By: Zachary Vito, Senior Account Executive
The earned media landscape that startups face is highly competitive. Building credibility for your company and your spokespeople is important, especially in the early stages of funding and this can be done through implementation of a thought leadership program.
Contributed articles are an important component of a thought leadership program. Just because you’re company may not have any news or assets to share with media does not mean you cannot secure coverage. Here are five reasons your start up should consider a thought leadership program:
- Establish Yourself as an Expert
Though your customers may not be ready to talk to the press about the amazing work you are doing together, you can still use the experience to provide commentary on the general problem that you are helping your customer to overcome. Chances are, other companies are facing the same problem and by providing your expert insight on the issue, you will also appeal to potential customers in the future
- Build Relationships with Media Outlets
The changing landscape of online media has resulted in numerous reporter lay-offs, across various different media sets. With less staff writers, media outlets have less resources to conduct interviews and not everything you have to say may be worthy of an interview. Many outlets welcome contributed articles that are vendor neutral and fit within their specific editorial guidelines. By pitching a contributed article, you may be more likely to get in touch with a respective editor and even may be doing them a solid by providing them with content.
- Add Your Voice to Hot Industry Topics
Breaking news and trending topics that ties to your core business can be a great opportunity to raise the profile of your company. For instance, some of the most popular shows on TV or Netflix touch on technology themes that real companies are working on today. By touching on some of those popular topics in your own content, you can increase the chances of your articles being shared and going viral on social media.
- Raise Company Profile, Increase Visibility of Spokespeople
As mentioned earlier, you may not always have a reason or opportunity to set up briefings with reporters and your spokespeople. But you can still establish spokespeople as experts by contributing bylined articles on their respective areas of expertise. When your company’s name is searched, the spokesperson’s byline will come up in search results, thus raising the profile of the spokesperson.
- Content is King (or Queen)
Once your article is published, you can use the placement as content for other channels such as blogs and social media. In practice, you can include an excerpt of the article in a post on your company’s blog and then link to the original placement. Editors will also be happy to see you share the article via your social channels, as you are bringing new readers to their outlet.
When you are looking for a PR agency to engage with, be sure to consider capabilities such as content creation and thought leadership programs in addition to media relations. If you have any questions or would like to inquire about a thought leadership program, contact us at pr@msrcommunications.com.