I Want to be in Print
The Evolution of Financial PR
Oh the good old days, when it was easier to understand exactly where to find the news. It was fairly straightforward, the paper was delivered in the morning to your doorstep or you picked it up on the way to or home from work. There was also radio and TV news, but more than likely a newspaper was a prominent source for news. Today, things are not that simple as news comes in all forms from digital magazines and websites to social media sites like Twitter and Facebook, the industry has changed dramatically. It can be overwhelming, and it does take some time to adjust.
The day when only traditional news organizations report the news seems to have come and gone. Increasingly, “news“ is being published by companies who, rather than reporting for the sake of informing the public are featuring news sections on their websites to get more web traffic. It has become a way to market your goods and services. And many of these organizations employ former journalists to do the “reporting.”
Content marketing, a type of marketing that involves the creation and sharing of online material, is a big driving force for these articles. And, while the goal is increased website traffic, that does not mean the content is bad or that no one is reading it. What PR professionals have learned is that these content marketing articles can have the ability to get your name out to the public. Other sites that aggregate the news can also pick up the article causing it to travel “far and wide.” Further, the article is then posted to social media channels and soon it has been re-tweeted or posted many times in a day. This exposure can be quite beneficial and should not be discounted.
Have you ever heard of BankRate, CheatSheet, or WiseBread? These personal finance websites are listed on the 15 Most Popular Personal Finance Sites according to eBizMBA Rank ranked 7th, 9th and 15th, respectively and get 15.5, 9 and 2 million unique visitors per month. Yahoo Finance will pick up articles from a number of websites, and it is the most popular personal finance site with 70 million unique visitors per month all of whom are potential readers. These stats are impressive and outpace most circulation numbers of most print newspapers.
These digital articles can also help with SEO (search engine optimization), which can help increase the number of website visitors with a higher-ranking placement in the list of search engine results.
As a PR person, I hear it all the time; they do not have a print edition so it is not worth my time. This used to be true, but not anymore. And while having an article you are quoted in print is exciting and nothing to sneeze at, I caution you to change your thinking or you could get left behind. Now, I know what you are thinking; my clients are baby boomers, so I don’t have to worry about these types of websites. Think again!
The 2015 State of the User Experience Report from content delivery specialist Limelight Networks found that the group spending the most time online are baby boomers, those aged 51-69. More than half (51 percent) are online 15 hours a week, as opposed to Millennials (18-33-year-olds) at just 41 percent.
So the next time you have an opportunity to be interviewed or submit answers to a website that you are not that familiar with, don’t say no right away. Think about it and do a little research, as it may very well be the site that could get you noticed.
If you are ready to take your PR to the next level and embrace the opportunities of digital articles contact AdvisorPR at (866) 888-5333 or email us at Info@advisorpr.com.
