Managing your own PR

If you choose to go it alone, there should be one person assigned to handle media outreach and follow-up in the clinic. The media require relevant responses, memorable commentary and sound bites, and facts or data, to back up your contribution. Most importantly, a fast turnaround is paramount as deadlines may be looming and the first source to respond with what the reporter needs, may be the one who ends up in the story.

Another tactic is to offer your opinion and insights about relevant daily media coverage, such as statistics from leading organisations in the UK, US and Europe, including the GMC, BAAPS, BACD, for example. To develop strong story ideas that have a chance of being picked up, track health related trends to share your clinic’s related expertise, concerns and recommendations. Most media outlets require case histories to document a new procedure or trend, and these should be local residents who are willing to be interviewed, photographed, or videotaped, and are willing to use their real first name (and possibly their last name). High resolution and consistent quality of before and after photographs are vital tools to gain media coverage.

There are a number of ways to make your clinic relevant to media. Before you send a pitch to any journalist, check out the journalist online, read other pieces he/she has written to determine their point of view, and find out what outlets they write for. On occasion, you can also request an editorial calendar from some media outlets to know in advance what topics your clinic could speak about that may fit into an upcoming feature.

To secure a media placement, you need to deliver a story that resonates with that publication or outlet’s readers; for example, introducing an innovative procedure and how it will impact readers’ lives. If the angle of your pitch does not meet the journalist’s needs, find out about the topics they would be interested in, or how you can tweak the story to better suit their readers.

[pull_quote align=”right” ]Generating positive coverage in the media is all about relationships: position yourself as a credible, reliable and reachable source[/pull_quote]

To identify your core target audience, read the media in which you want to appear to get to know the kind of stories that are featured. Do not underestimate the power of local media outlets and bloggers. Think about where your patients get their local news and information. Your clinic name is more likely to be published in your village or county’s daily paper or health blog, and in many cases it can be more effective than a placement in a top‑tier publication with wider circulation. Go to your target media outlets’ websites or blogs and research their contact information. Gather emails, phone numbers, preferred contact methods, topics of interest, background, and social media contact information. Include reporters, bloggers and producers who are relevant to health, beauty and lifestyle, and the stories you want to place, and maintain an updated media list. In the fast paced world of media, today’s food reporter may find herself on the health desk next.

Keep in mind that generating positive coverage in the media is all about relationships. If you position yourself as a credible, reliable and reachable source, journalists will come back to you time and time again for commentary.

Get the word out to your social networks

Do not make the mistake of viewing traditional earned media and social media as an either/or decision. In fact, not only do they complement each other, but they enhance each other. The Pew Research Center Project for Excellence in Journalism State of the News Media 2012 (http://stateofthemedia.org) cites Facebook and Twitter as popular ways to gather news information. An impressive 71% of people who follow news on Facebook, and 76% of people who follow news on Twitter, also get news by going to a news organisation’s website or app. SEO‑enriched content plays an important role, with 65% of Facebook and 69% of Twitter news consumers searching for news via key words.

Social media offers ways to leverage your success in traditional earned media online. However, simply sharing your media placement across all your networks is not enough. To make your digital footprint noticeable, you need to understand the different purpose of each of these platforms to maximise the exposure.

Facebook

Facebook is all about creating a digital personality by reproducing who you are and what you do online. Status updates, likes, shares, photos, life events, milestones, comments, apps, and all other activities are collected on the Facebook timeline, capturing the entire essence of your business. Consequently, when sharing your news story with your Facebook community, make it worth sharing and liking by giving it a more emotional and user-oriented angle. Include a call to action by asking your community of fans to share or like your post.

Twitter

Twitter is more news-oriented. The site offers less space for privacy and is a fast‑paced messaging tool. The use of only 140 characters make it more challenging to disseminate complex news or information; however, embedding links to blogs, website pages, YouTube and Facebook pages allow you to direct followers to other platforms. To promote your media placement on Twitter, focus on the most important part of it. To make sure you get heard, post several tweets highlighting different aspects of your story and schedule these posts by using a third party app such as Hootsuite.com. Tweet links to all the news sites on which your story has been published. Engage your followers by asking questions and mentioning people to whom your tweet is relevant, such as the news organization which published it. Check their profiles to see whether they tweeted your story. If they did, reply to it with some additional thoughts to start a discussion.

Your website

On your website, create a section for media placements under the title of ‘Press’ or ‘In the Media’, where you can highlight all your stories. Announce every new and meaningful placement on your landing page and blog, and encourage your readers to participate in the conversations on Facebook and Twitter. Include media hits in eblasts sent to patients. To gain traction on your social media profiles, include a link to all your networks and encourage them to engage in the conversation.

CASE STUDY

A clinic in Hertfordshire introduced a new laser for treating fungal nail infections. The first thing they did was to add content about the treatment to the landing page of their website, and enlisted their web marketing company to promote this using the search term ‘Laser Toenail Treatment Hertfordshire’. They posted a brief press release on a wire service announcing that their clinic is the first and only location in Hertfordshire to offer this new procedure. The Clinic Manager also reached out to local media contacts to generate interest in this novel technology via email. A freelance journalist called the clinic to inquire about the procedure, hoping to write a feature for the Herts & Essex Observer Health News Section. The Clinic Manager invited her to observe a treatment being performed and to interview the doctor for her story. The story ended up in the paper as a 300 word news item under the title of ‘Herts Has The Answer To Unsightly Fungal Nails’, and included the clinic details and website. The Clinic Manager called the journalist to thank her for writing about their new procedure. To maximise exposure from this traditional media placement, they sent an eblast to their patients that included the feature and offered a complimentary consultation for a limited time of 30 days. It was also included on the clinic’s blog, which was programmed to automatically post on the clinic’s LinkedIn company listing. This placement was also posted on the clinic’s Facebook page with a link to the website content on the laser that included a ‘Schedule a Visit’ link. Successful results As the Facebook page was set up to post immediately to their Twitter account, this information was tweeted out to their followers in a variety of formats to increase exposure. It was also shared on Google+ and was pinned to the clinic’s Pinterest board. Signage about the new laser treatment was created for the clinic to be prominently displayed in the waiting room stating, ‘As Seen In Herts & Essex Observer’. By leveraging this earned media placement across relevant channels where their potential customers are, the clinic was able to increase the ways in which patients can learn about their new technology from the newspaper to online, to Facebook to Twitter, to the blog to LinkedIn, to an eblast and to signage within the clinic. Furthermore, over time, this evergreen placement could be repackaged and reposted throughout the clinic’s integrated marketing programme.

Conclusions

Marketers who see traditional earned media and social media as two separate disciplines may be missing out on some opportunities. Twitter and Facebook might not be replacements for traditional media, but they have proven to be valuable additions. Strategically combining these two distinct yet overlapping segments is the key to successful clinic marketing in the digital age.