News Websites

A newswire, for the uninitiated, is the name given to the ticker tape system originally used to communicate news stories across the globe, before we had reliable telephone systems and of course, the World Wide Web. Back in the day of our grandparents, news stories were wired tothe major cities of the world, where they were printed out and most relevant headlines were published in the national papers and broadcast on local radio stations.

Nowadays however the power of the internet and the digital revolution has resulted in newswire systems appearing all over the internet on a variety of topics, not just the original news headlines from fifty odd years ago. Today you can look at news related to specific celebrities, politicians and spokespersons; to different industries, inventions, events, competitions, investigations and so on. In regards to your business, you probably already know that to stand out from your competitors, you have to be able to offer a level of service which is being provided already. Customers like to purchase the right product for the purpose, from someone who knows what they’re
talking about.

So newswire websites then have two purposes for you as a business owner; they provide a place for you to learn what is new and occurring in your particular industry and they provide valuable material for use in your company blog and status updates for your customers to digest. It’s important for you to stay informed, even if it means spending some time on your competitors’ website and searching newswire website for stories about them, as they might be providing services and products that you hadn’t considered offering before. They might be
able to provide promotions in conjunction with recognised manufacturers, or they might have been invited to a major industry event. This is the kind of stuff that you, as a business owner, cannot afford to miss out on.

Customers like reading news too- it doesn’t always have to be informative and full of sales pitch however. You may be used to reading text in industry terminology, but your customer might not be. Try to keep an eye out whist you’re digesting the day’s news stories on your industry specific newswire sites for articles which your customers might be interested in hearing about, and either discuss the story in a blog post, or provide a link to it from your Twitter feed or Facebook Page status.

So this is where news websites play an important role for us professional status updaters; we need to find relevant information to update our profiles with, that both refers to our specific business function as well as provides information or entertainment to someone who isn’t necessarily is going to buy from us straightaway but will follow our own newsfeed, as well as existing customers that were so impressed they will probably use your company again.

The best way by to find good, relevant information for updates is by searching news websites. You can search according to mainstream news stories, industry related articles, and also celebrities (if they are in some way relevant to your company and the products and services that you have to offer). Now, there are a lot of news sites out there, and each specialises in different kinds of stories. After an afternoon invested in surfing around the various places on the internet, and of course using both common sense and discretion, you will no doubt build up a healthy collection of websites that you can refer to again and again.

For example, if I was searching for news websites that I wanted to relate to Wheels of Steel (our fictitious roller skate shop from Marketing Tip #7), I would look up famous roller skate manufacturers’ websites, such as Renz, Razor, USD, Nimh, Xsjado, Roces and Deshi. Whenever the companies have a new model, the will no doubt be mentioning it on their own websites. I’d also be looking up rollerskating events all over the world, like the figure skating championships for example, who also have a website all about the competition.

Next to that, I’d also be searching YouTube too (people do argue as to whether or not this is a news site, but since it is constantly evolving with updates and new footage, I would argue it is, easily) for famous skaters from different disciplines performing in competitions as well as amateurs taping their own tricks and routines. Good places to begin your discovery of news websites include: Propeller- which allows user to vote for stories on a variety of different topics, relying on the likes of AOL news, FanHouse, Daily Finance, JSYK, Policitics Daily and Pop Eater for its news.

Users can also submit their own articles and there’s a blog feature and large community onboard there too. A lot of the news stories, particularly the headlines, are American, which, if your product or service is internationally recognised, and you ship products abroad or provide services online, could be used to your advantage.

Reddit- is a user generated news website, and is a great place to find humourous stories and internet memes- some of which are brilliant nuggets for updating- for instance, remember the man who danced all over the world? His famous video would be brilliant if your company is concerned with travel and holidays. Here, users can vote which stories make it to the front page on a variety of topics, such as Gaming, Science, World News, Music and Technology. There’s also a AskReddit area, where like Yahoo answers, users can pose a question to other users- useful for potential customer research purposes without having to move from your office!

Digg is a social news website, boasting the latest ‘News Headlines, Videos & Images’, according to a user submitted and rated system. Digg is one of the more popular bookmarking sites, and you may have already seen on various websites, the Digg buttons- where if you have an account, you can post that particular site to be linked up and voted on by the other Digg users. This site is a mixture of serious news and internet humour and you can also automatically add an item that you Digg to your Facebook profile.

Slashdot is an example of a mainstream news website which is also quite industry specific. With the strap line ‘News for Nerds- Stuff That Matters,’ it’s obviously all about technology. Powered by user submissions, Slashdot features a range of very informative stories discussing both technology and World issues. Because of its persuasion towards articles of a technical nature, in particular new advances in the internet’s evolution, recently released gadgets and advice on computer programming, it’s an excellent source for research and support as well as finding some excellent material for thought-provoking updates.