You've done all the hard work of pitching the media, nailed the segment and now your interview is live on-air and online. This is HUGE! But what's next?!
Press placements come and go, but there are ways you can amplify them long-term and give them an extended shelf-life, and make it work towards your ROI. The key is to remember that your press placements can live on forever - and you should use them as such! Get creative. Just because you appeared on KTLA-TV in Los Angeles once, doesn’t mean you can’t use that clip over and over again elsewhere.
For example, when I was featured in Forbes last Fall, I wanted to ensure that that huge placement for myself and Nardi Media had long-term visibility. Being featured in Forbes is a great credibility builder, and I want anyone I encounter to know my expertise has been featured in Forbes, especially new business prospects. So, I added the feature to my email signature and it has been there ever since! Here’s how it reads:
“P.S. Check out my feature in Forbes where I share the biggest mistakes an author makes when launching a book.”
To this day, I still get compliments and great feedback from people on this article!
To help us dive into making the most out of your media placements even further, I tapped into the creative minds of our friends and partners over at YDG Marketing, a boutique digital marketing agency, who helped us flesh out a few ideas that can help you leverage your media placements for continued success. Here are some tips!
Before You Do Anything, Consider Your Digital Platforms
The digital world today makes it so easy to create your own brand and get your message out to your audience, on your own terms. The same can be done with your media wins. Start by thinking about all of the digital platforms you own that you could use to your advantage. I would think almost all of us are on some type of social media platform at this point, whether it’s LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, maybe even TikTok, but the biggest mistake that YDG sees a lot of is most people stop there!
Do you have a blog? Do you have a newsletter? How about your email? We often forget just how big our network is and how many email addresses we have in our database. Use them to your advantage! What do you have to lose? So, before you get started, make a list of every digital platform you have to help you get the most out of your press placements. The more platforms you use, the more reach your coverage will have.
Transcribe your broadcast interviews.
This is a great tactic to aid you in developing written content for any of your digital platforms, be it social posts, blogs, and email newsletters! Whether it is a podcast, radio, or TV interview, you can take that clip and give it legs! There are several transcription services that will review audio/video clips and provide a readout of your interviews, including Temi which we use.
Then, you can pull from the text of your interviews to use as bite-sized quotes or as written tips on a given topic in your promotional content across your social handles as well as any newsletter or blog platforms you utilize. I once knew someone who took all of her podcast interviews and transcribed them into a book!
Video is the king of social media.
Video content is hands-down where you’ll see the most bang for your buck on social media when it comes to your ROI. According to WordStream, 82% of consumers would rather watch live video than read social media posts. That’s not to say you should focus exclusively on video, but it should be part of your overall strategy.
If you have a TV hit, use all or a portion of the interview. If you have any non-video placements, Try recording yourself on your smartphone or straight from the social platform (Instagram has this capability) speaking to the topics covered in your audio and print/online interviews.
Pull quick-hitting video and audio clips for social posts.
For both video and audio clips, you typically only have a few seconds to engage viewers/listeners before they get bored and move on. That said, when it comes to posting your coverage, sometimes it’s best to pull one quick video/audio clip from your interview to post at a time rather than the entire piece. The clip should ideally be no more than 30 seconds and something your audience will find interesting and engaging.
A lot of times, interviews open with introductions or music, and by eliminating those pieces and focusing on the most interesting soundbites, your chances of engaging a larger audience are much higher. Better yet, posting just one quick clip at a time (you can separate the interview into individual questions) arms you with even more content that you can use to stay active in front of your audience.
Quicktime has easy options to trim clips from longer videos. If you’re pulling an audio clip from a radio or podcast interview, YDG recommends an app like Headliner.
Recycling press placements for promotion, especially social media.
Like I mentioned at the beginning of this article: it’s highly recommended to promote your coverage as often as you can! The best way to do this is to tie your interview to any newsworthy or trendy topics that come up in the newscycle, even long after your interview is over, as a way to continue building credibility. The key is making sure it feels relevant. This is especially true for social media, which is where more than half of U.S. adults get their news. To further emphasize your interview’s relevancy, create captions tailored to how the latest news or trend ties into your coverage and why your audience should care right now.
To give your social posts even more legs, implement tactics to get your audience to share your coverage with their followers! Remember how important is to include video in your promotional strategy? Well, WordStream also points out that social video generates 1200% more shares than text and image content combined. That’s HUGE! A couple of other ways to incentivize sharing for any type of post is using relevant hashtags (preferably with larger followings) and a call-to-action in your posts. Yup, that’s right - simply encouraging people to share your post with their friends makes it shareable, especially if it has the potential to benefit others.
YDG recommends creating a content calendar with a specific cadence for posting your placements to social media, and if you have them, to your blog and newsletter. This will not only help keep you organized and on a schedule but will give you multiple chances to resonate with your audience and remind them of your thought-leadership. Depending on the number of placements you land and the number of newsy and trendy “hooks” that pop up in the newscycle, YDG suggests sharing your coverage at least once per week if you can in addition to your regularly scheduled content. If you find that the newscycle isn’t working in your favor at any point in time, the National Day Calendar is also a great tool to help find national days, weeks, or months that fit your media wins and message.
Use logos from press placements on your website.
Think of your website as a digital business card. It’s the first place (maybe other than your social platforms) that a client or media contact will go to learn more about you. So, definitely, definitely, definitely add outlet logos from your placements onto your website to help boost your credibility. And don’t hide them in a corner - they should be on your homepage front and center! Think of how your opinion of someone changes when you see a Forbes logo on their website.
We also recommend taking it a step further and linking the outlet logos to your actual coverage if you have the URLs handy. This way, your website visitors can get a better understanding of your thought-leadership and interview style.
Using press coverage as an asset.
Coverage adds to your credibility, so don’t be shy and use it whenever possible beyond your digital platforms! Think of how you can use your media coverage for things like upcoming virtual or in-person events. Can you add logos of outlets that you’ve secured coverage with on signage at a book signing? On event invites or registration pages? How about creating a portfolio of coverage links or a media reel or media one-sheet of all your placements (more on that later) to send in an email when requesting to participate in a speaking opportunity? There’s a lot of different ways you can go here, so get creative!
Create a media reel.
If you've compiled a fair amount of media placements over time, it’s smart to consider stringing them all together into a video reel. Media reels can be sent to potential speaking opportunities, book publishers, and the press as a way to help leverage new opportunities. YDG has a few video editors on their team - reach out to them if you’re interested in creating one and they can help you get set up!
Create a media one-sheet.
This is essentially a press page with your headshot, a short bio, press logos in which you’ve appeared, and perhaps a few talking points or sample interview questions. You could even use screenshots of your past media appearances to show your visibility and credibility! A media one-sheet can be used in further press outreach, speaking outreach, and even shared with publishers or literary agents to help leverage book deals.
Ready to make your media placements work for your ROI? Learn more at www.ydgmktg.com.