Are you making the most of the coverage you’ve achieved through PR? Can you lay your hands on it quite quickly or is it languishing on a link, in an email, on a spreadsheet (or even a shelf)? As with any part of the marketing mix, PR works best when you use it in conjunction with other channels, and there are a range of ways you can maximise any coverage achieved to real effect. Read on for our top tips on making the most of your media coverage.

Firstly, why do more with media coverage?

Of course, media coverage will reach people as that’s its job, but what if you can extend its reach? Just look at what publications themselves are already doing – sharing their news on Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter as that’s where they can reach even more of their audience. Not to mention individual journalists doing it themselves on their social channels. There’s a lot you can do to make coverage work harder.

So, how can you use your coverage?

1. Newsletters

Email newsletters (or even paper newsletters, as one of the brands we work with uses) are a great way to update clients, prospects and peers on your latest services, offers and news. They’re also an ideal place for you to share media coverage achieved. Sharing published pieces – not just blogs – demonstrates the authority of your opinions and your profile.

The best newsletters are short, succinct and blend news and opinion – you can even just have a small “in the news” section at the bottom with headlines and mastheads of publications. We have more top tips for email newsletters.

2. Sending to prospects

We tie in our PR plan with your new business focus, so if you’ve had a piece published that’s relevant for a prospect, why not share it with them? Some people do this through LinkedIn or some via email. It can work well if you’re already in dialogue with them about the issue, but it can also work as a cold contact. Perhaps it’s relevant to something they’ve said publicly that you can refer to.

Sharing a link or reproduced article (“have you seen our piece in Business Leader on the topic?”) has more authority than sending a link to a company blog (although those definitely have their place, as you’ll understand if you’re reading this!)

3. On social media

Are you sharing your coverage on your social channels? A comment and tagging the publication and journalist are a really good idea, too. Reshare and like the original as well as considering summarising the key points in a post. You can share the same piece in a few different ways at relevant times. If you’re stuck, have a look at our quick social media guide to comments, shares and tags.

Different channels work in different ways, but LinkedIn and Twitter are generally popular and give you different options for sharing. Instagram is much more visual so ensure the image is right.

4. Sharing on your website

You can link to articles from your website or use published pieces as inspiration for blogs. This is a great way to get two bites of the cherry and potentially help your SEO efforts. Just be careful not to duplicate content completely, word-for-word.

5. On industry sites or trade bodies

There are plenty of industry trade bodies and organisations that welcome member news. Make sure you’re maximising them! It doesn’t take long to share press articles with them. They may share online and on their own newsletters and they often include links, that other publications may not, depending on their editorial policy.

6. In an annual summary

It’s handy to keep track of coverage achieved each year and it’s a good reference for a new PR consultancy or team members. You can quickly see what you’ve been communicating that year and where. You can even use it as part of a welcome pack to your company.

7. On your slack or intranet – or the humble pinboard

Your internal audience is also really important. I remember how it felt to not be part of the PR process when I worked in marketing – the senior people seemed to be featured in articles and I had no idea about the strategy or what it meant for the company. Actually, good company PR can be really good for team morale, amongst other benefits.

An easy way to get your team on board is to share media coverage wherever they’ll see it – even if that’s a page cut out and displayed near the coffee machine. Your PR consultancy or PR agency could also offer to come in and share the PR strategy and results with the company, as we often do.

Sharing correctly

It’s also important to say that there are rules surrounding what coverage you can and can’t share without buying a licence – but these don’t apply to every publication. Please refer to The National Licensing Authority for full details.