How a Relationship with The Media Helps Your Credibility
Learn how to build relationships that boost credibility for your brand through public relations and other media efforts.
As the economic landscape has become incredibly competitive across industry segments over the last decade, businesses are finding that it’s much harder to differentiate their products and services from the competition in ways that have traditionally been effective. As a result, marketing has become a much more complex and involved component of daily operations. Paid advertising has become a highly technical undertaking, while sales and client management teams are leveraging a wider array of tools and outreach channels to effectively execute social proof-focused campaigns.
Perhaps one of the most significant adjustments companies have had to embrace is a broadening of public relations outreach efforts beyond outlets and channels considered to be traditional media. In the almost three years since the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak, changing consumer behaviors and habits have pushed brands to evolve their PR and social proof tactics even more rapidly to keep up with target audiences increasingly concerned with the trustworthiness of the brands they consume.
We’ll show the benefits of improving your relationship and presence with media outlets across multiple channels, with a focus on how doing so can help build and expand your credibility. We’ve included our analysis as well as insight provided by marketing professionals across industries as to their tactics and strategies for establishing a strong PR-focused presence online.
Strong Content Establishes Your Brand as a Thought Leader
Think of the last time you went online looking for an article about something you were interested in or a product or service you needed in either your personal or professional life. You likely used a search engine to track down blogs, newsletters, and websites of companies relevant to the topic at hand, and likely followed up with the relevant social media pages. Have you ever stopped to think about why your search engine decided to show you those specific pages?
Search engines are increasingly focusing algorithms upon well-written content to provide online users with the best possible matches to their search inquiries. Regardless of whether the search is being conducted by an expert in your industry or a potential customer comparing their options before making a purchase, search engines will prioritize content that includes keywords from the query and content that has been properly researched and includes elements such as up-to-date metrics or detailed infographics tagged and coded to maximize search engine optimization (SEO).
“Creating reader-first content is crucial when crafting a meaningful content strategy. What does that mean exactly? The reader’s needs should always come first and the SEO optimization component is secondary. As more and more readers turn to the web before making high-involvement purchases and decisions, it’s essential to write content that first and foremost serves the reader’s search intent and thoroughly answers their questions.
Before publishing your next piece of content, ask yourself the following: 1. How will the article bring the reader closer to achieving their goals? 2. Does the content provide original, unique, non-biased information on a key, decision-making topic? 3. What problem will the content help the reader address? Always keep in mind that strong content is one of the (if not the most) vital components of achieving higher organic rankings on Google.” —Michelle Alese, SEO Content Strategist, UpCity
By creating digital marketing content designed to outperform your competitors, you’re establishing a content marketing strategy that helps your team solidify their role as thought leaders in your industry. Over time, traffic to your website will push your content further up the search engine results pages (SERPs), as more users rely upon it and share it across their social media pages and other outlets, further extending your company’s reach.
Building Relationships with Media Outlets Via Backlinks
Recall from the above section that it’s important to post content rich with data and factual information that establishes your credibility and builds company awareness. Many companies accomplish this by partnering with third-party surveyors. For example, UpCity has partnered multiple times with PollFish to explore the insight and opinions of small business owners, entrepreneurs, and marketing experts on various topics in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
As an active voice in the B2B and B2C marketing landscape, UpCIty provides our community of readers the opportunity to weigh in on these surveys with their insight, and we include as many quotes from relevant experts as possible to boost the credibility of these articles. By including their company information and a backlink to their websites, we provide these small business owners with an opportunity to boost their credibility while increasing the value and weight of the data gathered by PollFish in our sponsored surveys. The combined backlinking enhances the search engine rankings of all companies involved by acting as a vote of confidence between UpCity and our respondents.
UpCity creates content pieces with credible sources that can be quoted and linked back to by other businesses and media bloggers in their content, by creating data-enriched SEO content that ranks effectively with search engines. To accomplish this same synergy with other media outlets, your team should actively seek opportunities to speak on topics relevant to your industry, as well as sponsor your surveys to create content other outlets will use as a way to create a strong backlink relationship with your company, thus enhancing the credibility of your company and theirs.
Engagement Across Social Media Platforms Helps Improve Your Brand’s Trustworthiness
Traditionally, a solid marketing strategy consisted of a multi-tiered plan for advertising on television, radio, and in print while engaging directly with your customers via telephone or email. Generally, this was sufficient to build your company and earn enough of their trust that they would comfortably come to refer you to their networks. This is no longer the case in 2022, as your business’s marketing strategy is no longer a set-it-and-forget-it affair reviewed and tweaked at quarterly budget reviews.
In today’s fast-paced economy where entire fortunes are made and lost off of tweets, your company’s marketing strategy isn’t complete without a multi-tiered marketing strategy that incorporates integrated social media campaigns across LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, and other social platforms. While it’s acceptable to exclude social networks that don’t enhance the experience of your target audience, you should ensure that you’ve created media content on the platform where social media users are most likely to seek out your company.
Social platforms provide unique opportunities to engage with new user communities and influence your company’s media credibility. In addition to the digital media content of blog posts, service and product listings, and informational content such as webinars and product demos, social media platforms allow companies to gather and leverage customer testimonials to bolster social proof efforts while engaging with and appealing to an increasingly youthful customer base through the use of short video content on TikTok and Facebook.
Combined, these tactics create shareable content that will help boost referrals and generate web traffic across your other digital assets. This increased traffic will lead to an increase in the instance of shared links, more discussions of your products and services, and other client interactions that further help to grow your company’s credibility in both the eyes of current and potential clients, as well as with media outlets.
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About the author
David J. Brin
Having recently escaped a 20-year career in Food & Beverage operations management, David is now a Facility Director for a Code Ninjas franchise, a STEM-education concept that uses game development to teach children how to code in various programming languages. David got his start writing professionally as a communications assistant for the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, and has been a freelance copywriter providing white-label services to clients since 2016. His clients operate in industries ranging from managed IT services and software development to marketing and advertising.
