Today I explore the question “How can small business owners in Chicago increase awareness of their businesses in local online news websites?” If you’re not from the Windy City, read about what Chicago papers are doing and then check the descriptions of HelloMetro, EveryBlock and YourStreet, below, to apply these approaches in your area.
The business model of newspapers is undergoing radical change, and many large papers like the Chicago Tribune are expanding local news to increase local advertising. A series of TribLocal.com websites for various suburbs are the ChicagoTribune’s latest venture. What’s new is the community, not editorial, control of content.
This local focus competes, of course, with existing neighborhood and suburban newspapers, many of which also have online editions. In this post, I look at how a business owner can use the TribLocal and suburban newspaper links for online submissions of local news, events and photos. I then explore how that owner might use online, hyperlocal websites like HelloMetro, EveryBlock and YourStreet.
TribLocal
Is your Chicago suburb covered? On the Triblocal site, click links near the graphic of Chicago counties to see if your suburb has its own subsite yet. (Click the letter of your suburb and then you should see a list to the right.)
What business news are Triblocal editions publishing? Under “Write a Story,” Triblocal recommends:
“Tell us what’s new in your neighborhood or at your church or school. Add news about anniversaries, graduations and coverage of your block party. Share your opinions on issues that affect you and your community.”
Who is submitting stories and events? You can tell who submitted items because those from TribLocal reporters are identified as such. All the rest are community submissions.
What kinds of “editorial control” is there? Events and stories appear to be published online when submitted. However, only those approved by Triblocal editors make it into print editions. In its FAQs, TribLocal states:
“You and your community members will do most of that. Triblocal.com staff will review submitted photographs before they are posted to ensure that they are appropriate contributions. Staff will also review stories and select some for the main page.”
What events are appropriate for the local events calendar? The FAQs list:
“…important meetings and gatherings. Submit dates and times for meetings, fundraisers or other key events being held by your group, school or organization.”
To illustrate, here are examples of local business stories and events now on Triblocal:
Life coach informational event
Efficiency expert (paid) event
Local business hosts nonprofit event
Local retail store celebrates 80 years in business
College savings article by financial advisor
Restaurant announces new brunch service
Free Latte from Dunk’n Donuts on Mother’s Day
While the FAQs do not encourage business uses, you can see by the samples above that businesses are using both the story and event submission areas. In addition to these types of business submissions, you might also upload pictures of your volunteer activities and identify yourself parenthetically as a local business owner.
You can see more examples of local business stories and events by going to Triblocal.com and looking for the Topic links on the left. Click “Business” to see examples in any one suburban.
Suburban Chicago Competitors
Traditional suburban papers in Chicago now have online editions. Some enable more submissions than others. Unlike TribLocal above, presumably all submissions are reviewed prior to publication.
PioneerLocal is part of the Sun Times News Group, with print and online editions.
PioneerLocal.com Business Brief. Fill in this form to submit a business event.
PioneerLocal.com People and Promotions. Submit a local story when someone in your organization gets a promotion.
PioneerLocal.com community If you become a community member, you can leave comments and recommend stories to others in the local network.
PioneerLocal.com photos. This online paper wants “photos that feature landscapes or animals. However, if the photo does include a person (preferably a family member) please include that person’s name and telephone number.”
Suburban papers in the Neighborhood Star group are also part of the Sun Times News Group.
Neighborhood Star Communities (mostly south suburbs) uses the sample links and templates as PioneerLocal, above.
The Daily Herald has suburban papers in many suburbs, with both print and online editions.
DailyHerald.com link asks for news tips, not article submissions. You can also suggest public events or calendar listings.
Online HyperLocal News Sites
Everyblock is a privately funded journalism venture. Their site calls it “a new way to keep track of what’s happening on your block, in your neighborhood and all over your city.” Everyblock sites are up in Boston, Charlotte, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, Philadelphia, San Francisco, San Jose, Seattle, and Washington, DC, as well as Chicago. Funding runs out this year.
