The Power of TV

By Charlotte Cheek

Television is powerful, but what about television is so powerful? It gets you in front of a large audience quickly and engages them visually. Television gets people to focus on one screen and absorb everything on it. At the same time, less and less people pay attention to advertisements. With Netflix, Hulu, and DVRs, skipping over commercials is normal, so how does television remain so powerful? How can a business reach people on television without advertising?

Get into the Content People Watch

First, move away from paid advertisements into the content people are paying to see. People pay for Netflix, Hulu, Cable, etc. so that they can watch television shows, sports, and the news. Most businesses cannot afford product placements in viewer’s favorite shows or to sponsor sports teams, but businesses can afford publicity in the news (especially the local news). Anyways, advertising is expensive and it lacks third party validation that local cable stations have. People trust their favorite news stations and reporters to tell them the truth more than they trust a business’s 30-second commercial to tell them the gritty truth. Publicity is free and television is a powerful tool for business. The trick is finding the story and pitching it to the right news station in your area. 

Power of Placement

Being placed in a local news segment is just the beginning. It places you in front of a large audience and uses televisions strengths: sight, sound, and motion to make a lasting impression on the audience. More specifically, cable stations can reach local markets extremely fast. Speed is extremely important in today’s competitive market and one good segment on a local news station can lead to more opportunities for free placement on television, in newspapers, or on the radio by others interested in your story. So, if you want to captivate a large part of your target market visually, then remember how powerful television is.

Traditional Media is the Perfect Complement to Social Media

By Charlotte Cheek

Today’s technology has put a strong emphasis on 140 characters or fewer, a square image, and sharing with your closest 500+ Facebook friends, and less of an emphasis on the old fashioned black & white newspaper at your front doorstep every morning. Many might contend that long gone are the days of paperboys and traditional media, as social media and online sources steal newspaper and magazine readers, radio listeners, and television viewers.

But what if I told you that the world is a big enough place for all types of medias?

Well it’s true. In fact, they cannot only coexist, but they complement one another too.

For example, say your charity event just showed up on the TV news. If you want to have it seen repeatedly, you can take it to social media and more people will see it. Publicity is the gift that keeps on giving – as long as you keep on giving it. By sharing traditional media (TV, newspapers, magazines, or radio) on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and even Instagram…the number of views rises higher and higher.

Did your business just show up on the front page of the newspaper? Copy and paste it on social media. Instead of all your posts coming directly from you, a third party will validate what you are doing for your community. Sharing traditional media on social media gives a variety of content that keeps things interesting.

An article or news clip is dead in the water after it has aired or been printed, unless you take matters into your own hand and share.

Don’t forget the newspapers, magazines, TV, or radio because they only will help your business!