Major publications and even daily newspapers have been adding online editions. Many have been killing off their print editions altogether to eliminate the cost of printing and postage.

The time is now to create a strategy for an online magazine or e-zine. (Ask us for help!)

Two Options for an E-Zine

• Using a user-friendly service like Constant Contact (ask us for help!) send your newsletter via an email containing your articles and related graphics.
• A more effective communications strategy is to publish your online magazine articles as pages on your Web site or a special e-zine site. Use the email newsletter for quick summaries that link to the full articles on your site. This will help draw readers to your site, where they can interact with your organization in many ways.

Elements of a Successful Webzine or Digital Edition

The Internet is all about technology, but a successful online magazine is more about content. (We’ll deal with the technology options separately.) Except for the cost of paper and postage, an online publication shares much with its print precursor.

What are the key components of an e-zine?

Editor: Somebody has to be in charge. Once you’re up and running, the title of e-zine editor could be added to an existing staff member. Or hire a webzine consultant.

Schedule: It’s called a “periodical,” right? Whether it’s weekly, monthly or even quarterly, you won’t meet your communications objectives without committing to a regular publishing schedule.

Content: On the Internet, frequency is more important than volume. It’s better to publish monthly with just three articles than to put your e-zine online quarterly with 12 stories. In addition to newly developed content, consider recycling articles from your print publication (after reviewing for accuracy, of course).

Length: Online readers are in a hurry. As a guideline for the length of an e-zine story, use 500 words (the length of this article), unless it’s highly technical information.

Editorial Calendar: Plan your stories several issues in advance. Use your organization’s calendar as inspiration for your e-zine story ideas, such as an advance article on your upcoming annual meeting or something relating to the season or an upcoming holiday.

Voice and Editorial Review: What does your organization stand for? What does your audience want to hear from you? Consider creating an editorial board to ensure that you’re publishing content that’s consistent with the image of your organization.

Readership: Build readership with a “subscribe” button on your home page (and a link in your existing print media) and send an email newsletter to your subscribers when you publish a new e-zine issue online.

At Jonathan Lehrer Communications, Inc., we have the editorial, strategic and technical expertise to implement a online magazine that will enhance your image and broadcast your messages at a reasonable cost. Contact us to learn how to create an online magazine or webzine.

But I told them to hold off on the celebration until later in the day. 

I put in a call to the office of Richard Bensen, then president of AAA-CMC, to ask for an appointment. A few hours later, I sat in his office and explained that after 18 years at AAA, it just might be time to write a new chapter in my life. My good friend, Joe Sameh, had offered me a part-time position handling marketing for his healthcare telecommunications company, American Mediconnect. It was just the opportunity I needed to start a consulting practice. 

Bensen immediately offered me a consulting position with AAA, and shortly after, Sara Marberry asked me to help with some assignments for the Center for Health Design. And my consulting practice was up and running. 

Meanwhile, my staff was stunned to hear I was leaving (but happy to eat the cake I brought). 

Over the ensuing years, I partnered with Sara Marberry to evaluate Web sites; and I partnered with Louie Pukelis to do PR strategy for the Illinois Department of Transportation’s Dan Ryan and Kingery Expressway Reconstruction projects and the Illinois Tollway’s Congestion Relief Program. 

Many clients (and advisors) have provided me with opportunities and have been supportive of my work.  

As I celebrate my first 10 years as a strategic communications and Internet consultant, I’m using this page of my Web site to publicly thank them for making the first 10 years possible by trusting me and my colleagues with their projects. (If I left your name off the list, please contact me, and I’ll apologize to you, and add your name to the list.)

