How do you deal with positive media coverage? If you have a little celebration, you’re not alone. But what if you could turn that little celebration into a lasting influence?
One common mistake many organisations make is to bask in the glory of positive media coverage for a little while, then let it fade instead of leveraging the attention to strengthen its effects. If you do nothing with the coverage but celebrate, you’ve missed a valuable trick to distinguish yourself in today’s highly competitive world.
Media coverage generates awareness, even buzz, and allows you to be proactive in setting the reputation you want for your business. By using media coverage to engage with different stakeholders—whether they are existing customers, potential clients or possible investors—you can boost your credibility and make your organisation an attractive prospect. Here’s how to engage stakeholders and maximise media coverage.
“Media coverage can be a sales and marketing tool that you leverage to extend the reach”
Share the story
Social media is a great way to pick up on media coverage and share it with people who are already interested in your organisation—your fans and followers. People love when the media confirms their good judgement in being associated with your brand.
Don’t forget to sound your trumpet in your own publications, such as your regular newsletter or e-newsletter. If the coverage features useful, relevant advice, share it as part of your standard curation of interesting and important information.
You can also share the coverage in other correspondence to clients, suppliers, referrers and other business associates. If it is simply a good plug for you, don’t be shy, be proud. Highlight the good news and use it in your communication, such as follow-up letters/emails, brochures, and updates. You can include a special offer to ‘celebrate’ the coverage or use the news as an excuse to contact them and remind them of something you have been discussing.
One of our clients extends the media coverage we secure for them by sharing it online through its e-newsletter, website, blog and all social media platforms. This increases the reach of that coverage tenfold.
“Share your positive media coverage to not only extend its reach but its longevity”
Make engagement fun
If you’re already using social media platforms and newsletters to spread the word, you can make this task more engaging by having a little fun with it. You could, for example, run a competition for those who can name the media outlet or page number that featured your business.
If the coverage is particularly impressive and positive, consider sending key clients and important contacts a celebratory or thank you gift with a copy of the media coverage to draw a clear line between their participation in your success. This can have a powerful effect on your ongoing business relationships.
Recently, one of our not-for-profit clients received amazing media coverage across television, radio, newspapers, online news sites, newsletters, blogs and magazines. The client then shared snippets of the coverage with key members, donors and potential sponsors, which demonstrated its progress and momentum, and ultimately bolstered donor advocacy.
Don’t look at the end of the article or segment as the use-by date of the media coverage. By using coverage to engage with different stakeholders, you can enhance your reputation and strengthen business relationships to make the most of securing media attention.
We’ll share more ways to do this in Part Two of this post.
