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Following the “COVID Story”: Reflecting on Coronavirus Media Coverage

Written by Jessica Thibault on . Posted in Promoting Science.

Whether you’ve been working in health, public health, media, or public relations, or you’re just a human trying to survive, 2020 has been an unforgettable and bizarre experience. Endless depressing case counts and deaths. COVID-19 special reports. White House coronavirus briefings. CDC, WHO and Task Force updates and trending hashtags about PPE, testing, ventilators and plenty of depressing things that many of us had never planned to think about.

Remember hearing about COVID-19 in February, back when it seemed to only exist on cruise ships or in Wuhan? When first responders had inadequate PPE? The first week we learned that we should wear masks? The continuing flow of contradictory stories on “miracle” drugs and speculative vaccine timeframes? In hindsight, the situation sometimes seemed to become clearer, only to turn even more confusing.

I recently spent several intense hours reviewing and organizing seven months’ worth of COVID-19 drug stories, and all of these things streamed back through my thoughts. In our work, it’s important to gather story numbers and impressions and to tally both original pieces and syndications in order to accurately report results and continually refine future media strategy. Proofreading, essentially what I did for the five-thousand-line spreadsheet, involves using the tools available (particularly Office’s spell check, find, and sort functions) while also buckling in for thoughtful reviewing and re-reviewing. By nature, this work cannot be done quickly. It’s also helpful to incorporate the proofreading best practice of reading backwards: starting at the bottom of the document instead of the top and working in the opposite direction. Not only did these tactics yield an accurate overview of media coverage, but this experience really impressed on me how much the COVID story has changed throughout 2020.

Thankfully, we learn more about COVID-19 all the time, thanks especially to researchers, health and public health professionals, and dedicated journalists. Yes, the media coverage has been exhausting and sometimes confusing and problematic. It remains important to consider sources, cross-reference guidance, and prioritize experts. However, in great part thanks to the media, most people now know about the variety of actions that we can each take to fight COVID-19, with more knowledge gained all the time. One of the top things we can do this fall is get a flu shot.

The dedication to service and innovation that I’ve seen throughout society this year—though inevitably twinged with tragedy and loss—encourage me to do whatever I can as an individual to keep myself and others safe and to help share useful, accurate information as a medical public relations professional. In the next seven months, the “COVID story” will surely develop and progress, and as it does, we can find hope in remembering what we can control as well as embracing the sure-to-come helpful new information and developments to keep us safe and pursue the return to our pre-pandemic lives.

Making the Link: Public Relations and Search Engine Optimization

Written by Jean-Paul Horrigan on . Posted in Increasing Awareness.

As PR pros, we have the fundamentals down when it comes to content. But to take full advantage of that content, we also need to know how to maximize its impact digitally by mastering search engine optimization (SEO). SEO is not an exact science and can require a lot of trial and error, so check out these need-to-know tips:

PageRank Variables

For Google, the ordering of the web pages is based on PageRank, an algorithm that assesses 200 variables. One of the many variables is content creation. If a website consistently produces trustworthy content, it will rank ahead of those that don’t produce regularly. This variable gives an important advantage to digital media producers who consistently upload strong content.

Take, for example, “Sean Spicer.” When one searches the Trump administration’s recently departed Press Secretary, the vast majority of results on the first page are news articles, pushing his official biography to the second page, because Google likely sees it as “old” content.

The higher a website ranks on the results pages, the more domain authority it has – a score calculated by the number of other trustworthy websites linking to that site, significantly increasing its ranking.

Tip: Add and edit new content on a regular basis. Consider a blog, for example, to promote relevant and timely topics that will help feed this content space.

Domain Authority

These days, securing news placements online isn’t only an earned media win; it also helps tremendously with your client’s SEO. Earning links from higher-ranking websites, such as CNN or KevinMD, increase your client’s website ranking and give it more authority. Be sure to include a link in your pitch or press release.

Moreover, internal linking can be just as important. Take inventory of your existing content and find ways to link it to other pages and resources on your website. This tells search engines that you have strong, relevant and plentiful content.

Tip: Link where you can! Whether it’s in a pitch to a reporter or among pieces of content on your site, getting traffic to your client’s site and keeping it there is critical to good SEO!

