The World Wide Web

1
Chapter 13

• The World Wide Web

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Characteristics of WWW that help PR people

• Information can be updated quickly
• It allows interactivity
• Online information is not limited by the space
  constriction of print
• Cost-effective method of disseminating
  information on a global basis to the public and
  journalists
• A major source for journalists

3
Press-friendly Web Site

• Web site should have pages dedicated to
  journalists -gt newsroom press room
• What journalists want from newsroom
• Contact information (most important) contact
  name, title, phone number, after-hours number,
  email address
• Search tool
• Company background
• Financial data
• Company history and executive profiles
• News
• Downloadable material (product publicity photo)

4
How to write web-based material

• PR writers mistake dont understand the medium
  and simply post printed materials to a Web page
  without making any changes

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How to write web-based material

• Remember
• Theres a fundamental difference between how
  people read online and how they read printed
  documents
• 1. It takes 50 longer for an individual to read
  material on a computer screen
• 2. Printed material follows a linear progression
  Online reading is nonlinear due to branching
• Branching eliminates the need for viewers to
  scroll down a long linear document

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How to write web-based material

• Shorter is better
• Documents written for the Web should be 50
  percent shorter than their counterparts
• Sentences should be less than 20 words long
• Only two or three sentences should be used in a
  paragraph
• Entire topic should be covered in 2 or 3
  paragraphs, or about the length of one screen

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How to write web-based material

• Convert the entire document to nonlinear style
  and make it more digestible through graphs and
  various links

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4 Skills to build an effective web site

• Vision of how you want your organization to be
  perceived by the public (objectives keeping the
  press informed, marketing)
• Copywriter to write the text
• Graphic artist to add the visual element
• Computer programmer to put the ideas together in
  HTML code for the Internet

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Who controls the site?

• PR team? Communication experts
• IT team? IT staffers were the first to develop
  the capabilities of the Internet and WWW
• Marketing team? Sales transaction
• -gt No one department of function should manage
  and control web page
• -gt team approach