In this blog post, you'll learn why PR & social media are a match made in heaven and how you can leverage the two together to stop wasting powerful opportunities for your business.
As always, if you prefer to listen to the podcast episode instead of reading this blog post, click on the player below. Follow my podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Deezer, and all the other platforms to get notified as soon as a new episode becomes available!
What is PR?
PR stands for "public relations" and has two sides to it:
1) PR that is created by the media about your business.
For example: an online news site writes an article about your latest product launch as opposed to you publishing a launch post on your social media.
2) PR that is responsible for maintaining a positive image for your business which includes handling media requests and enquiries from outside your organisation. This is usually the case for larger businesses that have their own PR departments.
For example: Your employees are striking because of unhealthy working conditions and the local newspaper asks for a statement.
Obviously, as often is the case with small business owners, you don't have your own PR department but instead, you are responsible for your PR yourself.
👉🏼 What we will consider PR in the context of this blog post are the following things:
Classic magazine features – online or physical magazines
TV or radio interviews
Online articles written about you – by online newspapers/news channels, for example
And, to a certain extent, also podcast interviews but that depends a bit on the type & size of the podcast
How does PR usually work?
Usually, you either hire a PR specialist or an agency that has all the contacts to newspapers, TV stations, radio stations etc and you provide them with your mission statement, with some information about yourself & your business and this person will then contact these channels for you.
Obviously, this comes at a cost because PR people maintain connections, network, improve your proposals, identify a good fit between 2 organisations and so much more. If you're just starting out, you probably won't have a budget to hire a PR person, so you would usually reach out yourself.
Why would I make use of PR for my business?
PR mainly serves the top of your marketing funnel which means it helps you to increase brand awareness and build a positive feeling in people's minds about your brand.
PR is right for you if you need more eyes on your business, but not necessarily if you already have a sizeable audience and they aren't buying. Although, this is where your social media marketing can come in and help you.
The difference between PR and marketing is that PR is focused on maintaining a positive reputation for a company through the media whereas marketing is here to drive sales and to promote what you have to offer, for example, on social media.
👉🏼 Even though they have different goals, they are a match made in heaven in my opinion!
You can leverage the positive PR you are receiving on your social media channels to build authority and be seen as an expert that is worthy of being featured.
If you are paying to get PR and you aren't using social media to amplify its effect, you are leaving money on the table and you're wasting a huge opportunity.
How to leverage your PR with social media
My best tip is to milk every opportunity as much as you can. Don't just share your article to your stories one time and then never mention it again. Use it as much as possible, in different formats and different moments.
Case study MATER:
I worked with Petra from MATER Beauty to amplify the effects of the PR she has received. For each feature, we created multiple pieces of content, made permanent story highlights and kept up the momentum. Here are two examples:
1) Photo on the plane to celebrate the Air New Zealand in-flight magazine feature (click to see the full post): Instead of just posting a photo of the magazine, we took it a step further and got this shot of one of their products up in the sky.
Conveniently, I had a flight to Christchurch booked for the month in which MATER was featured in the magazine on all Air NZ flights.
2) Showcasing the "FASHION" magazine feature by flicking through the pages of the physical magazine & using an interesting transition to "grab" the product out of the magazine.
Click on the photo to see the reel on Instagram. I promise you, the transition alone is worth it!
💥 If you're struggling with repurposing your PR into relevant social media content, send me an email at info@hannarauch.com because this is a service I offer! I'll help you make sense of all the features, put them into a Trello board and together we'll create content from each one of them. This means you won't run out of content for weeks and you'll be able to take your budget much further 💥
3 tips to get more features without a PR specialist:
If you decide to reach out to publications yourself, I have 3 tips for you that increase your chances of getting the feature.
1) Put yourself in the other person's shoes:
If you're contacting a magazine, put yourself in the journalist’s shoes. They are looking for interesting stories to report on and to fill a space in their magazine. Make sure that you provide them with something that they can make into a story. A bonus tip here: think of your mission. It's easier to get behind a mission & report about that than simply describing what your business does.
For example:
"Mater Beauty is on a mission to help women nurture themselves. Women tend to care for everyone around them and often forget to nurture themselves too." is much better than "Mater Beauty makes high-quality, skincare."
2) Highlight your niche or expertise:
It should be clear from your pitch (but also your social media pages) what you are an expert on and what the topics are that you are really passionate about.
3) Follow up with people:
Magazines, news channels... get lots of emails every single day & sometimes simply forget about yours. Don’t be shy and follow up with them. Take that opportunity to highlight why they should feature you & what the story could be.
If you would like some support in planning a PR push & what to do with it in terms of social media content, I would love to help! Send me an email at info@hannarauch.com and we’ll have a chat!
Talk soon,
Hanna