Start Spreading the News. Digital Means There’s Never Been a Better Time for Media Relations

When it comes to telling the story of your business there has never been a better time – and don’t let dwindling newspaper circulations tell you differently.

It may well have been a while since you last picked up a newspaper, getting inky-fingered while flicking through the pages from front to back without pop up ads, clamouring hyperlinks and a host of other distractions.

It may have been some time since you last tuned into a radio station to hear the most up to date bulletins. After all Spotify gives you all the music you want without interruptive ads or banal DJ chat.

Meanwhile the appeal of Netflix, iPlayer and on demand viewing services might even mean it’s been a head scratchingly long time since you last switched on to watch the Six O’Clock News or the News at Ten.

But make no mistake, the changes in media consumption mean businesses have never had a greater opportunity to employ good, old-fashioned media relations to reach a bigger and wider audience than many ever dreamt of.

LINKEDIN LOVE-IN

Here’s a simple, real life example to whet your appetite. It involves our client Ricky Nicol, the founder and chief executive of the £10m-a-year business Commsworld. Not only did we help him enjoy positive coverage in The Scotsman, but the article resulted in major social media reach.
How, exactly? Because LinkedIn now automatically picks up on reputable media articles about its members, then shares those as widely as possible with other LinkedIn users.
This means that Ricky’s news spread far beyond just those who bought a copy of the paper or even beyond those who visited the Scotsman’s hugely popular website. In fact, anyone connected to Ricky on LinkedIn is likely to have received an email message – an important and valuable way of getting Ricky’s news in front of the right influential people and a chance to drive new business opportunities.

This doesn’t just apply to LinkedIn. Traditional media articles are the backbone of all social media. How useful would Twitter really be if users weren’t sharing links to the most interesting stories from the world’s news sites?

Or how quickly would you tire of Facebook if it was just cat and baby pics – rather than full of interesting links from credible news sources?
Here’s another question – why is the teen favourite Snapchat desperate to promote its new “Discover” service, which sees it partner with some of the biggest news sites in the world, including Sky News and Mail Online?

The answer is simple. News is more popular and more valuable than ever. Newspapers and other news sources may be wrangling with how to make news pay in the digital age, but news stories are reaching more people than ever before.

With the sheer volume of junk, spam, scams, gimmicks, spoofs, propaganda and misinformation online, readers have never had greater need from news sources they can trust – whether that is a traditional newspaper or a newcomer like BuzzFeed.

The evidence of the public appetite for content from trusted news sources is everywhere. Millions of mobile phone users have downloaded “news aggregator” apps which bring them the headlines and stories from sources as diverse as the Evening News right her in Edinburgh to global giants like the BBC and CNN.

There are hugely popular apps and web services, including Pulse, Flipboard and Feedly, which take news stories and other media content and deliver them to an influential audience in the format those user wants.

And that’s before we even start looking at the many other services which pick up bona fide media articles and serve them up to influencers and potential new customers – the likes of the Marketing Edinburgh newsletter or the “Sector Knowledge” service provided by Scottish legal giant, Anderson Strathern.

Both of these are typical of the online and digital curation services which are springing up to meet the public demand for information they can trust. Across all of these services it is the  trusted, traditional news coverage which is being sought by and shared to an ever more demanding audience.

These new ways of spreading news are not just a dream result for hard-working PR people, but also for well the giant-connected business leaders too.
So, start spreading the news – while newspapers may seem a bit ‘dated’ in the web era, the truth is it is still good old-fashioned news reporting that powers huge elements of online and social media.

How can your business benefit? For that you need to speak with story telling experts who can help you tell positive stories the media will love.

Find Out How Our Award-winning PR Agency Can Help Your Business to Prosper

The very best public relations people in the country are right here at Holyrood PR, after we were named the best small PR agency in Scotland 2015 at the annual PR Oscars organised by the Chartered Institute of Public Relations.

What makes us so good? We believe that stories are at the heart of every business and when those stories are well told to the right audiences, it helps those businesses become more profitable, while making happier and more productive workplaces.

Every day we practice what we preach, telling powerful stories about our clients on paper, on air and online in words, picture and video. That means our clients – like Ricky Nicol and many more – see their positive stories being shared across every platform imaginable.

We’d love to discuss how a carefully thought out PR campaign could deliver amazing results for your business. It costs nothing to chat, so phone us now on 0131 561 2244 or fill in the simple form below and we’ll get straight back to you: