What to Do - Extend Your PR Coverage to More than one Day.

Social networking and social news websites have done for media coverage what fitness and nutrition have done for the human race - dramatically extended their longevity.

When the media devotes positive coverage to a company or individual, traditionally the value would exist the day of the coverage, but not much beyond.

When something good happens, you have to make it last. With all the opportunities to maximize media placements online, businesses should take advantage of all it and milk every last bit of mileage from their well-deserved PR attention.

How to Extend Your PR Coverage.

We make it a habit at our agency to remind clients every time they receive a placement or mention any media to do the following six simple things:

• Blog about it (and install blogging software if you don't have it.)

• Post it on the "News" section of their website (We go under the assumption all of our clients have one of these!)

• Send an email with links to the coverage to customers, co-workers, friends, pretty much anyone you know. (Some of our clients create an "In the News" newsletter where they gather our placements and send it monthly as one-page newsletter to prospects.)

• Share it on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and on social news websites like Digg or Reddit (when posting it to these sites, send a link to your submission to colleagues and ask them to "Digg" or vote for your placement so it raises in popularity on the page. Also track your placement's progress. Check back in a few days to see how many people have viewed or voted.)

• Hang it. Create an 8 x 11 PDF for hanging it in visible areas of their business.

• Include a link to the media mention in their email signature (only for the first three to five days post-coverage)

Why You Need to Extend Your PR Coverage.

Once read, watched or heard - an article, TV or radio segment was once quickly gone and forgotten, as fast as the next day's news came out. The only way to extend its short life was to perhaps frame it in glass and hang it a waiting area, where it might be occasionally skimmed by customers or passersby. Let's face it, given all the hard work it takes to score positive media attention, letting the end result slip away so quickly is nothing short of a darn shame.

But, now, with social networks like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and LinkedIn, and social news websites such as Reddit or Digg, what used to be a one-day or otherwise short-lived "PR win" has now become something that businesses and individuals can benefit from for weeks, months and even years. By sharing media coverage on these networks and sites, businesses and others can not only extend the life of their coverage, but they can quadruple or more the number of eyes that eventual see it.

Sharing an article, TV segment, radio broadcast or blog mention online can be as simple as shortening the link with a url shrinker (i.e., TinyURL) and posting the link to your company's social media sites. Just be mindful of overkill. I've seen companies retweet or post the same media mention as much every five minutes. That's called overly promotional ... a major turnoff to the very group you are trying to impress.

Another overly simple way to extend viewers and life of media mentions is to email a link to employees, friends, colleagues and even customers, who then may very well pass along the coverage to their stream of followers.

Sharing media articles on social news web sites can be the most effective way to increase the power and audience of your positive media coverage. In fact, Quantcasst estimates Digg's monthly U.S. unique visits at 4.3 million.

Social news websites feature user-posted stories, typically ranked based on popularity. Examples include Slashdot (focusing on science and technology news), Fark, Digg, Reddit, Delicious and Newsvine. Not only do can users on the site comment on the posts, but their comments may also be ranked. What's more, many of these sites are also used to link many types of information, such as news and discussion, humor and support.

One of the most important and strategic elements that can help maximize media relationships and the impact of news announcements is having a corporate online newsroom. Having a page on a company's website that's dedicated to press releases and news gives media a kind of one-stop-shop to observe what's been going on within a company, recent updates and ongoing traction in the industry.

Posting media coverage on your website is like a "duh," but worth noting and also recommending that every company have a news page on their website that should always stay current. Nothing irks a PR person more than to go on their clients' sites and see the last story posted was over six months ago. Obviously, linking back to an article is a great way to build SEO.

Remember, when something good happens, you have to make it last. With all the opportunities to maximize media placements online, businesses should take advantage of all it and milk every last bit of mileage from their well-deserved PR attention. And cultivate these 6 habits. Ask your current PR provider to assist you, if you need help with these basic steps.

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This has been a guest post by Debra Vilchis.

She is an experienced, results-driven PR and media relations professional. Her previous experience as a newspaper and national wire service journalist gives her unique insight into what makes reporters and editors tick, as well as what doesn't. Her focus is driving the right kind of message to the right audience - at the right time - for each of Fishman's franchise clients, and optimizing those results through social media channels.