Sure, brand journalism looks great when the big kids on the block do it—Coca-Cola, Adobe, HSBC and other deep-pocketed Buy n Large types.
It’s more daunting, though, when you run a one-person communications shop. Who has time to cover the news while strategizing with bosses, cranking out press releases and answering questions from journalists?
Meet Katie Skipper, communications director of the Northwest Clean Air Agency.
Skipper is the sole communicator for a three-county governmental agency responsible for regulating air quality in a scenic Puget Sound area north of Seattle. The former newspaper reporter oversees a just-launched website with a strong brand journalism feature.
The secret? Content curation—along with useful tools.
The agency seeks to establish itself as a resource for citizens and news media outlets by gathering and posting not only its own content, but also links to stories about air quality.
“We want to be a resource for the community we serve,” Skipper says. “We want people to know that if you want experts in air quality, this is the place to go.”
The 23-person organization regulates just about everything that can’t be driven or sailed away. This means the agency has authority over oil refineries, chemical plants and backyard fires, but not cars, trains or ships.
Linking to outside content
To provide relevant content, Skipper posts links to stories from beyond her agency’s three-county responsibility. There’s a link to a story about a smelly problem in Portland, Oregon, to the south: “In Portland, mysterious odors, unresponsive environmental regulators.” Another outside piece is headlined, “Washington More Responsive Than Oregon on Air Complaints, But Problems Remain.”
A link to the Skagit Valley Herald newspaper takes readers to a story about an EPA slapdown of an oil refinery for safety violations.
Each headline includes a summary paragraph, making the page a potential source of updates for reporters and others interested in the state of the industry.
The summary on the refinery story reads, “The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has fined the Tesoro oil refinery in Anacortes nearly $720,000 for alleged safety violations.”
You can’t get a smaller comms staff than Skipper’s one-woman show, says Mark Ragan, chief executive of Ragan Communications and an early advocate of brand journalism. (Ragan holds workshops and does consulting on the topic.) So how to establish a news presence without a stable of writers and videographers?
“Curation is the answer,” Ragan says. “I like to call curation the most inexpensive way to create a brand journalism approach to your market. You’re keeping readers abreast of the news by piggybacking on other people’s content.”
[RELATED: Learn to speak to internal audience with one consistent voice in this free guide.]
Building a better website
When Skipper arrived at the agency nearly three years ago, she began pushing for a website update. The old site was text-heavy, and it was difficult to find needed information, she says. People had to go several clicks deep into the site to find out basic information.
The need for a better channel became clear during Washington state’s extensive forest fires last summer, which left the usually clean air choked with smoke. Scoff if you will, those of you with industrial furnaces glowing on smoggy skylines, but they aren’t used to bad air in the Puget Sound region.
“People were freaking out,” Skipper says.
Before that, the most page views the agency had ever had was 400, for a video of the deputy director getting doused with bucket of ice water for the ALS ice bucket challenge. The first Facebook post she put up on the smoke got 19,000 views.
“People were starved for this information, and they had no idea where to go,” Skipper says. “So that was a very strong and loud indication to us that we needed to up our game.”
Checking on breathability
In addition to the curated content, the new website has an air quality center where people can find out whether it’s a good idea to take that morning jog on a given day. There are quick links to direct people to, say, information on what permits are required before you hold a backyard Burning Man festival or ignite a land-clearing fire.
A major businesses section includes a map of the businesses releasing the largest amounts of air pollution, Skipper says. Click on one of the locator pins, and you’ll see the name of the business, the permits they hold and their emissions. And hey, if you’re operating a business and hope to foul the air, you’ll find all the permit requirements right there.
The site also includes monthly summaries of air quality reports and maps showing the air quality. The agency has a customizable tool so users can see the air quality in their particular locale. Users can sign up to receive alerts—via text or email—on wood heating bans, outdoor burn bans and air quality.
All this hints at something as refreshing as a Pacific Northwest sea breeze: a user-friendly approach to governance. The agency wants to help people do the right thing.
“If you make it hard for people to find information,” Skipper says, “then you’re also making it hard for people to follow requirements to protect air quality.”
@ByWorkingfrom Ragan.com http://ift.tt/24AFyWQ via web video marketing
from Tumblr http://ift.tt/23thumh
No comments:
Post a Comment