Corporate Eye

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Archives for 2007

Northern Rock – crisis management

It would be difficult not to know that there has been a run on a British bank for the first time since the 1860s. Not the kind of historic record one wants to break really … I’m not going to comment on the financials, but I think this is a classic example of using your website to help manage people’s understanding of a major crisis.

Northern Rock - message from CEOI didn’t visit the site for a while (at least partly because there were reported difficulties with the site crashing as a result of the public interest in this episode), but have noticed over the last few days that there are new pages on display. The new first page (a splash page before you can reach the home page) is a message from the CEO, similar if not identical to the full page ad with the same message run in the papers recently.

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If you build it, they will come – Media (part 3)

I’ve already discussed the basics of a corporate media section, and then how to step it up a gear. So – how do you get to the wow factor?

Bear in mind that this section will attract not only the professional media worker, but also your potential customers and investors, so it is worth some investment. I have noticed that some companies like to verify that a visitor is a genuine media worker before allowing them access to some of the pages – and haven’t really understood the benefits of this. Please don’t require people to sign up to gain access to your media features …
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Going up a gear – Media (part 2)

I recently discussed what should be included in a competent media section. Today I want to look at what you need to step the Media section up a gear.

A good media section

The better Media sections contain a range of additional elements to make it easier for the visitor. This includes additional information that might be useful, easy to access and packaged in helpful bundles, and some tools to help them get their job done. These elements include:
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Getting the basics right – Media Section (part 1)

Despite the importance of the media (both traditional and new) to a corporate brand, some companies don’t seem to cater to the needs of this stakeholder group very well at all. I am always surprised when I can’t even find a company logo for download …

(Yes, the logo is at the top left of every page, but your web design team will probably have optimised it for the web, so it won’t be good quality for printing).

When I last looked, over 5% of the FTSE 100 didn’t provide a section of their site dedicated to journalists at all.
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Bought a new company recently?

If your company has a strategy of acquisition – why not explain it to your potential investors?

Imperial Tobacco not only explain who they’ve acquired, but when – and give their acquisition criteria. If I happened to have a company ripe for acquisition, I might be very interested indeed in this information, but even if I didn’t, investors are likely to want to understand this strategy.
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Tell us when your share price changes

Not many companies provide this kind of functionality, but it is useful, enabling companies to push information to its investors and alert them to stock movements.

Although not all investors will be interested in this kind of tool, I’m sure some would be – and perhaps also some financial journalists at key times of the year, or around company transitions.
BAT stock alert
BAT will send an SMS alert twice a day – to registered users – keeping investors up to date.
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