Sharif Abou-Sabh, Joseph Adler, Inez Altman, Bob Benjamin, Richard Bensen, Heidi Berenson, Carl Blackwell, Dr. Stephen Boas, Richard Brill, David Brimm, Karen Brown, Jerry Caamano, Hedvah Campeas-Cohen, Kathleen Cantillon, Ian Carrus, Jennifer Chulski, Mike Claffey, Thom Clark, Jeffrey Conlin, Mark Couzin, Steve Coven, Jerry Cox, Michelle Damico, Tom Dardis, Riley Davis, John DeAngelis, Hank DeZutter, Carole Dibo and Regina Dove… 

Also, Grace Dumelle, Sarah Ebner, Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein, Al Finley, Dr. Elysa Fisher, Marianne Floriano, Randy Frapart, Pete Friedmann, Richard Ghetzler, John Greuling, Jerry Gruebel, Jim Hall, George Hanus, Arnie Harris, Ian Harris, Clayton Harris III, Bob Herrick, Ellen Hopkins, John Janicik, Greg Kameika and Craig Kantor…

Also, Kelly Kaylor, Michael King, Beth Kloos, Marisa Kollias, Lon Kramer, Pat Kremer, Amy Kritzman, Ron Kritzman, Judy Kupchan, Estee Lehrer, Lia Lehrer, Michael Lehrer, Shirley Lewis, Janet Lifshitz Sameh, Russ Loebe, Sara Marberry, Diane Margolin, Joelle McGinnis, Beryl Michaels, Harvey Miler, Ray Minkus, Richard Moline, Christi Morelli, Sharon Morgan and Kim Morreale-McAuliffe…

Even more: Jim Mullins, Rich Nelson, Debbie Nick, Diane O’Keefe, Rachael Patterson, Wally Podrazik, Ray Pokorny, Jeanne Polydoris, Robert Portogallo, Howard Prager, Susan Prather, Louie Pukelis, Nora Pukelis, Nicole Puracchio, Chana Rosen, z”l, Bill Rubin, Jeff Rutter, Ken Saffir, Joe Sameh, Janet Scott, Dr. Gerry Soff, Lori Stark, Roz Stein, Jill Stewart, Diana Stewart, Paul Swanstrom, Heather Tarczan, Neil Tesser, Tim Touhy, Jacek Tyszkiewicz, Bob Vallera, Helen Vancura, Marilyn Vincent, Rick Vulpitta, Mike Wiater, Mark Weiner and Suzanne Woolford. 

Thanks to all of you!

“Marketing” and “chaos” are synonymous in some organizations. Everybody has a better idea. Each manager is off doing his/her thing.

• The new marketing director doesn’t like the company’s color scheme.
• The CEO’s husband never liked the firm’s logo.
• The sales department is using an outdated positioning statement on all of their proposals.
• Your promotions director ordered a zillion keychains to hand out at Taste of Chicago, but he forgot to include your Web site address on the artwork.
• Maybe that’s a good thing, because your Web site hasn’t been updated since before the iPod was invented.

It’s Time for a Communications Audit

Your corporate balance sheet lists such organizational assets as real estate, equipment and your company-owned Lexus. You’ll never see Web site domain names, brochure designs, signage and YouTube videos on the balance sheet, but they are assets, too.

Whether you’re non-profit or highly profitable, you need to maximize your return on investment. Your communications assets should carry coordinated messages. The graphics and colors should look similar. Your Web site should be customer-friendly.

I’m not telling you anything you don’t already know, but I suspect you might want a little help putting your knowledge into practice. An outside, unbiased eye might be just what you need.

What is a Communications Audit?

Tell us about your organization’s goals, then send us everything you can find that has, or should have, your company’s name or logo on it. Send us links to Web site examples and samples of email newsletters.

We’ll give you a written evaluation of everything, along with creative suggestions on how to make the overall package deliver a better ROI.

To make it more fun, we can do this evaluation in your conference room, interactively in workshop format with your key people. (No, I’m not really kidding about the “fun” part.)

The outcome may be a plan for a new logo, or simply an edict from the CEO reminding people to toss the business cards that still carry the name of the company from before the big merger.

Materials to be Evaluated in a Communications Audit

• Web site(s)
• E-mail newsletters
• Brochures
• Sales presentations / proposals
• Trade show booth
• Fund-raising materials (non-profit)
• Investor relations materials
• Signage
• Logos and corporate identity
• Use of new media

Contact us to learn more…

Or is it?

A twentysomething friend who works at a Chicago PR agency recently told me he runs into the occasional older person (in other words, someone my age!) who seems wary of venturing out into the new media landscape, unable to get his arms around the new ways today’s younger generation communicates.

But, seriously, how did they talk to their friends back when THEY were teenagers? The answer is found in the “Telephone Hour” song from the 1963 movie version of the musical “Bye Bye Birdie.”

