7 Things I Learnt at Your Year in PR 2017
Following much faffing and hesitation I signed up to attend Your Year in PR 2017 in London on the 23rd November, I knew it would be a great event and that it was what I needed to improve my content building, social media presence and build a pipeline of new clients who would hopefully want to buy products and services from me in the future. The faffing was more about the logistics and childcare than doubts about the event, and blimey was I right about the event, this was a fantastic event from start to finish. I made much more progress than I thought I would and I came away with so many ideas and lots of new friends, here I share a few of the key takeaways from the day;
1. No More Broadcasting
People and journalists don’t care about your business – tough love? It’s true and it makes sense if you think about it. If you are just telling people about a product or trying to sell them a service they are not likely to be interested until you demonstrate how it solves a problem for them, by doing this through engagement rather than the hard sell is far more effective, instead tell them a story, it could be about how the business came about, how a process works, answer the questions you get asked most. To boost engagement, it is far better to engage your audience by asking a question, sharing a quick guide, cheat sheet or personal story than to bang on about your business and how fabulous it is – this is more likely to switch people off.
2. Lots More Planning
By taking time to plan your content for the year you can still react to breaking news or topics relevant to your business when you need to but planning content will save you so much time in the long run. If it seems a little bit daunting then break it down into smaller chunks, first start with a quarter and then the months in the quarter, then weeks in the month. Janet Murray’s 2018 Media Diary helps you do this in much more detail than I can explain here but you could start with a piece of paper segmented into 12 months and come up with a theme for each month, key dates within that month and work from there but by seeing the overview of the year and all that potential content in once place does help you to build a more detailed picture. Mine is still taking shape but it will be ready by mid-December and in flight with as much for January written ahead as possible.
3. How Can You Make Content Go Further?
This is a skill, one I have yet to master, is content stacking. This is making the most out of one piece of content. I am getting better but still working on it – my activity seems to stem from sharing the same thing across various platforms, not quite the same thing so here is what I am going to be trying from now on;
1. I post my latest blog post as an article on LinkedIn (my website eventually).
2. Share the link to the article on LinkedIn, Twitter, Google+
3. Create an image or quote from the article and share this on LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram.
4. Create a list of the key areas covered and share this across social media.
5. Ask a question directly related to the article on LinkedIn and across social media
6. I could also create a short video talking about the blog post and share this.
And so on, if you have a podcast or another medium you can add this to the list or this may be the first piece of content and everything else is related back to that podcast. Get the picture? Once you start thinking about how much you can get out of one piece of content is gets a bit easier to apply to your own material.
There may also be evergreen content that you can go back and apply this principle too, to boost the engagement you get on the post second time around.
4. Everything is Content
Now, I am not saying you should be sharing what you had for breakfast, lunch and dinner (see point one) but there is something to be said or a question to be asked about most things and once you get used to thinking like this then you should never struggle for content. Some ideas may be better than others and work better with your audience, so experiment and see what works for you. For example, I was stuck in traffic on the M1 several times this week and up to date on my podcast listening I started thinking about blog posts. I thought about how far I was travelling to see a client, how far people travel to work, how do people travel to work, what is the furthest you have ever travelled to see a client. All these things are potential posts or questions.
5. Three Types of Posts You Need to be Writing
These different types of article help people get to know you, build a feel for your values and how you can help them, they are;
Awareness Articles – what do you do? How can you help people? These can be unrelated to your business but still of interest to your audience and are highly shareable. It could be the 10 best days out in your area, 5 ways to improve your LinkedIn profile, How to create a Twitter Chat etc.
Consideration Articles – "How to" guides, information that is relevant to your business but provides useful usable information to your target clients.
Decision Making Articles – when people want to use your services give them content about the common questions you are asked and group similar types of questions together into a longer article or e-book.
By using these types of article, you can build a relationship and the trust so when people contact you they already have a certain amount of information about you. If it takes seven or eight touch points before someone buys from you then these types of article can create the beginnings of a sales funnel, by giving your potential customers useful and engaging content.
6. You Must Turn Up Every Day
Consistency is vital and this is my key objective for 2018. Whether you use a scheduling tool, I don’t, or not you need to be consistent and I think that is where the planning helps. I have Janet Murray’s 2018 Media Diary so I will be planning out that content long in advance and I hope as I get more content I will be able to get better at posting consistently myself and then move onto exploring scheduling tools but at the moment I think I should be doing it myself to see what works and what doesn’t so I can adapt my strategy and approach as I go along.
As well as consistently posting I think it is also just as important to reply to the comments you get from posts and I mean ALL posts. If people have taken the time out of their day to comment on content you posted then the lest you can do is reply and ask another question, thank them and keep the conversation going (if possible). Not only will engaging help you understand your audience but ultimately it can drive traffic to your website and help grow your email list.
7. Relationships
The one thing that was such a lovely bonus to all of this is the amazingly friendly and supportive community that made up the attendees at #YYIPR17, I have been a member of Janet’s Facebook group for some time and am now a member of her Soulful PR Studio so I have engaged with lots of people online but it was so nice to meet them face to face and for people who recognise you and come over and say hello, was brilliant.
It was a supportive and encouraging environment where you could ask a question, ask for help or a feedback on an idea in a truly warm group of people, it was amazing and has given me a new confidence to ask more questions of the group as I grow my own online profile and shape my business in the coming year. These are relationships I will value, cherish and nurture in 2018 and beyond.
