Most companies start getting serious about PR in the fall. In a typical year, vacations end, kids go back to school, and the news cycle becomes more business-focused, which enables proactive companies to leverage media exposure and meet year-end goals.
This year it’s different. The global pandemic, upcoming presidential election, and ongoing protests over racial injustice continue to dominate the press; it seems like there’s an earth-shattering news story every other day.
As a result, it’s tougher than ever to get featured on the air, in print or even online as that space has also become highly saturated. Businesses are recognizing the need to create their own content that highlights their wins, new product or service launches, and results. There’s a lot of competition for your audience’s attention. You’ve got to use multiple platforms to ensure a meaningful percentage of your audience sees your content. It’s not about creating more content to break through to your audience—it’s about repurposing what you’ve already got.
Repurposing Your “Greatest Hits”
Squeezing every last drop of goodness out of a piece of content or newsworthy item gets you the most bang for your buck. Repurposing your best content across multiple platforms is a resourceful way to promote your business, celebrate past successes, and stay in touch with your network.
Here are a few ways to think about repurposing your content:
- Review your analytics to see which blogs, newsletters, and social media posts performed well in the past. Could you update that content or adapt it to publish on other platforms?
- Promote any recent awards by writing your own press release and posting on your website. Create social media posts, update your audience in an email, and consider adding the honor to your LinkedIn profile or email signature.
- Maximize your positive media wins by, again, turning the feature into content for all of your public platforms. Consider sending a relevant excerpt as a LinkedIn message as a way to reach out to clients and connections. Try to get a local TV segment picked up nationally.
- Break down long-form content into several bite-size social media posts. For example, each bullet point from a blog can be recycled into an Instagram post or story.
- Transform written content into video for platforms like YouTube, Instagram, and Tik-Tok (assuming it’s still viable!)
If these ideas seem like overkill, remember that everything virtual is less visible. A very small portion of your audience is likely to see any one social media post, newsletter, or blog. And if you successfully repurpose your content for different channels or mediums, people won’t even realize they’re seeing the same information again!
Case Study: Extending a Campaign
My client Journey Forward is an organization that is dedicated to bettering the lives of people with spinal cord injuries or disabilities. This year marks the 20th anniversary of the accident that left its founder, Dan Cummings, a quadriplegic. He has since relearned how to walk and decided to commemorate this milestone by walking the virtual Falmouth Road Race. The local NBC station did a feature story on Dan and his nonprofit and several other local outlets ran the story based on our press release.
Instead of letting this media moment stagnate, we found ways to extend its momentum. Dan provided weekly training updates on social media, which received high engagement, and had some high-profile friends create videos to support him. We even set up a promotion with friend and former Brady Bunch actor, Chris Knight who offered a Brady Bunch style Zoom call for one lucky donor. The organizers of the race extended the fundraising deadline, so we’re still actively promoting it to Journey Forward’s followers on social media.
Bottom line: if you want to connect with a broad segment of your audience online, promote your content across multiple platforms. When you have a media hit, find ways to keep the excitement going. Your audience is interested in what you’re doing, so seek out opportunities to keep them updated and remind them why your work matters.
