You’ve been landing great press releases for your business (or clients if you happen to be an agency exec and reading this), but what are you doing afterwards to enhance your results? Without a digital PR campaign distribution strategy, where you’re not actively sharing press releases after publication, you will struggle with poor brand visibility.
It’s hard to get an exact figure on how many social media posts are shared daily, but in 2023, an estimated 4.9 billion people use social media worldwide. Don’t be disheartened if you don’t get instant results – up your distribution strategy to start standing out in a sea of billions.
Creating a digital PR campaign distribution strategy
You need a multi-faceted approach to distributing your press release to get people’s attention. This means having a strategy where you share your press release multiple times in slightly different ways across different platforms (not just social media), targeting different segments of your target audience – from customers to stakeholders.
Leveraging social media posts to promote your press release
To put it simply, a post is not enough.
To get more eyes on your digital PR campaign, you need to engage, entice, and entertain new readers. If you think doing a social post with a link to the press release will get you clicks, you’re in for disappointment.
Remember, your audience won’t see everything you post. Don’t worry about saying the same thing repeatedly… if people aren’t interested, they will unfollow or unsubscribe (and that means they aren’t your target audience anyway, so take that little bit of what looks like rejection as a positive insight into your audience).
No hooks – no clicks!
First, let’s talk about what you should NOT do on social media to promote your press release. A personal pet peeve of mine is starting a LinkedIn post with “we are delighted to announce” or “I want to share some news with you.”
Whether you’re sharing news of a $4.9bn Neptune Energy deal or that you’ve hosted a sell-out event on social media, everything is an announcement by default. So, you don’t need to tell people it’s an announcement – you are wasting those valuable characters on the first few visible lines of your post because to see the rest of the post, users have to click on ‘see more’ (aka). And guess what – if you haven’t grabbed their attention – they won’t.
Instead, ask yourself – what fact or statement from your press release will pique your target audience’s attention? Turn the focus on the reader – why should they read this press release?
Get straight to the point and cut anything unnecessary and by all means, don’t try to pitch click bait! Do write a clear ‘hook’ that gets people’s attention and tells them what to expect without being clever or cryptic. Most attention spans are short, so when you get straight into the juicy bits, the right people should take notice.
Repurposing your press releases for wider distribution, greater brand awareness, and ultimately – more clicks!
The best way to increase your digital PR campaign efforts is to repurpose press releases into different forms of content. Use a mix of short-form, long-form, and visual content, then distribute it in different ways online. Let’s look at several examples:
Instead of writing one LinkedIn post – create a whole series around the topic! One press release could turn into the following:
- A dozen tweets, LinkedIn posts, or Facebook posts.
- Multiple videos for TikTok, YouTube Shorts, or Instagram reels.
- Instagram posts with accompanying graphics/images – can you share an infographic to illustrate the topic?
- An email newsletter to your mailing list sharing the press release key findings.
- A follow-up blog post to explain the topic in more detail (don’t forget to add internal links back to your original press release).
But let’s not stop there. Can you find any podcast guest speaking opportunities? Who could you reach out to who has a large audience to share or discuss the topic with? Can you create campaign hashtags or competitions to encourage others to share your press release?
Think outside the box to get more people reading your press release, increasing brand visibility and getting you the best results possible.
Improve your digital PR campaign with a comprehensive distribution strategy
Putting more effort into your digital PR distribution strategy will get more eyes on your press release while also increasing your chances of getting backlinks, which boosts both your brand’s reputation and your site’s SEO.
Need more help with your digital PR campaign? Check out our course on SEO for digital PR here, or get in touch to discuss how BrandHouzz can help to maximise your brand’s online presence.
