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Adventures of an Intern: the Amazon Media Room

The Adventures of an Intern series has returned! Learn more about Amazon's media room and all of the features that are included on the site.

November 22 , 2011

Shop online? Chances are you’ve probably used Amazon to purchase anything from textbooks to Halloween costumes in your shopping endeavors. This week, I decided to investigate the Amazon Media Room , which is geared to a consumer audience with its simple layout and PR contacts, all dedicated to providing a better customer experience when ordering their products online.

Here are some of the key features of Amazon’s Media Room. The most recently posted press releases are in the middle of the homepage, under a header of Latest News. Below that is a chronological archive of other press releases that appear to be posted on a weekly basis. Arranged along the left side of the media room are press resources, which include links to specific press rooms for Amazon Web Services and the Kindle. The other side of the page lists PR contacts, with both phone and email contact info. There is also contact information for non media inquiries.

One aspect I haven’t seen in corporate newsrooms yet that Amazon has is a section entitled Amazon and Our Planet. This section includes links to Amazon’s environmental involvement, how the company has contributed to disaster relief and tools the company provides for non-profit organizations.

A surprising part of the newsroom was the lack of obvious links to social networks on the homepage. Amazon is an online company, so why not make things even easier and provide customers with links to social media sites. There is a link to the PR managed RSS feed which streams the press releases, but that seems to be about it. It wasn’t difficult to find the Amazon Fan page on Facebook, and the official Twitter handle, but there was no direct link from the media room.

Although the homepage appears to lack links to social media sites, there is a list of book best sellers that are available for both the Kindle and in print which is somewhat randomly placed. I assume this is to suggest products for customers, but it seems little out of place, especially when more relevant tools such as social media links could be in the same spot.

Key Takeaways

I liked that Amazon chose to highlight community involvement. This adds another dimension to the company and a great PR tool too!

Why no social media? All the media room needs to do is post links to Facebook and Twitter, and customers will do the rest. I think this is the area Amazon could use the most improvement in.

Amazon has been a great resource over the years, and I think that by tweaking a few crucial pieces of the media center it will continue to serve as a great one stop shopping experience. I think Amazon could engage its customers more though, don’t you? I know I would respond to a tweet that offered a special on text books, or a Facebook post that told me when there was a sale on my favorite online store. Don’t you agree? That wraps my adventure for this week up, but stay tuned for more of my adventures next week on The Network.

Related Tags: Social Media

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