When I first became an MBA program director, I knew nothing about publicity and press coverage. Our publicity program was little more than trying to get B-School major event or activity news coverage. The university relations office processed everything. This took time and a tremendous amount of effort to get done. Social media and sophisticated websites were not main stream. Today they are more than main stream, they are a necessity for achieving positive publicity.
A necessary prerequisite for leveraging social media and websites as a primary means for positive publicity is having an expanded view of the purpose for which the traditional press release serves. In Part 1, I identified five purposes for which news releases (press releases) fulfill:
- Share Information,
- Invite Media Coverage,
- Promote Events or Activities,
- Recognize Others,
- Chronicle Events or Activities.
Adopting an expanded view further adds to the work load. In Part 2, I made suggestions for creating content based on the expanded view. Not covered is how to distribute the news release. This week, I want to discuss a framework for doing so.
Starting Point – The Newsroom
The starting point for sharing is the B-School or MBA program’s newsroom. I visit more than 25 B-School and MBA program websites each week. Surprisingly, is the number of websites that have no newsroom page or if they do, the difficulty with which it is to find. Posting the news release to the newsroom makes it available to the world and is the starting point for sharing. If you don’t have a newsroom, get one.
Newsroom Content Sharing
Sharing is an active process that starts by posting a news release in the newsroom. These tools help with the sharing.
- RSS feeds automatically share content with a wide number of people. Feed subscribers receive an automatic update when something new is posted. Reporters often subscribe to newsroom RSS feeds so they don’t have to visit the site to find newsworthy stories.
- Sharing icons offer newsroom visitors a way to share the news release with their followers, friends, etc. Sharing this way is dependent on the visitor taking action.
- Share via Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc. when the news release is posted. Share it at once via the program and B-School’s social media accounts.
Make sure the tools are visible and functioning.
Lists Sharing
MBA programs and B-Schools usually have many lists that are often underutilized or are created to serve a single purpose. Many of these lists when consolidated become a major resource for sharing content posted to a newsroom via an email marketing application or CRM. Proactively manage lists and use them to share news releases.
Why?
So, why do some MBA programs get positive publicity almost all the time? In many cases it is because they have a broad view of what purposes a news release can serve, they proactively manage new release creation and they actively share them. Try it and see if your program gets more positive publicity.
Join the Conversation
Question: How do your news releases get shared? Do you have any tips that you want to share? Click here to share your response or email me at RGAlsup@MBANewsDigest.com if you prefer to respond without sharing.
Rodney