Simple Ways to Get Good Press for Your Employer Brand
Every month, I like to rag on a company that has set fire to its employer brand with terrible behavior, which has found its way into the hands of a reporter, like how Goldman Sachs tried to yank bonuses and vested stock options from senior leaders who quit the company.
But employers do good things too, perhaps more often than bad, like when a small recruiting company sent its entire staff on a four-day vacation to the Canary Islands or when Coinbase decided to shut down the company for a week every quarter so people could actually take their PTO. These are decisions worth talking about.
It can feel like the media is all about digging up dirt, but I assure you that we like to tell good stories too. So when you need to drum up some positive coverage for your brand, consider this:
Go against the grain
When your corporate peers resist change, embrace it. For example, Google told its employees that they could work remotely, but…if they left San Francisco or New York, their pay would be cut. Facebook and Twitter issued similar threats.
While these companies were making punitive moves, Reddit said it would not cut remote worker pay, and in April 2022, Airbnb told everyone they can work remotely and rejected location-based pay. How do we know this? Their ethical behavior earned them good press.
Announce new company policies
Of course, reporters can’t pick up these good stories unless you talk about them, so when something changes in your workplace, announce it. This might be via press release or simply on social media or a company blog. Journalists comb social media for stories, so make sure that they can easily find one about you.
New leaders? Announce it. For example, Feeld’s CEO Ana Kirova was featured in Elle UK when she stepped into the company’s CEO role in 2021.
A Las Vegas casino handed out $5,000 bonus checks to its 5,400 employees and landed this placement in CBS News.
Social media app Clubhouse announced that it would not attend SXSW, which takes place in Austin, after Texas passed legislation that discriminates against the LGBTQ community. That story was picked up because Clubhouse announced its decision on Twitter.
Build a blog or a newsroom
Social media might be a good megaphone for your policies, but those announcements are often best supported by more detail, which you can provide on a company blog (have you heard about how much we love employer blogs?) or in a company newsroom. Randstad has a particularly robust newsroom, in case you need ideas.
Coinbase announced their new “recharge weeks” on their company blog, and it landed them coverage in Fortune, Business Insider, and Forbes, among many more.
Don’t forget about local media
It feels super sexy to get covered in The New York Times or The Washington Post, but sometimes local media is all you need, especially if your workforce is local or regional.
For example, simple business expansions can land you local placements, like this story about a new Virginia Credit Union location in Richmond, VA. This shows potential hires that your business is strong, and new locations usually mean new jobs. Domino’s got some coverage in local Baltimore outlets when it announced a big hiring surge back in February.
You can land placements like these by announcing your moves on social media, or by simply emailing a local beat reporter; usually you’ll want one who covers something like business, real estate, or tech, depending on your announcement and your industry.
Build an healthy company culture
Your employer brand begins within. The foundation of good press for your brand is a healthy, respectful, and ethical company culture. When you make announcements about business expansions or new company benefits and policies, or issue social statements, you need to have a workforce that will corroborate your claims.
This doesn’t guarantee good press coverage, but it’s the best place to start.
Quick note: We tried to get a few PR pros to comment for this article, but were ultimately unsuccessful.
Emily McCrary-Ruiz-Esparza is a freelance writer based in Richmond, VA, who writes about workplace culture and policies, hiring, DEI, employer branding, and issues faced by women. Her work has appeared in The Washington Post, Fast Company, and Food Technology, among others, and has been syndicated by MSN and The Motley Fool.
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