Over on MarketingProfs (free registration required), Gail Martin has posted this article about press kits that’s worth reading.

One of the more overlooked elements of an online presence for companies big and small is the press room. Understandably so, as companies are mainly concerned about dealing with the online needs of customers and potential customers before they deal with reporters and publicists.

As Gail writes: “By putting the power of your press kit to work, your company can enjoy more accurate media coverage, more exposure for story ideas, and more complete information through press coverage.”

Indeed. But a smartly developed online press room can do even more. Not only do the materials there help shape the story for any writer focusing on the company, but the materials can (explicitly or implicitly) say plenty to potential investors and business partners.

There are positive SEO implications that can be enjoyed from a properly developed online press room, too. And if there’s some sort of company-specific or industry-wide crisis to which your company needs to respond immediately, your press room better be set up to accommodate a statement today, not three weeks from today.

Takeaway for marketers: Take a close look at your online press room … after you put yourself in the mindset of a writer composing an article about your company.

I’m a little belated in posting this link, but Ambar Shrivastava over on MediaPost’s Search Insider gets it exactly right, noting that “it’s a misnomer to say that SEO is about writing for search engines. Content generation is really about writing for your customers.” The complete article is worth reading.

Takeaway for marketers: How about that? Focusing on customers gets you SEO benefits, too! Who’da thunk it?!

The following question was raised yesterday on an email discussion list in which I participate:

“I personally feel that checking spelling is beyond the scope of a Web site developer, along with writing copy and even headlines, etc. If I’m glancing through and find something, of course I’ll fix it, or point it out so they can fix the copy used elsewhere, but I feel it should already be print ready when it reaches my desk. What are your thoughts?”

Well, a developer definitely should not be responsible for copy. But in the grand scheme of the project, someone absolutely should.

I would also argue against the notion that copy should always reach a developer’s desk in final form. That’s the ideal situation for the programmer, but depending on the nature of the project it’s sometimes best to leave placeholder text and have the copywriter write to fill. Or there may be instances where final copy is delivered to the programmer but there’s too much copy for the design. And, of course, there’s often copy massaging along the way — those massages need to be made thoughtfully by the copywriter, not arbitrarily by anyone else, in order to maintain the proper messaging while deleting the necessary verbiage.

All too often, though, companies will leave copy in the hands of — oh, let’s just say someone with less-than-professional standards. We’ve all seen the results, haven’t we? Do I really have to name names and provide links?

As someone who has been an editorial professional since the Reagan administration, I find it eternally frustrating that professional copywriters are so often dismissed. After all, everyone can write, right? Everyone can put a sentence together. Everyone can write an email. So how hard can it be to write a Web page? Or a newsletter? Or a marketing email? Or a direct mail piece? Or a blog post? Or …

Takeaway for marketers: Web sites are words, visuals and code. So when it comes to developing or revising a site, have a copywriter, artist and engineer on the case every step of the way.

… Mark Zuckerberg’s response to the Facebook mess regarding Beacon is worth reading. It’s a great example of corporate transparency in the face of a business PR debacle.

Of course, when Facebook has to mea culpa just a year ago with a blog post that begins, “We really messed this one up,” one wonders whether the phrase “those who ignore the past are condemned to repeat it” has any resonance over there.

Takeaway for marketers: Be transparent. Oh, and learn from your mistakes.

“I have to read all your crap, can’t you read mine?”

That’s the core of this CrunchGear article, forwarded to me by publicist extraordinaire Barbara Pflughaupt. There’s an awful lot of common sense in there for anyone working in media relations, online or off. This one from Silicon Valley Watcher is pretty good, too.

Takeaway for marketers: Read the crap, then send the release.