How To Use Social Media To Get Larger Media Opportunities

With most things in life, there’s playing checkers, then there’s playing chess. Social media is no exception.

Having a great social media post (perhaps one that goes viral) is like winning a game of checkers. It’s rewarding. You accomplished what you set out to do. Congratulations.?

But what you may not realize is there is “next level” engagement you should be aiming for. This, my friends, is called playing social media chess-- more advanced strategy, bigger reward. It’s when you see you have a fantastic asset and think, “Now, how else could I be leveraging this to get even more of a return?”

How to land large-scale media opportunities with your social media

Those of you who know me know that I love LinkedIn. I enjoy building my followership, creating meaningful connections, and offering expertise and value to my audience through my posts and articles. Not only is this a great way to build connections with clients and partners, but it can be a tool to test our ideas and create a buzz about a topic that is your expertise.

Whatever the platform, whether it's TikTok, Instagram, LinkedIn, or Twitter, when you create valuable content, you build your community. And when you have a community, you get real-time feedback about what people care about by way of engagement. So, instead of viewing a ton of likes and comments as a “really good day,” start to recognize them as?hooks and testing grounds to find a juicy story topic or lead, and then use the momentum you're gaining to reach out to journalists and pitch it as a story.?

How I pitched Entrepreneur Magazine with a social post

A few weeks ago, our employee shared with us that she was surprised we gave her paid time off to grieve the loss of her beloved dog. It got me thinking about bereavement policy, and why my director of operations and I came up with the flexible, human-centered approach we take toward grief. In thinking about this, I was reminded of when I was in corporate America, and I lost my grandmother. She was on her deathbed, and I had an opportunity to fly down, hold her hand, say goodbye and then come right back the next day. Once she passed, I was to fly back down for her funeral in support of my family and all of those who loved her.?

I went down to my HR office, asked for our bereavement policy, and I was met with this response, “Well, you get one day because it wasn't an immediate family.” I was FLOORED!?

It was probably the first of many flags that let me know I am not meant to be in corporate, and I vowed if we ever grow a team, we're never going to make people work through grief like I was working through grief. It was horrible.?

Inspired by my employee’s words and reignited with anger, I wrote a post on LinkedIn about it.?

I hoped to get a couple hundred likes and a dozen or so shares to spark a conversation in corporate about grief but ended up surpassing that within 30 minutes. The post netted over 1,000 shares, 50,000 pieces of interaction, 3.5 million impressions, and created a ton of crazy meaningful conversations in the comments section. My followers jumped by almost 6,000 within 3 days, and I received a wave of DMs saying, “I'm going through a really hard time.” Or, “My company did X, Y, and Z. What do you think of this?” I was so moved. These were really heartfelt conversations that became a beautifully painful way to connect with my audience and have some really vulnerable conversations with people.

I also received a lot of positive engagement from people sharing the amazing culture and bereavement policies that their company has and how great they have been with accommodating their grief, exemplifying the importance of supporting employees.?

Through all of this interaction and engagement, it became very clear to me that this was a hot topic, and I needed to use it as a story lead to reach out to the bigger media outlets that could continue the impactful conversation.?

So I made my list. I wanted to go after Forbes, Entrepreneur, Inc., and a few other places that I knew are interested in pieces about creating a company culture.

I took my post link and reached out to a few journalists to show them that my post about grief had taken on a life of its own. I explained this was a topic that was near and dear to my heart and that it seemed like a lot of people felt the same way based on the reactions I received on LinkedIn. Ultimately I had 3 responses, and one writer for Entrepreneur picked up the story. Not long after talking with them, they put a great article out that led with my story called 'Corporate America Is Killing Us.' Employees Share Gut-Wrenching Stories That Reveal a Compassion Crisis.

So what are the key themes there??

First, you need to be looking at your social media posts as leverage to get larger exposure. ?

Sharing this post with the media allowed me the opportunity to make an impact on the lives of countless employees by bringing to their boss’ attention the struggle around this, and it landed me and my business some great exposure.

I also continued building my relationships with journalists whose work is seen by over 500,000 subscribers. With those relationships cemented, I am able to extend my reach and influence to big corporate decision-makers in order to create better policies. It could be a great step in creating a better bereavement policy in some major global companies.

You don’t need to be a huge influencer to make this work for you

The reality of this story is that you don’t need to have 20,000 followers on LinkedIn or get a million impressions in order for the big media to find value in your post. You just need to figure out what will be impactful for your readers and what will spark conversations that might not happen otherwise.?

The biggest highlight of the story by Entrepreneur was the comments and stories that were told in the comments section of my post and in the posts of those who shared it. It allowed those who otherwise wouldn’t dare speak out against their employer for fear of repercussions to having a voice and an opinion.

If you need help with growing your audience and platform to make lasting impressions on those that follow you, sign up for our 30-Day Brand Accelerator Bootcamp.