There used to be a time, not too long ago, when the only way that brands and corporations could get any media coverage was to go through news outlets and their journalists. The only way to get a good headline used to be to pitch to the news outlets directly with an excellent press release or an intriguing press conference.
However, those days are long gone, and the public relations industry, as well as the best ways for brands and corporations to get media coverage, has drastically changed. These days, brands have a lot more opportunities for exposure as well as influence, as journalists aren’t the gatekeepers to publicity. Now, there is a variety of tools and strategies that are available to anyone who needs them.
Additionally, it’s now possible for brands to build and share their own stories, and as soon as they get a lot of social media attention they get picked up by the media outlets to keep up with what the brand is doing.
Research and Study
First thing’s first. What any brand or company needs to do is do thorough research around the subject they plan on sharing with their target audience. The brand needs to have third-party analyses, stats and plenty of data which is going to support the main story idea.
After all of that information has been gathered and sorted, the brand needs to study the competitive landscape in detail so that the team is aware of what stories have been shared by other brands and what can this brand do about sharing their story in a different light, so the story can stand out from the rest.
Know the Audience
Creating the perfect story that’s going to get a lot of attention is most of the time about the story itself. However, a big part of getting a lot of media coverage is if the brand knows its target audience and then creates a story that resonates with that audience. The best way to do this is to have a great idea of what the target audience needs, wants, and is interested in.
It’s important for brands to know the target audience not only so that they can create the perfect stories, but also so that they can know what else to present to that audience in the future.
Craft a Newsworthy Story
Finally, the biggest secret in getting media coverage is to do something newsworthy that is going to grab their attention. All that the media outlets want is to get something that’s going to get the attention of the audience. If a brand gives that essential ingredient to the media, the chances of getting a lot of coverage are going to soar.
The way to do this is to stand out from the crowd, in a positive manner, which means the story might be the main ingredient. The way that it’s presented is practically just as important as the story.
Why is Media Coverage Important?
Sometimes, the media relations field doesn’t get a very positive reputation with companies, especially during times when earned media coverage is undervalued by industry critics. Although it’s relatively easy to understand that perspective, given the decreasing number of journalists across the country in the past decade.
That decline has also contributed to the decreasing advertising budgets that companies have been implementing in recent years, as readership has also been slowly dwindling.
A few years ago, companies that landed on the front page of newspapers celebrated their big wins because they brought a lot of new businesses. These days, however, there is very little difference between front-page stories and stories on practically any other website, as most get the same amount of readership.
However, there are plenty of secret benefits to media coverage, despite all of those superficial negatives. Despite all of the hardships in the media industry, media coverage, especially in notable outlets, is still an extremely powerful tool in marketing efforts. That’s because, in the current era of information scrutiny, where everyone is constantly seeing misinformation on different platforms, the established and factual media outlets carry a lot more weight.
Search Engine and Social Media
Google, the most powerful search engine in the world, with over five billion daily visitors, prefers websites that have more media coverage. The search engine’s visitors are always expecting it to tell them which websites and content to consume, and when providing answers, Google largely relies on traditional media outlets.
In fact, the Chief Search Advocate, John Mueller himself, has also mentioned how important even a single link or mention in a major outlet is when compared to thousands of less notable ones.
Even social media platforms, such as Twitter, Facebook, and even YouTube, have started implementing fact-checking and other informative features for their users. In the past couple of years, these platforms have been receiving a lot of backlash from the public because they equally promoted both real and fake news, which resulted in an outbreak of fake news and misinformation.
In attempts to restore the platforms’ integrity and their support of real digital news, many platforms partnered with different online content analyst organizations, such as The Trust Project. That means companies that receive earned media coverage in notable outlets are going to get a lot more authority and exposure on social media as well.
Notability and Verification
Other platforms, such as Wikipedia for example, also rely on media coverage from notable media outlets when fact-checking the website’s entries. Although it’s not easy for a company or an individual to get an entry on Wikipedia, the task becomes a lot easier when they receive media coverage from big outlets.
Finally, there’s the coveted “Verified” badge that many platforms only give to the most established companies or individuals in each industry. However, each platform only gives that blue checkmark symbol only to those that have received features or references in notable media outlets, such as newspapers, magazines, or other digital outlets.
