The Modern Business Influencer: Leveraging the New Era of PR for Your Business

Welcome to the third installment of my LinkedIn newsletter about the impact of Modern Business Influencers at the helm of today's companies. I’ll be sharing strategies, case studies, and tools used by the successful entrepreneurs, top executives and best selling authors we have worked with throughout the years. We kicked off this newsletter with a three-part series. If you missed the first two, you can find them linked below:

• The Most Powerful Way To Differentiate Your Company In Today's Market
• How To Build a Winning Marketing Strategy During A Recession
• Leveraging The New Era of PR For Your Business

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Leveraging the New Era of PR for Your Business?

When most leaders think about PR, they think of being featured on CNBC, The Wall Street Journal or Good Morning America. Traditionally, these were the type of mass media outlets you needed to be featured on to garner visibility and credibility as a leader in your industry. These traditional, mass media outlets held a high level of credibility and trust with their audiences making a feature or appearance extremely impactful for a brand.?

While mass media can still be impactful, the way people are consuming media (and the way people are trusting their media) has changed significantly over the past decade. People are consuming more media than ever before, but the majority of media consumed is a part of the new era of media that we call micromedia (think podcasts, trade publications and YouTube channels).

In fact, the average person spends two hours a day listening to audio content (source: Nielsen), and that number is growing every year.?

The shift away from generic mass media and toward micromedia has created a new paradigm in how brands connect with their target audiences. Micromedia outlets are led by individuals who have built trust with their followers through consistent thought leadership and entertainment value; these individuals are often referred to as thought leaders or influencers within the industry or niche they cover, which makes them an ideal resource for any business looking for ways to reach its target consumers on a personalized level in today’s world of information overload—especially when compared with traditional methods such as TV appearances or billboards that don’t offer any feedback beyond whether someone saw it or not.

The media environment is always changing and it can be challenging to know what’s going to provide the best results for your goals. It's not just about the mainstream media anymore, and there is extreme value your company can experience focusing on the new era of PR. Today, I interviewed our Zilker Media publicity team to share insider secrets on how they garner media that drives results for our clients every day.

Should your PR focus be name brand media or micromedia?

"Both name brand media and micromedia are powerful ways to gain exposure for your thought leadership. Each vertical has its own benefits that can help you reach your goals in different ways. For example, if your biggest focus is to bolster credibility, name brand media is particularly powerful. Once you appear in a name-recognizable outlet, you can place the logo on your website, thus bolstering your “authority by association” to anyone that visits.?

If your aim is to build relationships within a target audience or attract potential clients/customers, micromedia is the way to go. Although name brand outlets have a vastly broader reach, it’s incredibly difficult to target a specific niche. Micromedia, on the other hand, puts you in front of the right people in the right seats. For podcasts in particular, many of the hosts of these prominent shows are industry thought leaders, and they are fantastic folks to start building rapport with. Whether you choose to concentrate on name brand media or micromedia should depend heavily on your current business goals."?

– Response from Katherine Bingham , Publicist at Zilker Media

Can podcast guesting be beneficial for my business?

"Yes! Guesting on podcasts can be a great way to elevate your thought leadership, maximize your audience reach, and raise your personal brand awareness. Micromedia hones in on specific niches within your industry that can position your thought leadership to be placed in front of your ideal target audiences.?

Podcasts are also a great way to connect with your audiences on a more personal level that is both conversational and relatable. Be sure to plan a compelling call to action in order to drive listeners to your website and email list so that you can convert that audience to your owned media.

Podcast interviews are also a great way to boost your SEO (Search Engine Optimization) as Google will heavily populate podcasts interviews on the first page of search results."?

– Response from Hannah Arceri , Publicist at Zilker Media

How can you self-generate PR for your business?

"Pitching yourself to niche podcasts? is a great way to start self-generating PR for your business! Like Hannah mentioned above, guesting on podcasts is a great way to garner earned media for your business.?

Another way to self-generate PR is to use resources like Qwoted and HARO. These free tools connect journalists seeking expertise to include in their content with sources who have that expertise – like you!

Once you have started pitching, you will start to generate your own list of contacts and connections that will help you continue to build up your PR!"

– Response from Christina Pennell , Publicist?at Zilker Media

Should I hire a publicist, and how do I do that?

In today’s media landscape hiring a publicist is not for everyone so you want to be sure your goals align with the new era of PR. If you are not ready for this step as a business, there are still good opportunities to self-generate PR as Christina detailed above in the previous question. With that said, good publicists provide three things for you:

1. Media relationships – good publicists are a filter for the media, which is why their calls are taken and emails are opened at a much higher rate by journalists, editors and producers
2. Time to focus on the right opportunities – if you don’t have time or if your time is far too valuable to spend time on the self-generated strategies above, a publicist can take this off your plate and hone in your focus. A publicist will also work to position you and your business to be of interest to the media with the right angle and hook
3. Understanding of which opportunities to pursue – in the age of micromedia where every individual and company can launch a podcast at any time, knowledge of which opportunities will drive results for your business are key

As you begin your search for a publicist it’s important to remember a good PR firm should be interviewing you as much as you are interviewing them. Do not be afraid to ask firms you are interviewing what their outreach approach would look like. The reason why we’re so excited about the new era of PR is because it is a real shift in how businesses can gain exposure to potential consumers. You want to ensure you have a well-rounded PR outreach approach to stay ahead of the media environment and garner the results you are looking for.