G’day … Trevor here …

Welcome to Reputation OnRamp - thanks for being a valued subscriber!

This is my final newsletter for the year - I’ll be taking several weeks off to recharge the batteries in readiness for a huge 2025! 🎄

I hope you and yours have a nice, relaxing break. See you next year!

👇

ARTICLES FEATURED IN THIS EDITION:

• Here are 11 ways content fuels the effectiveness of PR

• 2024: The year creators took over

• Google doesn’t care about you: Content by itself won't cut it for business owners today

While I’m writing this edition of the newsletter, I’m listening to Currency of Man by Melody Gardot, an American jazz singer who incorporates a strong blues element into some of her music.

Case in point - Preacherman - the second song on this album, which is dirty and sleazy and highly addictive!

Here are 11 ways content fuels the effectiveness of PR

If PR was a human body, content would be the blood because it keeps everything working.

Content plays an integral role across the spectrum of today’s PR and communications efforts. In a PR context, content can help you and your business to:

1. Attract attention and engage people (sometimes even when they have no reason to pay attention to you)

2. Increase reach through shareability and word of mouth (gives people something to share with their friends and colleagues)

3. Kick-start conversations or spark debate about a concept, story or idea

4. Build familiarity with people who otherwise might not know about you

5. Deepen the level of connection with people who already do know, like and/or trust your (business or personal) brand

6. Reinforce your brand story externally with potential clients and customers, as well as internally with partners, employees, contractors (tick whichever applicable!)

7. Place your brand on the radar of media influencers and potential collaborators, including journalists, bloggers, podcasters, social media power users, event organisers etc.

8. Validate and reinforce your professional bona fides when it comes to a particular topic, issue, or field of expertise

9. Increase your messaging frequency (people need to see or hear a message at least seven-plus times before they notice it or start to trust you enough to take action, depending on which research report you read)

10. Enrich relationships that stakeholders more broadly, have with your business

11. Fuel your brand’s social media channels, thereby reinforcing the narrative you want to out in the marketplace.

All of the above, except of course the social media element, are all classic outcomes of public relations, things that PR people have been putting into action for literally decades.

Yes, content has often been used. In the past, though, it was generally expensive to produce and distribute, not to mention subject to long lead times (printed newsletters anyone?). Thus, it wasn’t used nearly often enough, particularly by budget-constrained small businesses and nonprofit organisations.

Today, however, it’s a way different story!

Small businesses and solo operations can be more agile and creative when it comes to creating content. Importantly, they can produce terrific content that people want, in a way that won’t break the bank.

Today, we can use a multitude of channels, publish in real time and set up a process ensuring we’re more prolific and efficient than ever before and thus, be in a position to compete effectively with larger companies and organisations (because passion and purpose tends to be on the side of ‘the little guy’).

Oh, and it’s also much easier to track and evaluate progress, thanks to the myriad measurement tools at our disposal.

Today, the opportunity for businesses and individuals to become their own media channel is very, very real. These days, it’s as exciting as it gets in the world of marketing and PR!

Effectiveness of your PR efforts

If you listen to the marketing ‘gurus’, you might be forgiven that content is there for one reason, and one reason only: to move consumers through a business’s sales funnel.

But as we can see from the list above, content does way more than that!

Indeed, because content can significantly help the effectiveness of your PR efforts, in turn this will help pave the way for your more overt promotional marketing activities to do their thing more efficiently.

If you still haven’t FULLY EMBRACED content for the benefit of your business, why not make 2025 the year you go all-in on developing, producing and distributing strategic content for your brand!

Don’t just dilly-dally around the edges like way too many business owners do, but commit to making a go of it - your business will thank you for it! 🙌 

(Oh, and if you need help in terms of strategy and advice, please feel free to HIT REPLY and let’s chat - or book in a free no-obligation Zoom call - details at the bottom of this newsletter - I’d love to chat with you!)

2024: The year creators took over

This is an interesting article in The New Yorker about how 2024 has been the year that independent content creators truly took over the media scene.

While traditional, or legacy, media isn't going anywhere soon, its power and influence continues to diminish as the wave of creators eat away at their audience.

The article includes the story of Haliey Welch aka 'Hawk Tuah Girl', whose "path from total obscurity to mainstream broadcast personality" has been traversed in a matter of months. [ Google 'Hawk Tuah Girl' if you don't know the story; it all started with a random vox pop interview by a couple of YouTubers! ]

This para from the The New Yorker says it all: "In early October, the No. 5 most popular podcast on Spotify, above the Times’ 'The Daily' and just behind 'The Joe Rogan Experience,' was a month-old show called 'Talk Tuah'".

