We live in a world where it is incredibly easy to measure how many people saw something.
A Facebook post reached 4,000 people. A video had 12,000 views. A post received 300 likes. A website had 800 visitors.
Those numbers can be useful. They can tell us something about what is getting attention and what isn't. But there is a problem with relying too heavily on them: attention and influence are not always the same thing.
And that is one reason I still believe local media matters.
Community newspapers, local radio stations and regional publications may not always produce the biggest numbers on a social media analytics report, but they can put a story in front of people who actually have a connection to the community, the organization or the business being covered. In many cases, that connection is far more valuable than a large number of people who will scroll past your content without giving it a second thought.
Local media can add credibility that your own channels cannot.
There is something very important about who is telling the story.
When you post about your own business, people understand that you are promoting yourself. That's not necessarily a bad thing. You should absolutely tell people about your business and the work you're doing.
But there is a difference between saying, “Look at what we're doing!” and having an independent media outlet tell the community about it.
Third-party coverage can give your organization an added layer of credibility. It signals that what you are doing is not simply something you decided was worth talking about. Someone else found it interesting enough to cover.
That coverage can also continue working for you long after the original story runs. A newspaper article can be shared on your website, posted to your social media, included in an email newsletter, referenced when talking with potential partners and saved as part of your organization's history.
A social media post can disappear from someone's feed in a matter of hours.
A published story can become part of your organization's record.
That doesn't mean social media doesn't matter.
It does.
Your website matters. Your social media matters. Email marketing matters. Advertising matters. There are a lot of ways to communicate with an audience, and good public relations doesn't exist in a vacuum.
But I don't think we should assume that newer communication channels automatically make older ones irrelevant.
The better question is not, “Which one is best?”
It's “What are we trying to accomplish, and where are the people we need to reach?”
Sometimes that's Facebook. Sometimes it's a newsletter. Sometimes it's an event. Sometimes it's a conversation.
And sometimes it's a story in the local newspaper.