This song and its brilliant staging bring to life the telephone-obsessed, affluent teenagers of the early ’60s. Visual emphasis on the telephone wires and the shot of the switchboard operator towards the end amplify (pun intended, sorry) the technology component of a song about how teenagers communicate.

For those of you who weren’t around in 1963, note that most of the locations where telephones are shown would have been highly unusual for the time. The only carphones were in James Bond movies. Teenagers on phones in a soda shop (what ever happened to soda shops?) was a laughable exaggeration.

An observant 10-year-old when the movie debuted, I saw moms and dads freaking out over the amount of time teens spent on the phone every night. But peruse the Morton Grove or Skokie (Ill.) phone books of that era (what ever happened to the phone book?) and you’d see that a few of these same parents were adding “child’s telephone” listings. These were second phone numbers in an age where virtually every household had only one.

Also around that time (actually 1959, according to Wikipedia), AT&T (what ever happened to AT&T? Oh wait, they’re back, aren’t they?) came out with the Princess telephone, a revolution compared to the standard black desk phone, and completely targeted to teenage girls. In 1963, they came out with a touch-tone version, and it must have been this version that seems to be in the opening shot of the “Telephone Hour” song.

“Bye Bye Birdie” not only captured the inseparable attachment of teens and technology, but it also predicted a future 40 years later, when every human being would be on the phone all the time everywhere and 2,000 anytime minutes wouldn’t seem like enough.

Why is this important?

The social media phenomenon isn’t new. It’s old. It’s not so much about the technology, but of yet another generation’s failure to understand their kids.

People just want to connect. They used Princess phones in 1963. Now they text and Tweet.

Now let’s travel even further back.

After 18 years doing PR for AAA, and 10 recent years working on Internet projects, “information highway” is a meaningful phrase. The Internet (or more accurately, the Internet of 10-15 years ago, when it was in the early stages of the World Wide Web) serves exactly the same function as the newly conceived Interstate highway system of the 1950s.

In this context, I was telling my twentysomething friend about AAA’s trip logs of the early 1900s. At that time, the motor club was mostly a social organization for rich guys who could afford horseless carriages. They would drive across the country on roads that might have been paved, or might not, and write about their experiences in the club’s magazines. My friend quickly observed that it was another form of social media.

He was right.

When we communications people think about new media strategies that make sense for our clients, let’s focus less on today’s technology fad (actually, today, it’s the Google phone, which looks pretty cool) and think about the bigger picture. People just want to talk to each other. Let’s figure out how to make that work for our clients.

Invite us over to your office for a customized workshop we call “New Media for Old People,” a guided tour across the new media landscape. When we’re done, you’ll want to pull out the old Smith-Corona and start banging out your own trip log about your trip down the information highway.

But am I really “old” if I have been friended on Facebook, if I have space on MySpace and if I have edited a Wikipedia entry?

The old cliche “you’re as old as you feel” has been superseded by “you’re as old as you act on the Internet.”

We are witness to a media climate change of global proportions. Not a day goes by without Google adding a new feature or someone you know creating a LinkedIn profile. Regardless of your age or profession, you need to understand how the “new media” landscape will affect your business.

Photo: Jonathan Lehrer leads an onsite “New Media for Old People” workshop.

Jonathan Lehrer Communications, Inc. Can Help You
Understand the New Media

“New Media for Old People” is a seminar/workshop Bob Herrick and I created. Give us an hour or two — depending on how much detail you want — and we’ll come to your office or a meeting of your professional association. Armed with an LCD projector and a list of Web sites, we’ll show you around the wilderness of social media and online tools that can help you deliver your organization’s messages to your various audiences.

The genesis for this seminar was a workshop Bob and I conducted for administrators of a large high school district. We were retained to help them write a job description and interview candidates for the position of public information officer.

In the “old days,” we explained to our clients, a suburban school merely needed to send a press release to the town’s daily newspaper and its major radio station. Today’s students, and quite possibly their parents, get their information from a million sources, some credible and some not.

The school honchos’ jaws dropped when we showed them their page on Wikipedia (they didn’t even know anybody had created such a page). We found an alumni group someone had created on MySpace (”I can’t believe THAT kid would be running our alumni group,” said an official). We explained the Facebook wall and we played videos of the school’s marching band that someone had uploaded to YouTube.

