Business Buzz - Making You Famous

Today’s culture moves on so quickly from one thing to the next that it is nearly impossible to keep the attention of consumers. Despite these changes, earned media remains one of the most effective ways to convince consumers that your product or service is the best. If you aren’t careful and effective with your earned media then your sales will spike for a few days and then drop off. The days following a press hit are critical to building your brand and permanently increasing sales as opposed to a quick spike in sales alone. Public Relations interns get media hits but PR professionals make PR last. Here are four tips for making earned media actually matter.

Step 1 – Thank Reporters

The most important thing in Public Relations is having good relationships with the press. Always thank reporters and compliment them on their work when they have written about one of your products or services. If they wrote an honest negative article, then thank them for their honest article and offer them some good information about your company for a future story. It is absolutely essential to avoid burning bridges with the press so always be kind to reporters regardless of what they have said about your product or service. It is perfectly okay to correct them if they put something false or incorrect into an article about you but be courteous.

Step 2 – Share it on social media

When a reporter writes an article about your company, you should be overjoyed and share it with all of your fans and customers. Be sure to share on all of your company accounts. In addition to sharing the earned media hits on company social media accounts, employees should also share 9Apps Download it on their personal accounts. Nobody likes friends on Facebook who are only sharing stuff from work so be careful when having employees share work-related posts. Share it with a good image. Almost no one looks at a post without an image so make sure to add an image. If there wasn’t an image associated with the article then add a relevant one yourself.

Step 3 – Targeted ads

People are so constantly berated with ads and media that they need to be constantly reminded of your product if you have any hope of getting them to buy. Amazon has mastered this by tracking what you look at and sending you emails to remind you that you are interested in the product. While you may not have the ability to target those who are reading specific articles you can target people who read a media outlet. Purchase ads targeted at readers of the publications that write about you. This will give them a reminder about your product or service and convince them to buy.

Step 4 – Follow Up with Reporters

Reporters who have written about your company are more likely to write about you again. Keep them informed about what is going on at your company. When you have big news make sure to share it with them. You should also keep up with what they are doing. Read the articles they write even when they aren’t about you. Compliment them when they have written something good. Public Relations is about building relationships.

As this article has already said, building bridges is the essence of public relations. If you truly want your company to succeed in PR you can’t let your earned media hits fall flat after a few days. We’ve spent years building relationships with the press and it has worked out great for us. Contact us to learn more about getting earned media hits and building bridges with the press.