Donald Trump gets it.

Trump’s presidential campaign contained a strong focus on interviews with podcasters and YouTubers massively popular with young men, Rogan included.

Meanwhile, according to The New Yorker: "(At) Kamala Harris’s nomination, Democrats cordoned creators in an area close to the stage, in front of journalists, and provided them with access to multimedia studios."

Now, this tactic is as old as (digital) time ...

I remember going to a sports social media conference some 10 years ago and the social media manager of one of the big NBA clubs explained how they had set aside an area next to the media section at home games just for bloggers.

They also gave them favourable treatment before the game too, allowing them to meet 'n' greet with the players. It was quite controversial at the time, if I recall - the media hated these blogging upstarts moving in on their turf LOL 😜 .

The media was - and continues to be - slow to pick up on social media and content creator trends. Funny how many big name journos today are turning to Substack and Beehiiv to build their audience and make money versus write for a newspaper. They all come around … eventually! 

Oh, and in 2010, Ford gave cars to bloggers to road-test! #AheadOfTheGame 🧐 

There are quite a few lessons from this article.

Obviously if you're in PR or marketing, you know the media landscape is changing. But are you resting on your laurels? It's potentially moving quicker than you realise!

If you're a business owner, you mightn't necessarily be doing any commercial deals with influencers or indie content creators, but remember, there are plenty of earned media and/or collaborative opportunities with micro-influencers such as podcasters, B2B bloggers, LinkedIn power users etc.

Also, as an entrepreneur, take heed of what's working for the independent content creators - there is absolutely no reason why you too can't build your own audience and grow your profile and reputation accordingly 🚀 

[ Finally, kudos for the author for being able to include the word "onomatopoeically" in the article! 👏 ]

READ THE NEW YORKER ARTICLE HERE

Google doesn’t care about you: Content by itself won't cut it for business owners today

☝ True words from my friend Mark Masters in his You Are The Media newsletter the other day (one of the few newsletters I read every week - highly recommended).

Here’s the thing, and this is coming from a content-first guy: Content by itself won't cut it for business owners today.

Many marketers and entrepreneurs look at content merely as a tool, something to be promoted high, wide and handsome so their brand reaches as many people as possible, attracts an audience that can then be funnelled towards a sale (sounds easy when you say it like that).

But through a PR lens, content becomes something else.

It becomes a trust builder.

A reputation enhancer.

A conversation starter.

When published consistently - with purpose, heart and the bigger picture in mind - content becomes a 'bridge' that helps business owners connect with like-minded individuals.

Done well, over time, your body of work will attract an audience and form the basis for a 'virtual campfire' that people can gather around.

But content by itself, while it might get you noticed and do some of the heavy lifting, is not the be-all and end-all.

That's where the idea of community comes in.

I'm not talking about a social media following, but more so, building camaraderie with those in your professional network, online and off: Deepening the level of connection you have with the people who matter most to the success of your business - clients, customers, advocates and champions of you and your brand (grassroots influencers), your current or potential employees if you are running a growing business.

But this takes work, empathy, and a strong sense of purpose.

This is where the idea of community comes in, and building a sense of belonging amongst those in your connected network and audience.

Mark Masters is a whiz at community building.

He's built You Are The Media into a thriving marketing learning community, but he’s had to do it the hard way: step by step, through experimentation, trial and error.

Here are some pearls of wisdom Mark dropped in the aforementioned newsletter:

1. Target the right people (your message doesn’t need to resonate with everyone)

2. You can be small and successful (you don’t have to dominate the market to make a meaningful impact)

3. Caring beats popularity (it’s better to create something meaningful that a few people love than something flashy that many people forget)

4. Familiarity helps (introducing something new is far easier when you already have a connected audience)

5. Treat your work as a live lab (every piece of content, event, or initiative you create is an experiment. Pay attention to what resonates and what doesn’t, and use those insights to refine your approach).

Great stuff!

By way of example - I spent over an hour on Zoom the other day with a business owner who has been reading my newsletter for ages. It was a fun and engaging chat, and we built upon a connection that started with content, but now has meaning IRL.

I cherish these conversations, it's what makes what we do all the more purposeful!

Onwards!

In case we haven’t met yet …

Hi, I’m Trevor. I help purpose-led business owners become clear and confident in how they leverage PR, content and digital communications for profit, impact and legacy.

Would you like to discuss how I can help you in a coaching capacity to build your profile and reputation as a trusted and credible expert or thought leader in your industry? CLICK HERE TO BOOK A NO-OBLIGATION 30-MINUTE ZOOM CALL