Sports stars are not known for being modest winners. From bus-top trophy parades, back flips, cartwheels and laps of victory, when they come out trumps, they are not shy about celebrating it. So after all of the hard work you have put in, why wouldn’t you do the same when your company announcement or guest article gets featured in a leading publication?
While taking your shirt off and waving it around your head, or spraying champagne from your desktop is more likely to get you fired — or arrested — than applauded, there are more appropriate ways for you to flaunt your successes in front of the people who really need to know… and with all of your clothes on.
The is hard to put a clear number on, but includes added revenue from sales, increased traffic to your website and social media channels, a boost to your SEO ranking, and increased chances of further media coverage picky-backing of your first result.
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But if you play your cards right you can maximize exposure by promoting your media coverage in a few clear, and non-time consuming steps:
1. Share the good news with your wider community.
Once your article or announcement goes live, you should send out an email to clients, partners, investors and friends of the company to share the good news.
Leading publications will often give you a rough idea of when your article will be published, which will allow you to create a template email and program a mailing tool like to send out the news at a set time. That said, don’t expect all publications to follow this rule and there is no better way to than by harassing them for an exact date and time. Once they have agreed to cover your story, or publish your guest article, it’s up to you to play the waiting game until it goes live.
Your email should be short and sweet, something along the lines of:
“Dear friends,
We're excited to announce that we were featured in X a leading publication that covers Y, today. We really hope you have the chance to read "TITLE" — and that you enjoy it.
Let us know what you think on our social media pages, or by responding to this message."
This allows you to share your company's progress with your nearest and dearest, but also improves your chances of social media shares. However, it is best to let your contacts decide whether they like the article or not, so don’t beg for re-shares. And don’t forget to share a link.
2. Social media.
Share the article on your company’s social network pages such as LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook and encourage — don’t force– your colleagues and network to do the same.
Twitter in particular is a great way to engage with brands, or experts mentioned in the article, or people who you think would benefit from the content. For example, if you have quoted an industry leader to back up a point — regardless of whether they are a personal contact or not — why not tag them in your tweet. It might be a long shot, but it could lead to some interesting shares and hits. A share or retweet from a public figure with millions of followers would really help you get your message or announcement in front of a wider audience.
The same goes for brands and products you mention in your content. You are doing them a favor by mentioning them in your article, so let them know about it, and they might return the favor, or feature your article on their newsletter.
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You should also choose an appropriate image to complement the post. According to research by — which analyzed more than 2 million tweets sent over the period of a month — adding a photo URL to your tweet can boost retweets by as much as 35 percent.
3. Harness new platforms.
You should also publish the article to social platforms such as Hacker News and Reddit. These platforms are keenly followed by millions of tech-savvy, engaged readers, and can boost your profile and improve your shares. However, it is important to spend some time researching different channels on forums like Reddit to reach the people you want to speak to.
Users on these platforms are extremely active, so be sure to respond to comments and engage in conversation with those who have taken the time to read your content. That said, the risk of sharing on public forums is that you may well find yourself a target of the trolls, who love nothing more than leaving antagonistic and straight up offensive comments. Be the bigger person and let these comments go without a response. Getting defensive is fuel to the fire of trolls, so don’t waste time and energy engaging with them.
If you do decide to post on these forums, try to publish before you send out your email to your wider community, and include the links to these posts too. This will improve the chances of getting more upvotes and improving the visibility of your posts.
4. Wear your badge of honor.
Increasingly, the "social proof" that comes hand in hand with coverage in leading publications is used to qualify the reputation of a company or founder. If you get covered in Techcrunch or the Huffington Post then wear it like a medal for everyone to see.
Most leading companies will include “As seen in” or "Featured in” sections on the front page of their websites which shows off all of their media coverage.
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Create nice logos for your front page which are obvious at first glance, and be sure to include links to the articles themselves. That said, it is up to you to judge which publications are tier one, and which ones your target audience may never have heard of. “ As seen in Chichester Parish Times,” or “Featured in Norwegian Dog Walkers Weekly” don’t have much of a ring to them, unless your target audiences are Nordic pooch lovers or tea-sipping church-goers.
That said, every piece of media coverage has it’s place. Judge publications depending on your market and target audience — while the Chichester Parish Times might not impress Silicon Valley investors, it might bring in some local clients.
For an added boost, you could also include links to coverage in your email signature too, to share the news with contacts in a non-obtrusive manner.
While getting an article or announcement on a leading publication is definitely cause for celebration, it is only the first step in the long road to success. Staying one step ahead of the competition, and growing your user base and reputation requires constant engagement with the media, and a steady flow of content to keep your ever expanding list of current and potential clients interested and engaged. So take the extra time to maximize the results from your media coverage, and then get your team thinking about your next announcement or guest article idea.
