The Olives recently celebrated a huge success in our camp, and we’re putting together all of the cold, hard facts to show you how HUGE it actually was – intrigued aren’t you? This blog is dedicated to all of those business-minded individuals and PR lovers out there that enjoy a textbook success story on how a strong, strategic PR and social media campaign can have a truly powerful and transformative impact on a client’s media coverage and social awareness.
Our client, Love & Autism, is an event-turned-movement created by Dr. Jenny Palmiotto that is devoted to raising awareness on the fact that those diagnosed with autism are equally as capable and deserving of having high-quality personal relationships as any other individual. We were given the task of tailoring a PR and social media campaign for Love & Autism: A Conference With Heart that would deliver some serious results. The conference took place on September 26 – 27, 2015 and featured several renowned speakers within the autism community: New York Times best-selling author, David Finch, international speaker Lindsey Nebeker, Dr. David Shore, and Wrong Planet blogger Alex Plank, to name a few. Another element of this conference was the marriage of two individuals both on the autism spectrum, Anita Lesko and Abraham Nielsen. We think it’s safe to say that the overall goals of Love & Autism – to promote the message that love and relationships are a universal happiness, attainable by all – was achieved.
How to Score Top-Tier Media Coverage: Olive PR Solutions’ Love & Autism PR Strategy
- Get creative. The client must be willing to do something best, first or different. From the start, Dr. Palmiotto set us up for success by taking a stand and doing something powerful. At Olive we illuminate greatness— the Love & Autism event is a perfect demonstration of greatness.
- Brainstorm. Come up with unique pitch ideas that will attract positive media coverage across various outlets: national print, online, blogs, national TV, and relevant regional and local news.
- Know your demographics. Target consumer pockets relevant to your client’s message, mission and vision.
- Pitch pro-actively. Come up with innovative and distinctive story angles to “diversify your portfolio,” so to speak. This will broaden your audience and your engagment with different types of influential media.
- Spot media trends. Keep a special lookout for media stories and trends that play into your angle.
- Build your network. Identify like-minded events, organizations and stories in order to capitalize on connecting with important contacts (editors, reporters and producers) with similar interests.
- Extend the invitation. It seems like a no-brainer, but invite the media to the event, if that’s what you’re campaigning for!
The Pay-Off:
- Visible growth in the amount of business our client was attracting.
- A media campaign of viral proportions; stories dispersed by over 60 media outlets.
- Media coverage on Bustle, People.com, Yahoo!, Hello Giggles, Take Part, The Mighty, ABC News, FOX News, BuzzFeed, Good Morning America, The Huffington Post, Refinery29, MTV, MSN and more.
Social Media that Packs a Punch: Olive PR Solutions’ Love & Autism Social Media Strategy
- Broaden your reach. Increase following and audience engagement on social channels by creating well-structured and targeted ad campaigns. You can work on a very limited advertising budget, but every morsel of content needs to be relevant and creative.
- Collaborate. Work closely with the PR team to ensure efforts are aligned. This will secure extra engagement on the social channels of your featured media outlets, social influencers and event speakers. (This is one of the many benefits of having PR and social media that work together under the same roof!)
- Socialize. Engage with social influencers, sponsors and relevant voices to promote high levels of engagement and viral sharing across all social platforms (for free!).
- Keep tabs. Use weekly reports to track activity on social channels as a guideline to ensure that target levels of reach and engagement are met, exceeded and then maintained.
- Stay in the know. Follow trending hashtags and keywords relevant to your client, and leverage them in your own campaign.
The Pay-Off:
Over the course of 60 days, we…
- Increased Facebook following by over 110%
- Curated Facebook posts that reached thousands of targeted newsfeeds and drove ticket sales
- Increased Twitter impressions by 3,324% (#Blessed)
- Increased Instagram following by over 259%
- Created meaningful conversations and secured organic engagement with key social influencers, writers and media outlets
- Built an engaged and educated social media community and following (you know you did it right when you’re looking at happy selfies on Instagram that are tagged with #LoveAndAutism)
These are real results that happened to a real, local event! If it seems like a lot of work, you are right. That’s why you need to call in the experts if you’re serious about moving the needle. We will end this blog on a lovely note with a direct quote from Love & Autism’s founder, Dr. Jenny Palmiotto:
“Olive PR’s, Courtney and CJ took excellent care of me and my brand throughout [the campaign]. The team clearly are at the top of their industry. I’m so grateful that I found you all…I appreciate all that you have done to allow my message to reach so many more people than I had anticipated. “
If you would like to know more about what we do and how we can help, don’t hesitate to contact us today!