Media relations and PR are important tactics for professional services firms, allowing you to share your expertise and raise your profile. After your article or comment has been published, there are various ways you can amplify it.
As our PR Director, Donna Black, explains in this blog, it is tempting to think that PR stops when you see the coverage. This is not true, so don’t miss out on a fantastic opportunity for engagement with your network.
Here are five steps you should take:
1. Mention it on your website – it is good practice to highlight media coverage on your firm’s website. Depending on your website structure, this may be in your news, insights, or knowledge section. Write a short summary of the article and include a link. Never reproduce the article in full unless you have permission, as this is copyright theft and may get you blacklisted by the publication. You must also ensure you have the appropriate license from the Newspaper Licensing Agency to share coverage. Once your webpage is ready, share it through your firm’s social media channels and tag the publication and journalist, thanking them for the opportunity.
2. Social media – your article may be shared by the publication through its social media channels. Look out for this on all social media channels and help it go further by liking and quote tweeting the publication’s tweet and liking and commenting on its LinkedIn post. You can like and post comments as your firm’s LinkedIn profile, as well as encouraging colleagues to interact too. Many journalists are very active on social media, so look out for the article on their social channels and interact with their posts.
When you are sharing coverage through social media, take time to tag the publication and journalist/editor. This helps to build your relationship with the media, and they may interact with your post, which will extend its reach. If other people and organisations are included in the article, tag them too.
To help your social posts stand out, it is worthwhile creating postcard graphics with a quote and headshot of the author. It is best to create a template in your firm’s brand colours that can be quickly updated.
Don’t forget to make use of continued content promotion, where content is repackaged and reposted at different times and on different days to extend its reach. If the topic is time sensitive, share content for the first week after publication, but if it is evergreen you can share it over a longer period. Mix this up with a good range of other content so your feed doesn’t get repetitive.
3. Business development – your own network, and those of your colleagues, are very powerful. Share coverage in an email to key clients who may be interested in the topic. Let your colleagues know and encourage them to share if the topic is relevant to their clients. This can be a good opportunity to send a personal email to a few of your key contacts. If the topic has a wider appeal to one of your client segments, include it in a targeted mailshot or regular client newsletter.
4. Network groups – many of us have strong connections with network groups and some coverage may be suitable to share here. Networks often welcome content and they may offer to share with their members through social media or newsletters. Even if they don’t share it, it will give you an opportunity to build your relationship with the organisation and show them your expertise. This may lead to future opportunities including speaking slots or committee positions.
5. Wider marketing activities – depending on the topic, consider if there is the opportunity to run a spin off roundtable or further series of articles or blogs. If the article has an educational element there may be opportunities fora whitepaper or guide, running a webinar, or even creating crib sheets or checklists which you can share with clients as part of your service offering.
Generating media coverage takes a lot of time, but it is worth putting in some extra effort to make the most of the coverage when it appears. Next time your firm is in the press, spend some time maximising your coverage and you’ll see the difference.
If you are looking for reputation management advice on PR and profile building, get in touch.
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