We tried to plot some of the message paths on a white board and ended up with a dizzying array of linkages that simply cannot be depicted in only two dimensions.

Jonathan Lehrer (left) and Bob Herrick show how new media and traditional media must be used together in a comprehensive communications plan.

No one can really be an expert on all this stuff. The landscape changes too quickly.

A Strategy for Social Media and Online Communication

Eventually, our school client hired a well-qualified PR person who understood the school well (and that’s really the most important thing) and was prepared to lead the institution into the Facebook-Google-YouTube-Twitter land creatively and fearlessly.

Every demographic segment - without regard to age or income level – is on the Internet somewhere. Whether you like it or not, they are formulating opinions about you, your products, your clients or the public policy issues that affect you.

Invite us to your office or your organization for a customized presentation about how new media consumers perceive you.

Ask us for help embracing the new media and finding your path through the challenges of global media climate change.

New Media for Old People is an onsite seminar/workshop, introducing and explaining such sites as Wikipedia, YouTube, Facebook, Plaxo and many others to Internet users who haven’t quite ventured into the new media territory, says Jonathan Lehrer, president.

“On the Internet, your age is reflected by the sites you use, not the date shown on your driver’s license,” says Lehrer.

The firm’s Communications Audit is a comprehensive review of such communications assets as brochures, Web sites, blogs, physical signage and television commercials, among many others. The idea is to help clients maximize the return on their communications investments by ensuring that their messages are consistent.

For clients desiring a workshop-style experience, JLCI will perform the audit onsite in an interactive session with key players from the organization.

Learn more about these JLCI services:

New Media for Old People

Communications Audit

Well, not quite. Many organizations have yet to maximize the Internet as a tool for improving business processes, as well as to reinforce their identity and promote their e-business capability. Here’s a checklist:

Domain Name

Pick a domain name that’s easy to remember and spell. If you are well-known in your industry, ideally this should be your company name. While a zillion Amazon wannabees try to establish brand identity with names like “whatever.com,” you should take best advantage of your existing brand. Examples include nike.com, cnn.com or nytimes.com.

Another successful Web branding strategy is to select an address based on a product name that identifies your product (shoes.com) or your well-known trademark (whopper.com). Do the ”telephone test” — say it out loud to others and decide if it is easy for them to understand and remember.

It’s likely that your desired domain name was snapped up by somebody else years ago. Try adding numerals to your choice (mydomain2008.com) or hyphenate (my-domain.com).

Domain Name E-Mail

All employees with Internet access need an e-mail address at your organization’s domain. An address like “joesmith@mycompany.com” is likely to appear more professional and easier to remember than the same employee’s personal e-mail address, which might be “cutejoe@aol.com.”

To make multiple e-mail addresses easier to manage, you can set up e-mail forwarding accounts. Your Internet Service Provider can automatically forward Joe’s e-mail to his personal address, even though your customer sent the message to his “work” address.

E-Mail Protocol

Develop a company-wide protocol for e-mail addresses, such as people’s first initial and their last names, or the first three letters of their first names, followed by the first three letters of their last. You could even use people’s full first and last names. Examples:

johnsmith@ourcompany.com
jsmith@ourcompany.com
johsmi@ourcompany.com

All employees should use a standard signature line in their outgoing mail, possibly including a company slogan or product reference. Be sure to include a telephone number, too. Most e-mail software can automatically include the signature with every message. Example:

John Smith
Sales Director
Our Company
Jsmith@ourcompany.com
www.ourcompany.com
800.123.4567
“We’re your source for widgets”

Generic E-Mail Addresses

Nobody stays in a job forever. When Joe Smith leaves his job as customer service manager, where will his e-mail go? For busy customer-contact functions, it is advisable to create generic e-mail addresses and set up e-mail forwarding to the appropriate departments or people. Examples:

info@ourcompany.com
sales@ourcompany.com
customerservice@ourcompany.com

Responding to E-Mail

Create companywide standards for responding to e-mail. For example, you might require that customer-contact employees check their e-mail every two hours. You might set a standard that all e-mails get a response within four hours, or sooner.

