How to Maximize the Impact of Your Earned Publicity
You’ve achieved publicity in relevant media. That's great news. But what's next? These three tips will set you on the right path.
Publicity is external (earned)
Securing publications in external media comes with several key benefits:
- You "win" the reach that these media have. For example, Business Insider has more readers than your blog;
- Your brand not only becomes more well-known but also more credible. For many people, the fact that your company is mentioned in the media is a sign that your brand is trusted;
- Publications (news) are often shared on social media. The likelihood of a news post going viral (or simply: finding more readers) is greater than with an advertisement.
Consistently securing publicity should be your goal. But there’s no reason to rest on your laurels once a media outlet has reported on your brand. The following tips explain what you can do next to maximize the exposure from the publicity you’ve generated.
Tip 1: Share the news from your own channels
When you’ve secured a publication in a trade journal or national title, you’ll naturally want to share it with the world. There are various channels within your company that you can use for this. You can share the news on the company’s social media channels. You can also mention the publication in your newsletter. In these cases, you link to an external channel – namely the respective website of an external media outlet.
It’s also worth considering posting a message on your blog or website about the publication – and linking to the external medium within this message. By referring to your channels to the post on your own site or blog, you’re not losing traffic to external sites. This way, you ensure that you guide visitors to your own domain.
Tip 2: Utilize the channels of employees or colleagues
Employees or colleagues have built up an organic reach on social media, such as LinkedIn. By encouraging them to share a post, you can further maximize the use of a publication. It's also good for company morale and employee reputation when colleagues show pride in the company.
Therefore, encourage colleagues and employees to come up with their own message for the post so that there’s variety in the posts. If your colleagues are less creative or willing to craft their own messages, come up with a few options for them to choose from to post alongside the respective publication.
Tip 3: Consider an advertising budget
On many social media platforms, there's the opportunity to target a specific audience. LinkedIn is particularly well-suited for reaching a business audience.
By starting an ad campaign – from the company page – you combine earned (PR, the external publication), owned (the post on your site about this publication), and paid (the ad campaign). This three-pronged approach leverages the best of all worlds, namely:
- The guaranteed reach that an ad provides (paid);
- The credibility of an external publication (earned);
- Traffic to your own domain, where various conversions and activations are possible (owned).
Explore the possibilities that exist on different social media channels and experiment with the advertising options.
In conclusion
Hopefully, these three tips will help you get even more out of a publication. Finally, also consider how LinkedIn's algorithm works – it's the platform for business in the Netherlands. Posts with a link to an external channel (outside LinkedIn) are shown less often than posts without such a link. By placing the link in the first comment under the post, you can circumvent the algorithm's limitations. A handy 'hack'!
