Out of Commission: Online Media Room Mistakes to Avoid

Mistake #2: Limited content

Online Media Rooms may be an idea whose time has come although even big companies lack solid information and smaller organizations have little media information at all. To test this theory, I looked at the top five public companies headquartered in New Mexico. Since I reviewed public companies and these companies have a reporting/compliance requirement, it’s hardly surprising that each company offered a minimal news view in the form of standard press releases.

The specifics:

1. Thornburg Mortgage Inc. – a media center offers a variety of information from press releases to industry experts along with an image library, press kit and a connection to related information at Investor Relations.

2. PNM Resources Inc. – the PNM site offered less information than Thornburg. A catalog of press releases listed information by headline, in descending order by year, and included a daunting 25 options for 2007. Each item could be viewed online or downloaded in pdf format. No experts were cited; no images were offered for download. Questions for the investor relations department must be submitted through a spam filter after giving both name and email address. On the PNM website, additional news releases were categorized and the community page offered numerous resources from speaker bureaus to gourmet cooking classes. Phone and email addresses for community relations contacts exist under the heading speakers bureau or education contacts.

3. First State Bancorporation Inc. – First State Bank markets itself as friendly and fun. This site was neither. The investor relations site, while complete, offered no real media information. The New Mexico First State Bank site was a conglomeration of log-in requirements for personal or business banking.

4. Trinity Capital Corp. – Once again, the financial institution erred on the side of conservative. Aside from the news releases which related directly to earnings announcements, no real media room existed. However, the site gave simple answers and quick explanations for each feature and navigated more easily than many of its financial counterparts.

5. Bowlin Travel Centers – The fifth largest public company headquartered in New Mexico offers no news and no media room at first glance. Recent press releases are listed under investor information. In a sharp contrast to PNM, for example, there are two press releases for 2007. This site offers the documents in both pdf and text format; the corporate info section provides the story (history) of Bowlin. Beyond that, there is little information.

Maybe I’ve been unfair in the choice of targets. These public companies have the additional challenge of bureaucracy and regulation in adapting to new media. To my knowledge, none of these five companies has a blog or is making big strides in social media. They illustrate the problem: social media is basically a conversation. Unfortunately, companies who have generally talked at customers find it difficult to talk with them.

I understand that non-traditional media is definitely not for every company; however, my online media room merely positions, not dictates, a company for more interaction. In other words, it’s a step in the right direction. What do you think? Could your company benefit from this kind of a step?