Use the Web site

Proper integration of your Web site with your business process should reduce telephone calls and provide your customers with more direct, convenient contact with your company, around the clock, without any ongoing involvement of your staff. Make sure your Web site is able to:

• Receive and process orders;
• Provide technical information about your products; and
• Answer frequently asked questions (FAQs).

Just like the company directory in your lobby, your site should have a detailed e-mail directory, complete with job functions, so correspondents know to whom they should send their e-mail.

Finally, use all of your print material to publicize the message that customers can do business with your company on the Internet. If appropriate, include your e-mail or Web site address in voice mail messages.

Here’s a checklist:

• Newsletter
• Brochures
• Advertisements
• Invoices
• Letterhead
• Business cards

Sara Marberry co-authored this article, which originally appeared in b3 magazine .

It’s easy to set up free accounts with the popular template-based online tools. But it takes seasoned pros to integrate them into a well-planned public relations program. We can help.

Constant Contact

You can’t tune in to your local all-news radio station without hearing an ad for Constant Contact. According to its Web site, 185,000 small businesses use Constant Contact to connect with their customers. Setting up an account is free and dozens of templates are offered at no extra charge; you can have your first email newsletter out on the Internet in a few minutes.

Or can you?

The fact is, to use Constant Contact effectively for email marketing, you need to know your way around a sophisticated content management system. What’s more, only the most basic approaches can get by without modifying the supplied templates.

You need a Constant Contact expert with a public relations background to design an effective Constant Contact experience.

Contact Jonathan Lehrer Communications / The Message Engineers for advice and help with email newsletters and tools like Constant Contact.

Survey Monkey

Let the computer do the math. That’s the basic idea behind Survey Monkey, the online survey tool. Survey Monkey can be indispensable for the public relations practitioner who needs to know what the clients’ constituents or customers think.

Type your questions into Survey Monkey’s online interface, upload your email addresses and click SEND. A few minutes later, responses will magically appear on the screen in front of you, fully tabulated and ready to be reported to your client. Easy.

Well, not so much.

It takes a seasoned public relations pro to plan the survey, write the questions and understand how to use the survey results in a comprehensive PR program. Jonathan Lehrer Communications / The Message Engineers has the technical knowledge and the public relations expertise to have your survey online and collecting data in just a few hours.

WordPress

In the “old days” (a year ago!), to update the content of your Web site required zipping an email to your paid Web consultant to make the change.

Not anymore.

Originally designed for blogs, such tools as WordPress and Typepad are being used to create Web sites that don’t look anything like a blog. These tools are free and you don’t need to be a Web designer to make them work.

But you do need a message expert to be sure the Web site says what you really want it to say. Jonathan Lehrer Communications / The Message Engineers can customize a WordPress site to deliver the right message to the right audience. Plus, after years of having clients ask how to edit their own site, we finally have an answer. We’ll show you how to use WordPress or another online content management system to keep your site fresh at virtually no cost.

(Why do we use WordPress?)

In addition to the site you’re viewing now, here’s another of our recent WordPress sites: http://www.nlrailsense.net/

YouTube

More than a hundred gazillion videos are uploaded to YouTube every nanosecond. But the vast majority of those videos aren’t properly described or tagged. Why is it sometimes impossible to find the video you want?

It’s because the person uploading the video didn’t write a keyword-rich description.

Your organization may have video footage hidden in the bottom drawer of someone’s desk. Put it to work for you on YouTube.

You could do it yourself, of course, or you could have Jonathan Lehrer Communications / The Message Engineers sort through video content that you’ve already created and post it to YouTube for maximum effect. Who knows? Maybe your CEO will become as famous as the blender guy in the labcoat.

YouTube may simply be the best and cheapest online PR tool you’ve discovered lately.

Facebook

Facebook isn’t just another Web application. It’s a completely new way to communicate.

The under-25 audience spends more time on Facebook than your parents spend watching TV. Jonathan Lehrer Communications / The Message Engineers will come to your office with a portable Internet connection and an LCD projector to demonstrate Facebook, MySpace (and why not add Wikipedia, too?). We’ll brainstorm with you about how to best use these sites in your marketing program.

For an expert approach to Constant Contact, WordPress, Survey Monkey and other online tools, contact Jonathan Lehrer Communications / The Message Engineers.

