Keeping Content Alive: 8 Ways to Get More from a Byline

Today we bring you a guest post from Kara Lundberg, an account supervisor at RH Strategic – the PR firm for a hyper-connected world, delivering integrated media, social & digital strategies for technology, healthcare, and public sector markets. Follow her on Twitter! Bylined articles play an important role in the content strategies we prepare for our clients in the healthcare, enterprise and public sector technology spaces. In our world of niche audiences served by trade publications, bylined articles are a great way to provide a client’s point of view on a particular topic of interest to their target audiences. These pieces, typically penned by the CEO, a subject matter expert, or industry visionary, are also often requested by editors as a result of our media pitching efforts. A lot of work goes into crafting this content from the very concept of creating the pitch to the final word of advice at the conclusion. And many PR professionals have a methodology for getting to this point – including creating a schedule, conducting interviews, developing a first draft, pushing review cycles and, finally, landing on a catchy headline that draws the readers' attention. All for the chance that the editor, who hasn't given the piece another thought since the day they issued the 1,000 word assignment, will meet their end of the bargain and post the piece in a timely matter. But after all that work, a savvy PR professional would never consider it a one-and-done hit. While patiently waiting for the byline to publish, are you thinking about how else this content will come in handy across the organization and with other audiences? Here are eight tactics that will help get the maximum value out of the content we publish (and a few examples): 1. After the byline is published, promote the article on the company's social networks including, Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. Even better - get the author to share these insights with their personal social networks. 2. While the process can be time consuming, encourage the author to monitor any comments made on the article that ask for more information or those that require further clarification or correction (here is a good example of an author who successfully engages with readers). 3. Share the byline with a close industry analyst who follows the company and suggest a brief discussion on the angle, trend, or topic. 4. Feature the byline prominently on the company blog or home page where all visitors will see that experts within the organization are out discussing topics of interest to them – for example, where a banner ad might appear. 5. Dig deeper on the byline topic, pair it with third-party data or statistics, and use it as a baseline for a future white paper, speaking proposal, blog, infographic or pitch (see this byline about facial recognition technology turned published infographic). 6. If a company serves multiple markets, repurpose the bylined content for trade publications in other verticals. 7. Purchase an official reprint of the article through the publication and use it as collateral for sales, marketing and business development efforts. 8. If the piece references and links to other industry experts and their findings, give a tailored shout-out to them over social media so they are encouraged to amplify the piece over their networks as well. And the list goes on. For all the effort and importance we place on original bylined content, we should make a big deal of it and communicate the message across multiple audiences - you never know who is listening.

Social Pro Daily

Keeping Content Alive: 8 Ways to Get More from a Byline

Patrick Coffee

About

Subscriptions

Events

Publications

WORK SMARTER - LEARN, GROW AND BE INSPIRED.

Subscribe today!

Patrick Coffee