The best things in life are free: Love, laughter - and an online newsroom

Study shows incredible value businesses get from online newsrooms – so our Edinburgh PR agency will give you one for free!

A CHILD’S smile. Finding a £10 note in a jacket you haven’t worn for a while. Laughing so hard with friends that your sides hurt. Yep, the best things in life really are free.

If you are a client of our Edinburgh PR agency, then you can add to the list of wonderful free things in life – with an online newsroom on our website.

Okay, so it might not be the first thing you’d think of, but if you are in business the benefits of a well-maintained digital newsroom are many. Indeed, if you want to know the huge value you could be reaping, then check the results of the latest annual study by TEKGROUP International.

The internet software and services company produced a report which shows how businesses can enjoy significant advantages over rivals – if they invest in a well-maintained online newsroom.

Just as customers expect legitimate companies or organisations to have websites, so 97% of journalists expect businesses to have an online newsroom. They want somewhere to get up to date information, useful background, photos of key people and even quotes in audio or video format.

Despite this, it is something many companies overlook. While they may have a News section on their website, often the “news” is so outdated you expect tumbleweed to blow by.

That’s why our multi award-winning Scottish public relations agency, Holyrood PR in Edinburgh, creates a dedicated digital newsroom for every client –see the list of clients here, then just click on any logo to be taken through to a client’s media hub, devoted to them.

Check out our interactive presentation or read on, below, where we answer questions about online newsrooms and explain more about their value:

What is an online newsroom?
An online newsroom is a hub for all the latest news on your brand.
At Holyrood PR in Edinburgh we create an entire section on our website devoted to YOU.
Your logo, your corporate colours, your contact details, your web address.
More than that, we keep it updated – publishing your latest media releases, as well as rounding up all the positive media coverage you attract.
Many clients are so relieved to have this job taken care of by experts that they create a link on their own site which directs interested visitors to the news hub on our site.

Who will maintain our online newsroom – and what is the cost?
Many website news sections fail because businesses don’t have the time, qualified staff or technical know-how to keep them updated.
The great news for clients of our Edinburgh PR agency is that WE maintain their digital newsrooms – and we do it for free.
We make sure that all of the latest media releases are uploaded, accompanied by proper links and helpful, informative phots.
We also include valuable links back to your sites, as well as to the online articles about your business.

Won’t it take up lots of time to maintain an online newsroom?

An online newsroom with Holyrood PR can actually save you time.
Properly uploading quality material to a website can be time consuming.
While getting words and pictures on to a site is relatively easy, the process of optimising the content – writing keyword friendly headlines, sub-headings, formatting hyperlinks, adding alt tags to images and working on SEO titles and meta descriptions – takes time.
It’s brilliant if you have people in your firm who can devote hours every week taking care of that, but let’s be honest, there are no shortage of other jobs they could be doing.
At Holyrood PR we are adept – and very quick – at uploading and optimising posts on your dedicated client hub. And it won’t cost you a penny.

How can an online newsroom benefit my brand or business?
The TEKGROUP survey found that 45% of journalists visit company newsrooms at least once a week with 54% of journalists visiting at least once a month.
Yet all too often businesses write off the value of a dedicated online newsroom, believing it won’t generate web traffic or visibility for news and updates.
At our Edinburgh PR agency we guarantee this won’t happen – not least because we share the links to your online news hub extensively via social media, via our weekly video update and through our regular newsletter.
The online newsroom itself is an easily searchable resource which is constantly updated, meaning journalists are provided with a no hassle method of finding all the latest news on your company.
The TEKGROUP study found that new media releases are the most important type of content for journalists, and we update your hub every time a media release is ready to be issued.

Are there any other advantages of having an online newsroom?
One of the most important facts to bear in mind is that the Holyrood PR website is incredibly well-optimised to perform well in search engines, most notably Google.
This has two powerful benefits for you.
Firstly, as a highly rated site, the links we provide to your own website are extremely valuable. And help your own site to rank more favourably with Google.
Secondly, when people are searching for your name, our dedicated online newsroom will come up very high (often on page one) of search results, ensuring customers see a positive result.
These are all ways an online newsroom with Holyrood PR helps give you an edge over competitors.
Why wouldn’t you want one?

Can an online newsroom provide pictures and video?

The TEKGROUP survey found that photos are the most important multimedia feature in an online newsroom for all types of journalists.
Video was also a key feature with 81% of journalists saying that it was important to include footage in an online newsroom.
However, journalists who took part in the study complained that many online newsrooms have been slow to embrace photography and video.
Not at this Scottish public relations agency.
With Holyrood PR, your dedicated media hub will include galleries of eye-catching photographs and any videos about your products or services – making your business as visible as possible.

These online newsrooms are only for the big guys, right?
Major organisations will often have dedicated in-house teams to take care of their online newsrooms.
Meanwhile, start-ups and very small businesses – usually driven by the passion of the founders – can prove adept at keeping websites and social media updated.
However, many thriving, mid-sized businesses struggle to maintain a news section online, because the people in the company are – quite rightly – focused on the daily needs of the business.
But that doesn’t mean you should be missing out on the digital and business benefits of an online newsroom.
Of those journalists who took part in the TEKGROUP Study, 85% said they visited the newsrooms of large, medium AND small-sized companies.
At our Scottish public relations agency we work with companies from start-ups to billion pound a year utilities.
We ensure all our clients receive the same online hub, be they Hollywood actresses, national companies or local businesses.

It sounds like you are offering something for nothing – how is that possible?
Did we mention that this services is completely free? That’s right – and there are no catches.
Every long-term client of Holyrood PR gets an online newsroom delivered as part of the service and we’ve been committed to doing this since 2008.
Why? Quite simply because it makes us unique.
No other PR agency in Scotland offers this service, or anything remotely close to it.
Which means it becomes just one of the ways we can stand out – while delivering amazing extra value to those clients we work with.