When was the last time you gave your press site an overhaul? Does it contain mostly static images and releases? If so, it’s a safe bet your media and consumers are missing out.

Engagement is everything nowadays and press sites should be much more than a one-time resource for media and consumers. The public demands more.

Increasingly, companies are turning to PR for revolutionary ideas in this ever changing media landscape on how to engage the online consumer and more often than not, do so by leveraging existing online real-estate.

Enter the social media newsroom. General Motors (UK) just launched one.

GM’s newsroom makes it easy for anyone to spend more than a few minutes here, and with ingredients including Flickr, YouTube, RSS, tagging, social bookmarking and a blog roll, it’s hard to see why not.

Take a look at your press site. Does it currently include any of these elements? If not, perhaps consider implementing some of the following ideas:

- Identify “stale” areas of your press site that may no longer resonate with online media or the consumer and develop a short list of SEO-friendly online tools heavily used by your target media and consumer to rejuvenate those areas

- Conduct a media audit to determine what they’d find useful on the site

- Implement both short- and long-term ideas into a PR program plan

- Make sure to outreach to key media to let them know about any updates to the press site

- Follow competition and other companies with evolving social media newsrooms to identify trends and stay ahead

The social media newsroom is here to stay, so why not establish your press site as a front-runner in this category?