Chicago.Everyblock.com covers local city (not suburban) news in three areas:
- Civic information — building permits, crimes, restaurant inspections and more.
- News articles and blog entries — major newspapers, community weeklies, TV and radio news stations, local specialty publications and local blogs.
- Fun from across the Web — local photos posted to the Flickr photo-sharing site, user reviews of local businesses on Yelp, lost and found postings from Craigslist and more
To get Everyblock coverage, you have to be covered elsewhere, either when a government agency reports data on you or when you get media coverage. However, you can facilitate such third party listings by setting up a Flickr photo-sharing account for your business and adding a map tag. Or get listed and reviewed on local review websites like Yelp.
Hellometro.com are a series of hyperlocal online city guides, supported by ads. The website called this a “global network of city-focused content.” The purpose is to “give users all the information they need to live, visit, work and play in any of 1,500 hellometro communities.”
If you create a HelloChicago.com account, you have access to these tabs: Local Music, Local Art, Small Business, Local Video, Photo Gallery, Rate Business, and Hyperlocal News. Under Small Business, you can advertise your business by setting up a profile and paying $15 per month. Under the Photo Gallery or Hyperlocal News links, you can upload photos and submit text of a local story, for free. Under Local Music and Local Art, you can upload your music and graphics files.
YourStreet.com is about “the latest local news and information from around the web.” It’s in the midst of a site redesign. The site loads incredibly slowly, and I was unable to investigate its features fully in time for this post. They have eliminated map integration of every item and enabled links to Facebook pages to help users integrate online profiles. This site covers 35,000 locations across the US.
One Journalist’s Advice
Ric Cox, a Columbia journalism grad, owner of the website ChicagoCondosOnline.com, and blogger at SaveOurTribune, has this advice on using online news sites:
“It all depends on the business one is promoting. The main difference between TribLocal and the Chicago Tribune is that each story is targeted to a particular town.
If I were trying to get an item published in the print as well as online editions, I would focus on the “helpful hints” category, offering practical tips for readers from my area of expertise. For ChicagoCondosOnline.com, I would pick Evanston, for example, and focus on how our site could help condo buyers in Evanston, mentioning that we have profiles, with floor plans and photos, of most condos in Evanston. Then I would try to drive readers to my web site. I would upload a screen shot of my home page and hope it accompanied the article.”
Recommendations
- To increase the likelihood of wider coverage, submit articles that solve a specific consumer problems.
- Submit informational events regarding your business.
- Consider participating in (or even creating) contests to announce employees or customers who have won or broken records.
- Take photos that feature local residents (customers and employees) whom you can identify parenthetically with your business.
- Submit your volunteer activities and identify yourself as a local business owner and resident.
Is the Local Promo Effort Worth Your Time?
SCORE Chicago has started to upload information on free business counseling at our twenty branches around Chicago. Here’s a description of our services and counselors in Arlington Heights.
The day after I created the Arlington listing, I googled “counseling Arlington Heights” and the link came up on page one. Even if local online news websites don’t have many readers/pageviews, business owners may find it worthwhile to post items to increase business rankings in organic search and for backlinks.
I’ll address the time, costs and potential benefits of using local online news sites in an upcoming post.
What’s your experience posting business items on local online news websites? Please leave a comment.
Related Posts
Online Press Releases: Intro, Video and Links
46 Links on Local Online Marketing: Techniques to Promote Your Local Business
On the blog Mashable, Woody Lewis is talking about how traditional media is going social.
{ 2 trackbacks }
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
To increase your online exposure your pages should include your street address, zip code, phone number, and five-digit zip code.
Good advice, Jad, and something that many people ignore.
By the way, I’ve heard it said that the search engines ignore it if it is in small type. Now on SCORE Chicago’s website, http://www.SCOREChicago.org, we have it running in font size 1 in the footer. What do you think?
Peg