While all our clients want to be in the usual top tier media suspects, like the New York Times, Conde Nast Traveler, Bloomberg and Business Insider, my opinion, as head of a NYC boutique PR agency, is to take into account the trickle up effect of media, particularly the blogosphere. This practice is vital when looking for media coverage that will “move the needle.”
Here are some tips to keep in mind when planning your PR campaign:
- Bloggers – While the blogosphere can be a bit bewildering, we’ve learned out to navigate it, building relationships with those who have a devoted following. We generally look for bloggers with followings of 50,000 or more, but we’ve found it can be surprising how those with smaller readerships can raise awareness.
- A Critical Mass — Another important point to realize is that amassing a critical quantity of coverage in blogs, which are often indexed by Google and the other search engines, can aid help push your brand up the rankings. When the top tier press goes to research the web about you, they will find these links and it aids in their research.
- A Social Media Campaign – We highly recommend to our clients that your program encompass Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest and Twitter, all of which are now indexed, again affecting your rankings. Furthermore, these channels have a direct referral sending traffic your way. In the travel and luxury sphere, which tends to be visual, this is particularly true.
- Stay Connected — Another consideration is that reporters and editors move around, so its vital for your PR firm to stay connected with the press. They move up, across to other beats, and over to competitors, so staying in contact with valuable news is vital. You never know where they will pop up next.
- Honor The Press — I always say, “Polite persistence wins the day.” Staying in front of the top tier press with customized pitches is the best way to go, as opposed to badgering them. They are bombarded with press releases, so tailoring your pitch in a short pithy email that meets their particular area of interest is more likely to get a response than a massively distributed press release.
- Evaluate the Bloggers — When bloggers approach us for stays at our hotel properties, we extract a promise from them of the length and breadth of their coverage. We have a proprietary agency list of proven writers, whom we know will deliver, and build that once we know the veracity of the blogger.
Motto of the day: Stay connected, but broaden your scope. Be open minded, as well as discerning.