As seen in PR Newswire's Media Insider
Reprinted with permission from Ragan's Interactive Public Relations newsletter, a leading instructional publication for PR professionals. Visit the site at www.ragan.com/ipr.

Think you've got a lot of happy journalists using your site? Take this quick test:

Do your speech documents use a standard title documentation (i.e., Remarks by…)? Does every press release on your site include your company name, address, phone number -- plus the date and time you issued the release? Does your mailing address appear on your home page?

If you answered no to any of these questions, you're likely frustrating reporters.

That's what BellSouth found when its media relations team asked reporters to test drive its redesigned site two weeks prior to launch. "The testing gave us insight that'll help improve the site and meet journalists' needs and wants," says Penny Crawley, senior account manager for Issue Dynamics, who helped BellSouth build and test its redesign.

(Warning: Feedback from the media may show some things journalists want aren't always possible. See below.)

BellSouth's redesign (http://bellsouthcorp.policy.net/newsroom) resulted from a marketing department effort to create a consistent look and feel across all BellSouth sites. After the media relations team placed its material into marketing's template, it looked to local reporters to get feedback.

Bill McCloskey, media relations manager, invited four local reporters to participate in the testing -- and four of four said yes. Note: He offered no incentive, other than a lunch or dinner. After four rounds of 45-minute testing sessions, Crawley and McCloskey prioritized a list of more than 10 media site tweaks that they incorporated into the design within the first few weeks of the re-launch.

Wondering what BellSouth learned from its test drive? Here's a look at major suggestions reporters gave -- and tips you can use to incorporate the ideas into your own site:

• Dedicate top navigation links to media contacts and news releases.
• List your company product divisions alphabetically -- along with the appropriate media contacts for each area.
• Highlight the benefits of e-mail news alerts. That'll help reporters see immediate value and not grouse about following registration instructions. Note: Make sure your instructions are crystal-clear.
• Place your search function in a highly visible area on your home page. Most reporters that come to your site are there to find a particular piece of information -- and they rely on the search function to find it. Tip: Most users look to the upper right hand corner of the home pages when they visit sites.
• Standardize speech document titles. For example, you could use "Remarks by…" as one way to make it easier for reporters to separate speeches from press releases when they're faced with a list of search results.
• Don't clutter your media site home page. All four reporters that BellSouth tested liked the site's spartan, non-flashy approach to design. Each media site page has 10 content links on the left, with releases and news listed down the center of each page.
• Offer relevant, customized news in one click. BellSouth's redesign allows users to customize news they view. Users who register and share their preferences will find news they want listed in the upper-right-hand corner of the site -- just one click away. Reporters applauded the feature.
• Include your mailing address on the home page. Doing so is not only recommended by journalists, but it also may boost traffic. That's because directories like Yahoo! are more likely to index a site that carries an address. Crawley learned the tack from an e-newsletter on search engine optimization. BellSouth took heed, adding its address to the home page -- and on every press release.
• Include release and revision dates on all public policy documents. "Visitors never know if a public policy document is two months old -- or two years," says Crawley.
• Post a time stamp on releases. Some reporters consider day-old announcements breaking news while others consider it stale.

"These finding are simply hard to ignore," says Crawley. She and McCloskey met at press time to discuss the implementation of findings. Many will have been be completed by early February.

Thinking about doing your own test? Here are some lessons from BellSouth's experience to help yours run smoothly:

Ask your participants to complete a couple of tasks you deem key as a user -- then let them play around to determine what they deem important. Crawley let users play around on the site for about 30 minutes to evaluate the site's usability, functionality (Do users find what they're looking for?) and presentation of content.

She then asked them to perform two tasks: 1) Find the latest DSL release. 2) Register on the site for e-mail news.

Ask users to speak aloud as they play. Crawley claims this allowed for casual dialogue -- which led to a host of interesting feedback.

As participants spoke, she followed up with questions to dig deeper into site drawbacks. For example, one reporter, who never registers online for anything, said the instructions for registration didn't promote the benefits in a clear way. She then asked if that content was improved, would he register. His response: Maybe.

BellSouth plans to tweak the registration instructions and explanation to turn folks who never register for anything into folks who might.

"The constant dialogue made users feel comfortable and let major problems and concerns surface quickly," says Crawley.

Put your ego aside. Embrace the feedback, even if it criticizes the design in some manner. "You can't let your ego get in the way," she says. Note: You should lay the groundwork initially to help set the tone for the two-way testing session.

"We made it clear to users right away that we want to hear all feedback -- good and bad," says Crawley.