How Smart Firms Dominate The News Cycle
When people think of marketing, they usually see it as ways in which a company uses its resources to tell consumers about its products. But some of the smartest companies in the world realized long ago that all they really needed to do was dominate the news cycle and they’d get free publicity forever.
Take Tesla, for instance. Not only does the company hardly spent anything on in-house marketing, but it also has legions of media followers, obsessed with everything from the personality of Elon Musk to the promise of fully autonomous electric vehicles. The news not only provides Tesla with a free source of publicity, but it’s mostly seen as independent too, increasing the authenticity of any messages that the firm puts out.
Smart firms try to dominate the news cycle. Here’s what they do.
Register For Google News
Google news has been around since 2002. It’s a kind of search engine for news stories, providing users with curated reading lists based on their interests for the last 30 days. It’s one of the most advanced news feeds in the world and used by millions daily. Google News SEO is big business, with companies investing enormous sums of money to perfect their stories and get their messages out to the broader public.
Smart companies know that if they want to get their name into the news cycle, they need to have a strategic presence on Google News. Getting there not only means writing press releases, but signing up for news distribution services in the Google network and telling the search firm that particular stories are newsworthy.
Choose The Opportune Time For The Release
For an article to be considered “news” rather than marketing, it must be “newsworthy.” In other words, it has to inform people of something that’s happening right now, rather than give general information about a product or services. Many firms, for instance, put out press releases when they plan to release a new product, getting customers excited in advance about what’s in store for them.
Release A News Story When Interest Is At Its Highest
As anyone who has been in media knows, the news cycle is fickle. One minute, it focuses on one issue and then immediately flips over to the next, often with no explanation. Smart companies don’t rail against this: instead, they work with it, releasing suitable content that reflects current news cycle trends, hopping on the back of current popular topics.
Releasing Stories At The Weekend
Journalists are notoriously busy during the week, thanks to the myriad of deadlines that they must reach. Things at the weekend, however, are different. Most journalists have more time to entertain company stories and are often willing to put in the extra effort to give firms great writeups. The more time that a journalist has to talk to you, the better. You can discuss your story in more depth and help them to understand your core message. The journalist will then go away and work on an article with a better idea of your company in mind.