[Updated April 2009]

Originally presented to the Community Media Workshop (Chicago)

Use this checklist to spark internal discussion about the quality and effectiveness of your organization’s Web site.

I. INITIAL IMPRESSION OF HOME PAGE

Is it inviting and welcoming?

Is the purpose of the site clear? Is it obvious who owns this site?

Is the page attractive? Does the visitor want to explore the site further?

Does it contain essential information? (Mailing address, telephone numbers, home/search/contents/contact buttons, keyword-heavy text, organizational news, quicklaunch links)

II. NAVIGATION

Can you find your way around the site? Is information easy to find?

Is it easy to find your way back to the home page?

III. CONTENT

Is the content interesting and appropriate to the site’s mission?

Is information helpful and relevant to the topic?

Is the content fresh (not outdated)?

IV. DESIGN

Is the content easy to read? Are the pages attractive?

Are the pages attractive on monitors set to various resolutions, on various browsers and on both Macs and PCs?

V. USABILITY

Can various users (with various computer skills) interact with the site in the desired manner without assistance?

VI. TECHNOLOGY

Is technology (menus, scripting, animations, bells and whistles) used to aid communication (as opposed to confusing the visitor)?

Do all the links work? Do pages download quickly?

VII. RESULTS

Does the site meet its goals? Does it serve the organization’s goals?

Posted: 6/4/03

Journalists Need Your Web Site

1. The Web is often a journalist’s starting point in working on a story.
2. Reporters are always on deadline; they need answers fast.
3. They are too busy to search for information.
4. They easily grow impatient with poorly organized or outdated Web sites.

Make Your Site Friendly to News Reporters

For more organizations, there should be a clearly marked “news” or “media” or “newsroom” button on home page. A “contact” button should appear on all pages.

Be sure to upload all press materials to your site slightly in advance of any news conference or event that you’re holding. This will be helpful to reporters and fact-checkers.

List Your Media Contact People

Organizations that are frequently in the public eye will want to list their media contacts. Make it easy for reporters by including:

• Name, area of responsibility
• Phone number, e-mail address(es)
• After-hours contact procedure

Format for Web-Posted Press Releases

• Include the date when the press release was posted.
• Check your archive frequently and remove or update releases that are no longer accurate. (Didn’t that CEO you quoted leave the company a year ago?)
• Use a longer and more descriptive headline than you would for a print publication. It’s more likely to get hits from search engines.
• Include links to pages on your site.

Corporate Web Sites Should Have a Fact Sheet

• Check freshness monthly
• Include your organization’s history.
• Include Investor Relations information.

Include Images Suitable for the News Media

Downloadable photos in both low and high resolution, including executive “mug” shots and photos of key products.

Downloadable logos (color and b/w).

Many types of multimedia also should be on your site:

• Advertising
• Executive speeches
• Press conferences
• Product demos
• Video News Releases

Consider posting your videos on YouTube, where it’s likely to get more viewership than on your own site. When posting on YouTube, be sure to include a full description of the video and a link to your organization’s Web site.

Make the Most of Your Media Relationships

When dealing with a reporter, always ask for the best e-mail address where he or she can be contacted. Most reporters get hundreds of e-mails each day at their “work” address. Try to get their personal e-mail address.

Keep track of reporters’ preferences for e-mail and/or telephone contact. Ask whether they prefer to get press releases as an attachment or as plain text pasted into the body of an e-mail message.

Pitching Stories by E-Mail

Increasingly, reporters prefer to be pitched via e-mail, and they intensely dislike getting calls from PR people asking “didja get my email???”

Tell your whole story in a succinct subject line. Without a compelling subject line, your e-mail will get deleted without being opened.

Writing a good subject line requires the headline-writing skills you learned in j-school. Bad: “News from XYZ Agency.” Good: “XYZ Awards $1.2 Million in Grants.”

Begin the body of your e-mail with a very short pitch, perhaps a personal explanation as to why you think this story is perfect for this reporter. Paste the press release into the body of the e-mail. Make it easy to skim by keeping paragraphs short and including subheadings.

Instead of including the release as an attachment, link directly to the downloadable release on your Web site.

Close off with your full contact information, including instructions on how to find you in the evening.