Though the term Brand Journalism is new, there are companies that have been practicing it for many years.

In the last of the Brand Journalism seven-part series, Mark Ragan and Jim Ylisela continue their discussion. They share three innovative companies that are doing brand journalism right.

Nuts About Southwest is Southwest Airline’s website where 30 employees discuss everything positive about their employer.  Sophos, an IT company, has a website called Naked Security in which computer hacking is discussed. The financial company HSBC has two sites that provide useful content.

The motive for these extra websites?  Whenever you need any of the services or products we provide,  hopefully you will call us.

Click here to learn more about the final series – 3 Companies Doing Brand Journalism Well:

In the sixth installment of this seven-part series, Mark Ragan and Jim Ylisela continue their conversation on Brand Journalism. This time, the topic turns to answering the question, “If you build it, will they come?

Now.  How can they if they don’t know about it?

You have the sell it. Their suggestions: Use daily news feeds, social media and your employees.  Employees are often over looked, but they can be the best people to loudly toot your horn.

Don’t forget the traditional means of selling your goods and services – direct mailings, advertising and publications.

Click here to hear more:

A big question that’s often asked: Should we create a separate site? The advantage of having a separate site is to make ensuring its individuality. On this site, you will offer news feature stories, blogs and videos – not the usual company information that’s typically on the “mother” site.

Mark Ragan and Jim Yliisela from Ragan Communications have so far offered four previous videos on Brand Journalism. They advise to make the site easy to find (no one wants to hunt), offer different content from the “mother” site and make social media the pipeline.

Want to know more? Click the link to continue on your path to Brand Journalism.

To move your company toward brand journalism, you have to be a reporter and a good writer. If you are not, find someone in your company who is, or hire a company like Visibility Marketing Inc., to do the work for you.

Remember, you must change the way you gather information. Cranking out press releases does not work. You have to tell a good story and get great quotes.

For more on the required skills to convert your communications department, click here to hear Mark Ragan and Jim Ylisela speak more on the topic.

I once worked at one of Ohio’s largest newspapers. Though I was on the advertising side (at our paper, the advertising and journalism departments did not mix), I still understood the journalists and how they thought.

When moving your company toward brand journalism, you have to build a newsroom mentality among your employees. You have to write differently and perform differently in order to create a news website.

Mark Ragan and Jim Ylisela talk about how traditional media has changed. However, brand journalism is really going back to the “old school” newspaper model.

Click here to hear more.