Owning the (Royal) Digital Footprint
Big news this week in the British Royalty sector. Apparently, Harry and Meghan have cut ties with the big newspapers in the UK. I’m normally not a big follower of royal gossip, but given all the coverage in our own American news outlets, you’d be hard-pressed to miss the news. To recap, however: Harry and Meghan accuse the tabloids of spreading lies and want to stop “offer(ing) themselves up as currency for an economy of click bait and distortion.”
Some people think that’s a mistake on their part. From the NY Times article:
“If those British tabloids were to stop writing about them tomorrow, they would lose their relevance in the U.K.,” Penny Junor, a journalist and royal biographer, said. “How will they feel if nobody is covering their new foundation, or the fact that they’re delivering food parcels to the poor in L.A.?”
But is that really true? Legacy news outlets have been losing their status as gatekeepers for the last 15 to 20 years. It is especially true in technology journalism, where the days when consumer electronics companies had to kiss the rings of Walt Mossberg, Ed Baig, David Pogue and Steven Levy (all dudes, by the way) to get any traction are long gone.
With the ability of anyone around the world to access news sites and social channels (as long as you’re not living under an, uh, “controlling regime”), organizations have the ability to take ownership of their own narrative and send it out to the world. The world of news and reviews has fractionalized, putting legacy media companies at risk and leaving experienced journalists on the sidelines.
Chances are that you will be engaging with more inexperienced writers who don’t have years of domain experience in your area. And what’s the first thing they’ll probably do when they first hear of your company?
They’ll Google you, of course.
And if they don’t find much about you, they’ll be less inclined to respond to your pitch. They’ll just go off and find something easier (i.e., faster) to write about.
That’s why building your digital footprint becomes incredibly important. And it’s more than just SEO and SEM. It’s the information that you put out on your website. It’s the content on your blogs. It’s what you do on social channels.
Content marketing that works has become more important before you go after earned media.
But it’s not just any content marketing. It’s content marketing that aligns with the positioning and brand of your company. Sure, it’s important to have content that is interesting and informative to your audience, but if it doesn’t drive home one of your key messages or build loyalty, it’s just a waste of space. Good content marketing helps to build your narrative.
And it seems one particular (former) division of the British Royal family has taken note. Harry and Meghan are establishing their own footprint, with their own website and with increasingly active social channels. However, they will have to find another name. Nonetheless, they are moving to own their narrative.
Here’s to legacy institutions adapting to a new age.