Getting more out of each earned media placements is more important than ever because of the increased difficulty in getting good placements, largely due to the shrinking numbers of traditional media outlets and journalists.
When your PR efforts have secured that positive story in a recognized traditional or online publication – or when you’ve made a social media coup – it’s tempting to sit back and celebrate the accomplishment. Not so quick.
The positive story in the media about your organization or client contributes to corporate goals. However, the job isn’t finished with the placement. The story can generate greater benefits with carefully calibrated follow-on PR efforts. Techniques to expand the benefits of a positive media placement include the following:
Social media. Sharing the news of the media placement on social media helps spread the news. Post soon, in the interest of timeliness. Using hashtags makes the post more searchable. While most networks accept hashtags, recommendations on the ideal number of hashtags to use vary depending on the network. The general consensus calls for no more than three hashtags on Twitter.
Your website. Announce the media placement on your website in your news or press room section. PR best practices call for creating an online newsroom. Most companies include the publication, article title, link and two or three sentences summarizing the article. Including a link rather than full article avoids copyright issues. By driving visitors to the publication’s website that originally ran the article, you can increase your organization’s credibility and help develop a relationship with the journalist.
Your newsletter. Include a blurb about the media placement in your organization’s newsletter so that you call it to the attention of all your constituents. If the organization doesn’t publish a regular newsletter…
Email. Emailing news of the placement to employees, vendors, customers, business associates and others can increase interest in the article and help boost company morale. Some people on the email list may share the article link through email or on their social media accounts. If the article has a comment section and social sharing buttons, urge email recipients to comment or share the article. Beware of emailing every single placement especially if the articles are frequent. Instead, email only high-profile placements that are especially important. If you have sufficient lead-time, you can email your contacts to ask them to tune-into an upcoming live interview of a company expert.
Blog posts. Mention the coverage and share a link to the article in a blog post. However, rather than merely including a short summary and quote, expand the blog post to showcase your company’s expertise and thought leadership. The original media placement can be a launching pad for a related but original blog post.
Bloggers. PR pros can use the media placement to engage with bloggers in their niche. Share links to the original article and offer company’s executives for additional comments. Bloggers are typically interested in new topics to cover in their specialty. PR can reach out to bloggers just as they reach out to journalists at traditional media outlets.
Frame it. In the pre-Internet days, organizations would post framed news articles in the reception area. For digital “clips,” you can still take a screen shot of the article, print it, frame it and show it off in the office lobby or storefront. If you’ve earned several mentions, you can place the printouts in a portfolio book and leave in your office lobby or reception room table.
For sales. Your sales team can include copies of the media placement in their sales packets that they leave with prospects and at trade shows. It’s essential to ask for reprint permission. Third-party media endorsement adds extraordinary credibility to sales literature. It’s essential to obtain reprint permission.
Email signature. Adding a quote and a link from a high-profile placement below your contact information further promotes your PR successes. Email signature lines are an often-missed opportunity to integrate digital publicity into a comprehensive digital branding strategy.
Monitor conversations. Monitoring conversations surrounding media placements helps identify popular bloggers and other major influencers commenting on your organization. With that information, PR personnel can reach out to and encourage influencers who support the company and respond to any negative remarks. A social media measurement service can gauge overall sentiment by grading social media posts on a scale of positive to negative.
Bottom Line: Positive earned media placements can contribute mightily to achieving corporate goals for growth. Public relations and marketing professionals can increase the value of media placements with follow-on activities that wring greater benefits from the original placement. The payoff for the relatively small time investment in follow-on efforts can be substantial. .
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William J. Comcowich founded and served as CEO of CyberAlert LLC, the predecessor of Glean.info. He is currently serving as Interim CEO and member of the Board of Directors. Glean.info provides customized media monitoring, media measurement and analytics solutions across all types of traditional and social media.