As communicators in the digital media age, our knowledge and expertise regarding SEO is an invaluable part of what we have to offer to position clients as experts regarding their health care issue. Content is king, but we have to know the tools and tactics to ensure it doesn’t get lost.

Measurement Tactics: Improving Messaging & Engagement

Written by Stephanie Wight on . Posted in Increasing Awareness.

In a crowded online space, social media posts require targeted messaging and visuals to reach and engage your desired audience.  In order to gain traction with consumers, brands must understand what motivates and influences them, and produce content that is helpful and relatable. By utilizing measurement tools, brands can get a better sense of what drives engagement and action in their community, and help reach their organization’s goals.

This article will demonstrate how to incorporate social media measurement tactics to test and improve your content, leading to a more successful social media strategy. 

Set your goals: In order to be successful on social media, it is important to set specific goals to lead your efforts. First, determine who your target audience is—whether that is women 45+ who experience chronic pain, or adults over 30 who have experienced Alzheimer’s in their family. Next, figure out what social media networks this audience is active on—you want to create a channel of communication where your audience is already engaged.

At the start of 2016, Facebook had 1.59 billion monthly active users—which is more than 20 percent of the global population. Facebook has become a major content discovery platform. According to recent data published by traffic analytics firm Parse.ly, more traffic to news and media sites is driven by Facebook than Google. This means that people are often finding content in their Facebook feed and clicking through to articles directly from their feeds.

Google versus Facebook | Improving Social Media Messaging and Engagement through Measurement Tactics
Parse.ly network traffic from Google versus Facebook

After discovering where your audience spends their time on social, figure out what actions you want your audience to take. Is your ultimate goal to drive people to sign up for research studies or to your website to learn more information about your cause? Reversely, what can you provide your audience to better reach their goals? How will following your page benefit them?

Implement your content strategy: Figuring out the best content to share on your social channels starts as an experiment. You won’t be able to determine what works best with your audience until you test out different messages and apply measurement to the results. As you brainstorm content to share, figure out several different categories of content that may be relevant to your audience.

Erin Hildreth, Senior Manager of Marketing and Communications at The Vision Council, shares how social media plays a role in her organization: “Social media has personified all of our campaigns, and the sheer reach of one interaction has the power to grow your message exponentially. It is something that we think about constantly when preparing our campaigns because it is a way to truly touch people as they go about their days and live their lives.”

Test your content and optimize: Facebook and Twitter offer very in-depth insights for organic and paid posts. It is important to review your page analytics often to note trends and see which categories of content are performing best. Here are a couple things to look for:

  • What day of the week and what time of day is your content getting the most engagement (likes, comments, shares, retweets, favorites, replies)?
  • What types of content are eliciting the most comments? Are these all positive comments?
  • When promoting your organization, what messaging works best with your audience?
  • What types of links are receiving the most clicks?
  • What types of images or graphics seem most eye-catching/appealing to your audience (based on the engagement)

Another measurement tool that often comes in handy is Google Analytics. Aside from seeing how much traffic is coming to your site from social each week, you can set specific goals on Google Analytics that will allow you to see when consumers from social complete a certain action on your website. By pulling weekly analytics reports, you can see what aspects of your content strategy are contributing to your bottom line.

Measuring success: In order to show your results and improvement on social media to others within your organization, it is important to do monthly or quarterly dashboards that highlight your growth. I’ve found that showing the percent change in followers, engagement and/or impressions is a strong way show success—for example, “Since January 2016, we’ve increased engagement on the page by 123%.” Another important metric to share will be goals completed through social media on Google Analytics.

Stacy Mowery, Director of Brand Development at Banner Health shares, “Measuring our social media analytics helps us understand our message reach: Who are we reaching? Who is most interested in our content? The metrics can also help us understand which topics or types of posts are most engaging to our audiences. A few years ago we began studying the differences in engagement between heavy visual posts vs. posts with just written content. The data showed visual posts are clearly more engaging, so we now have shifted to a heavy visual social strategy.”

Thinking strategically about your online goals and always staying up to speed on the latest social trends, changing algorithms and measurement tools is key to having a successful approach across your social platforms.

This is an excerpt of an article originally published in the PR News Writer’s Guidebook.