Casting a Wider Net: Increasing Your Audience Reach with Strategic Content Amplification

It’s been a long, strange trip in the world of media and it’s no secret that the landscape in 2018 looks nothing like it did in 2016. Or 2017. In fact, with so much news and so many platforms, news sources and social media users, the accelerated news cycle is an inevitable result. Where once news lived by the day-by-day pace of the printed newspaper, today it is arguably just hours long. And while this appeals to our collective attention deficit disorder, it doesn’t bode well for companies executing on public relations strategies to earn awareness.

Assuming you have a great story, the solution is a trifecta of what we call a modern media mix:sponsored content, social media and content amplification. To compete for eyeballs in this noisy media landscape, great content and strategic material will only go as far as a great amplification strategy will take it. But first, start by asking yourself, who will share this and why? What audience am I trying to reach and where and how do they consume information? This will inform the approach you should take. Once decided, then consider the various options for boosting content.

Share: It may seem obvious but first think about how to encourage a big pool of people to share your media coverage - often a simple email to employees is often all it takes. While the recommendation to share great content might seem intrinsic, you’d be surprised how much never sees the light of employee inboxes. Start with an email containing links and a suggested tweet or LinkedIn post; it’s important to harvest the low-hanging fruit in addition to the more strategic actions.

Sharing also includes distributing your media coverage via your company’s email newsletter to be sure it’s seen by stakeholders, customers and prospects. The same format can be also leveraged by the sales team to fuel lead gen.

Post: Most organizations have several channels - including their social channels and their owned channels, like a website or blog. Amplify your content by drafting custom, thoughtful social posts for individual channels. Take advantage of social engagement and discovery features by attaching hashtags and tagging the author or journalist, and the publication in which coverage appeared. With many reporters living off of the performance of their articles, volume of clicks matters - so socially amplifying kills two birds.

Posting media coverage on your company website or blog, and cross publishing your blog’s content to Medium or on LinkedIn, are amplification tactics that should apply to every piece of coverage.

Enhance: Dwindling attention spans are not a myth. According to PR Week, Generation Z has an eight-second attention span - down four seconds from millennials. Creating visuals to complement media coverage is proven to increase engagement: consider developing a slideshow out of the coverage that highlights key messages, develop mini films (15 second snippets work well) to use on social media, or design custom graphics. This doesn’t have to be expensive or intensive - there are apps to help you create simple, but beautiful graphics in minutes that enhance a great story. While the value of infographics is debatable, consider micrographics instead - short and sweet visuals that can be sprinkled throughout the body of an article and for social.

Boost: Amplification is all about boosting content. It can be done organically or through paid campaigns, and it can be done through social channels or through purpose-built networks. Thanks in part to media that is hungry for new sources of revenue, there are many paid options for amplifying your earned media coverage. Determining what is right for you depends on your goals, budget and target audience.

There are various options for sponsored content. Paid syndication services like Outbrain provide the ability to reach highly targeted audiences across a range of websites. These services use eye-catching graphics and headlines to draw viewers to selected stories, increasing viewership strategically, by audience.

Further your social strategy by adding paid social to your toolkit and increase audience exposure to your specific piece of coverage. Paid social expands your company’s social presence, reach a particular audience and maintain control of your message. Using social to increase the lifespan of your coverage is also measurable; the ROI is easily accessible and data can be used to inform future paid campaigns, too.

Great media coverage is no easy task - it takes time, relationships, solid content and a timely ‘why now?’ element. So don’t let it fade away. Content amplification is the secret to extending the life of your great stories, and now is the perfect time to put it to the test.