- Dealer Marketing Magazine

I've been working with tech companies in automotive public relations for more than two decades and in that time have watched communication styles change from the importance of your website to the importance of your blog, to now, the importance of social media.

While traditional articles and speaking applications will always carry an air of credibility, some exciting new messaging opportunities are currently in the mix and, if carried out correctly, can bring a lot of visibility to your brand.

Below I detail four ways you can use new communication methods to take a fire hose approach to your brand content:

Podcasts

I am a huge believer in podcasts, both as a guest on dozens and as a creator of one myself. I began my podcast, Carearing, a little over a year ago now and have seen it explode in engagement. When I began, I was looking at it as a way to connect with other working women who loved their careers. But it has done so much more. It's allowed me to champion female leadership, hold women up to be celebrated, and has led to some pretty spectacular guest spots, articles, and speaking engagements for me around female leaders in automotive.

Making it work for you: You don't have to create a podcast to get this right. Just look for podcast hosts who already have shows focused on your expertise. Follow hashtags for #podcast on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram, look into Mastermind groups focused on your expertise area, or there are even podcast booking services now that match guests with hosts.

Clubhouse

Clubhouse jumped on the scene late last year and in my opinion had one of the best roll-outs ever. You had to be invited to join and in early January of this year, an invite to Clubhouse was like a ticket to the cool kid's lunch table. While the hype on this has died down considerably, it is still solid gold when it comes to creating interest around hot topics.

Making it work for you: While you can create a room, in my experience, the best way to currently use this channel is to guest spot in already established rooms. And while the overall PR benefits of Clubhouse remain to be seen, the opportunity to put the rooms you are a guest in on LinkedIn drives huge engagement on that platform. The best way to get invited as a contributor is to attend some rooms that seem interesting and when you're ready, raise your hand and contribute to the main stage. (Just a note, at the time of this writing, Clubhouse is open to users of Apple products only.)

Influencer Threads

Influencer threads are an easy way to widen your influence and strengthen relationships. Jump on any of your favorite platforms, mine is LinkedIn, and find people you admire who are raising interesting questions, addressing topics you relate to, and generally posting things you care about and begin to engage with them. A note here, you need to truly want to add value to the discussion. Influencers can smell false engagement a mile away.

Making it work for you: Curate a list of people you admire on the major social media threads, follow their content, and begin to reply. DO NOT post information about your product or service. People want to interact with people, not be sold something. If you take the time to establish relationships with these influencers and regularly engage on their posts, they will be willing to find out more about you and your company on their own.

Here's where the rubber meets the road. Take all of the above content, guest spots, Clubhouse rooms and internet discussions and post, post, post it on LinkedIn or Facebook. Social media feeds are today's form of traditional publications and just like a press release, you should be using them to distribute information about your brand.

Making it work for you: Were you a guest in a Clubhouse room? Promote it on LinkedIn. Have a guest podcast clip to share? LinkedIn. Invited to speak at a conference? Post and tag that puppy. LinkedIn and other social media platforms are the conveyer belt for all of the content you are creating – use them accordingly!

Today public relations is all about creating and distributing content across channels where it will have the best chance of engaging an audience. By following the four methods above, you'll create a groundswell of content that can be used in multiple ways to increase your brand value online. You've got this!