some regions are even localized across the platform to provide a more seamless experience.
This approach highlights the company’s emphasis on providing a user-friendly, relevant experience to each visitor. Such an attitude should drive all corporate newsrooms.
Aruba’s newsroom really stands out due to its newly released podcast player. Rather than deliver text-heavy content, this company is going above and beyond by providing audio updates, allowing people to listen in anywhere, anytime. Podcasts are great for servicing the on-the-go nature of professional lifestyles and schedules.
The HPE newsroom grabs the visitor’s attention by highlighting the most interesting international company developments right at the top.
The designers of this online space also did a great job by adding an easy-to-find button for getting in touch with the company. This encourages audiences to interact with the brand and give feedback. Plus, there’s another button for searching all things HPE. Visitors immediately understand that this is a company that cares about communicating with them.
IKEA uses its news space to highlight the kind of corporate social responsibility initiatives that set the company apart from others in the industry.
IKEA achieves this through a variety of mediums including live events, videos, image galleries and more. Of course, it wouldn’t be IKEA without home decor and furnishing inspiration. This wealth of resources and content gives the audience plenty of reasons to keep coming back.
Above all, Amazon’s newsroom is super easy to navigate for everyone that visits. The landing portal also places an emphasis on the more popular main stores, alongside a “contact Amazon PR” option. These features combine to create an approachable, helpful feel to the company.
The company’s digital newsroom also promotes Amazon’s “Day One” blog, which is a unique amalgamation of insights into its operations and success stories. By highlighting interviews with small business owners and customers, Amazon brings a human element to their brand storytelling that really sets them apart.
What’s most surprising about Coca-Cola’s space is how well-organized it is, considering just how much information is presented. With a poor design it would be easy to get lost, but because it’s laid out clearly, this digital newsroom is easy to navigate.
The company’s corporate leadership page is another stand-out feature, offering a quick overview of who is at the helm of this corporation. This helps make the giant brand a little more human and approachable.
Right away, you’ll notice the SAP news center employs clean whitespace that is easy on the eyes. This design is obviously customer-focused.
SAP publishes a mixture of topics, most dealing with corporate news and information. But it’s presented in varying ways, like the dedicated video section which is more engaging and easy to digest than conventional text content.
Airbnb has leaned in to helping their most valuable audience: travelers and hosts. As expected, important brand news is listed — but alongside more customer-focused information that keeps people coming back. Airbnb is establishing itself as a source of trustworthy information for all things travel-related.
No brand can go wrong by providing users a wealth of useful, free resources.
Oracle’s newsroom is separated by regional segments, all of which include an abundance of content. There are product solutions and features, industry tips, and online community updates. Oracle is focused on making this digital space a valuable resource, answering common questions visitors might have and providing portals into other aspects of the company.
Get Inspired
The best digital newsrooms are easy to navigate, highlight whatever is most unique or valuable about a brand, make it easy for users to get involved in a conversation — interaction versus passive content consumption — and offer some alternative mediums other than just text.
Mediums like video, podcasts, and image galleries offer a visual, exciting way to share messages with audiences. Often, they tend to be more effective at building engagement too.
These excellent newsroom examples can serve as inspiration for your future efforts
Originally published at http://info.thecxapp.com.