Like most companies, you may have hired a PR pro or team to get you strategic exposure. Your agency is probably delivering great media hits (you hope). Then what? If you’re paying your PR agency for coverage and they get it for you, the work doesn’t end there. Not for you. Not for them. And certainly not for your social media team.
Your next step is to share and show it off. When clients don’t share this coverage it’s like it didn’t happen for anyone outside the readers of the publication that featured you. Highlighting your coverage in the right way, to the right audience is an opportunity too few clients leverage. There’s no better way to build credibility through earned media and we PR pros should help you make the most of it. Here’s how I’ve advised hundreds of clients to give their coverage exposure past the initial hit:
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Use Social Media for Extra Legs
Readers of the publication or outlet automatically care and may read your story because they care about identifying trends or up-and-comers in their industry. What about those that don’t follow that particular media outlet?
Share your press hit with friends, family, colleagues, and former colleagues. Very often, the first two want to support you in whatever you do but wouldn’t have any idea about the coverage without a heads up. Everyone knows someone who knows someone. People you’ve worked with know you and sharing the coverage is a reminder that you’re good at what you do and you’re getting attention for it. Tell your clients too! Share it for fun on Twitter and Facebook. Don’t forget to thank the writer and the outlet by tagging them.
Don’t forget to ask them to share it! Often, this call to action is all it takes to increase your exposure exponentially!
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Deliver Your Great “News” Through your Email Newsletter
Position your update in a way that makes your coverage relevant to your newsletter audience. Don’t send a mass email blast that doesn’t feel or look useful. We all hate those. Do target your messaging based on a segmented audience. What you tell your clients about your coverage is about building trust, establishing your expertise and sometimes introducing new offerings and innovations.
Remember to focus your email message on your audience. They need to see how the coverage matters to them.
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Choose the Right Hype-Centric Outlets
Aside from sharing your coverage directly with key stakeholders, where and how else should you share your coverage? While it sometimes depends on the type of coverage and what your company does to determine everywhere you’ll share your coverage, here are a few outlets where you can’t go wrong if your message is well crafted:
- LinkedIn company page
- LinkedIn groups
- Company Blog
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Create a Press TROPHY Wall on Your Website
When you get great coverage, add it to the press section of your website. If you don’t have one, create one… yesterday! It’s essential. Press attracts more press. Don’t ask me why. It’s the magic of publicity. Go after it. Get more. Add it to the press section of your site. Make it easy for people to see all the great trends you’re part of and the growth your company has experienced. Press will go to your website when they’re doing their homework on you. If they don’t see your press releases or any past press that helps them learn about your history through third-party endorsements (namely, other press), you make their job harder. When you do that, you decrease your chances of getting meaningful ink. Help the press and make sure you have a press section on your site that sparkles like a trophy wall.
Bottom line: when your PR agency is doing a fantastic job getting you the right coverage in the right outlets, you need to do your part to get the best return on your investment and amplify the coverage by sharing it!
Interested in learning more? Check out our PRactical Guide to Publicity video series on YouTube and watch Show Off Your Coverage for more great tips!
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This guest post is courtesy of Nicole Rodrigues, CEO and founder of NRPR Group.