Modern Public Relations Campaigns are Driven by High Quality Online Content
The landscape of public relations is evolving rapidly in the wake of social media, and the impact on PR for link building purposes has been significant. Press releases and media pitches are still the cornerstone of the field, but leveraging informative, high quality online content to lure bloggers and other influential social media outlets to company websites has emerged as the modern method for generating publicity.
Who Cares About Quality?
In short, members of traditional and social media do. Journalists and bloggers are far from stupid; they can easily recognize a weak pitch after being bludgeoned with an avalanche of cheesy, intrusive public relations tactics for years. This is why, these days, blatantly selling your product via press release or generic pitch is typically insufficient for generating interest and leads.
However, everyone appreciates high quality information provided by a reliable resource. Position those who hold management roles in your company as thought leaders in their field. For example, a physicians’ group could post on their website an article written by company leadership on the preventive services benefits available to women via health care reform. Obviously, this topic is relevant to roughly half of the consumer population and therefore a good bet for health related media outlets.
The majority of the time, if an issue matters to a media outlet’s audience, the associated journalist or blogger will find it valuable to publish. Furthermore, by establishing your client as a thought leader right off the bat, members of the media will be more inclined to work with them on future stories as well.
Spread the Word
From there, the physicians’ group could (and should!) tweet about the article as well as post a link on Facebook and Google+. By doing so, they are not only sharing the information with their own audience – they are also making it accessible to bloggers or media members who might come across it via any number of ways.
It is important to leverage your online resources and social media connections when pitching written pieces or television segments. Some journalists check their Twitter accounts more often than their email, so it may be advantageous to tweet your desired media targets in addition to contacting them via email and phone. Given the nature of their work, bloggers are even more attuned to communicating via social media channels.
Ideally, one or more of these outlets will post a link on its website and reference the article, thereby increasing link quantity and quality. The end result? Provided this process continues, the physicians’ group website will likely rise in SEO rankings. It all starts with informative material that people want to read because they can derive value from it.
