As an influencer marketing agency, we often write about online growth and Instagram collaborations, but let’s not forget about all the media outlets that existed before the digital age. It’s television, radio, magazines and the good old newspaper! In fact, we shouldn’t be thinking of social media and traditional media as two independent industries. They both create content and bring stories to audiences. And social media influencers that are ready to make the leap can have access to this media space as well. You may already know about some of the many Youtubers and IG influencers who have been successful on traditional media and regularly make TV appearances.
How @nalieagustin Grew Her Following with Traditional Media
In one of our most recent 66AGENCY videos we spoke to a Montreal influencer who’s definitely ahead of the game about how she grew here social media following with television, radio, newspapers and magazines. Based on Nalie Agustin’s story, here are a few things you can expect once you start working with traditional media.
First of all, it’s only when Nalie began to gain popularity on social media that she got the attention of traditional media in the first place. For this reason, when it comes to attracting reporters and journalists, she thinks of her social media accounts as her business card. She consistently provides value on a daily basis to her following and to those people she knows might be looking for article ideas. Within a few thumb scrolls we quickly gain an understanding of Nalie’s personal brand, the story of her life, her mission and the values that she believes in.
Once she started to appear on television and newspapers, her follower count increased even faster, which in turn helped attract even more journalists, radio hosts and reporters. From there the loop continues as more followers leads to more media coverage and media coverage leads to more followers. We know that for all of you entering the influencer scene, it’s not so easy to know how to approach traditional media for the first time. So based on the experience we’ve had in this area, we’ve prepared a few tips for you.
How to Connect with Traditional Media
Whereas in the past it took a lot of time and connections to reach out to traditional media, today it can be done by any digital influencer. Why? Because journalists and reporters for newspapers, radio and TV are all on social media, working on their personal brand as well. It’s possible more than ever to connect with others on a social media platform and begin working with people in these different industries.
According to PR consultant Josh Elledge, 90% of journalists and reporters use Twitter daily. Today’s news cycles are very short and journalists are constantly using social media to find new educational or entertaining stories. If you have an idea for a story and found a journalist that has written on a similar topic in the past, a simple tweet can sometimes be enough to get their attention. They’re very busy after all, if you send them a link with information and ideas that can inspire them, they’ll most certainly welcome it. But, there are also certain things that you shouldn’t do when reaching out to professional in these industries, so below are 4 basic rules to guide you.
4 Rules of Collaborating with Traditional Media
- Don’t try to sell yourself. According to Josh Elledge, if you try to sell, you will be blacklisted. Whether selling yourself while discussing a possible idea or while on live TV, promoting yourself and your work is highly frowned upon. You only have to think about the last time you watched a guest promote during an informational TV segment to remember how annoying this is for everybody.
- Try your best to make the journalist’s life easy and you should be on the right track. Once you start a discussion around an idea, send them sources and an outline of the story you are proposing. If you constantly provide good information and don’t ask for anything in return you certainly don’t have to worry about bothering them.
- Even if your idea is turned down the first time around, ask for the permission to get back to them in the following weeks. When it comes to collaborating with traditional media, you’re working with people that will spend their whole careers in the industry. By maintaining relationships, you will be able to continuously collaborate with individuals who have to power to give you traditional media coverage. Handy next time you have a new project, which could also make for a great article!
- To get on television, you not only need a great story, but also the ability to present it in a captivating manner. Television is very visual and a 2 minute interview can go by very quickly. To have a chance to be on TV you must of course be comfortable in front of cameras. We spoke in an earlier blogpost about the importance of getting used to making videos and here is another example of why posting videos can make the difference for you as an influencer.
Conclusion
Traditional media is there for all social media influencers who are interested in the opportunity. There really are many similarities in how influencers collaborate with each other and how an influencer might collaborate with a reporter, which means you might already have more experience with this than you think! It might seem intimidating to begin working in this way, but as @nalieagustin would agree, both the pay-off in terms of followers and the experience in itself can make it all worth the effort.
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