Five Things To Do When You’re In The News

To create real awareness of your offering, a traditional marketer’s rule of thumb is that prospects must be exposed to your message, on average, nine times. But how can you possibly accomplish that with media coverage when it feels like even one small mention in a local publication is often difficult enough to obtain? The answer: recycle the message.

There are a number of immediate steps you should to take to extract maximum value from your media. Why? Because being positively portrayed in the media is valuable. It adds third party credibility to your brand, implies you are “newsworthy”, and gives your company beneficial exposure. So, whether you have sought the coverage out or it’s fallen into your lap, be ready and make it work hard.

Here are five things you can do when you are featured favourably in the media:

1. Prepare to celebrate.

If you’re confident the media coverage will be favourable and it’s TV or radio, alert your staff, important clients, customers, or stakeholders when and where the show will air. Tell them to “tune in”.

2. Celebrate with “family” first.

Click on the email link next to the article or video. Email it to yourself as well as staff and others who are important to your business.

• Do this right away. People who already care about you and your company want to be the “first to know”. They’ll be disappointed if they are caught flatfooted and find out that the company was “in the news” from someone other than you.
• Introduce the piece in your email with any relevant background of how the story came about. Were you contacted? Did you pitch the story? Be sure to publicly thank anyone else who was in the piece with you, or who represented your interests or company.
• Ask that they “like” or “tweet” the piece and suggest that they add a positive comment if that feature is available on the media’s website underneath your story.

3. Use social media.

If you actively use social media, be sure to pass along the link to your friends and followers.

4. Archive and recycle.

Link or feature the media article on your company’s website.

• Often a company’s website will have an “in the news” page. This is where you can house any articles or video you’ve done with the media. It creates a nice archive, and remains there enhancing your brand not just for the one day the media ran but indefinitely.
• Mention the media article and quote it in company newsletters, mailers to clients, annual reports, RFP responses, proposals, presentations – anywhere that will draw out the life of this positive positioning for your brand.

5. Frame.

If you are lucky enough to be in a photograph in the newspaper, carefully clip the article out. Also clip the newspaper’s masthead including the day’s date. Then, take these to a print shop and have them professionally scanned, with the masthead on top and your article underneath. Have the scan printed and plaque-mounted as large as you are able. Now you have a wonderful piece of PR to hang in a boardroom, lobby, or wherever clients will see it.

With so many media outlets in today’s online world, it’s important to make the pickup you do receive really work for you. Taking the steps above will ensure that your customers and staff all see your great coverage. They can then be proud and talk you up. You never know where one small article might lead, so be sure to give it every chance. Remember: recycle, recycle, recycle.

Bellrock is a management consulting and change management firm where remarkable is expected. If you found this article valuable, don’t be stingy. Share!