How does your organization share important news? In the olden days, a press release did the trick, but in today's age of distraction (and Twitter), this hardly is the most effective approach. While there are literally thousands of ways to share, here is our Top 20 list:

Using social media

  1. Write a blog post about it, but tie the news to the reader. Answer the question, "So what?"
  2. Create a minivideo (60-90 seconds), possibly including it within the blog, but also post it on YouTube.
  3. Update your LinkedIn Company page.
  4. Update your LinkedIn Status.
  5. Publish a LinkedIn article — similar to your blog post, but edited to be relevant for your LinkedIn audience.
  6. Send semi-customized notes to your connections in LinkedIn. This can be done in batches of 50.
  7. Write a Facebook post pointing to your blog. And upload the minivideo.
  8. "Boost" the Facebook post so that people will actually see it.
  9. Tweet about the news, pointing to your blog, YouTube, or if possible, to a third-party source. Add relevant hashtags.

Using email

  1. Send a semi-customized email "blast" to specific segments of your list about the news.
  2. Include it as an item in your monthly/weekly newsletter.
  3. Change the standard corporate email signature to include a one-line link to the news.

Using general marketing and communications

  1. Add it to relevant PowerPoint presentations.
  2. Create a case study.
  3. Create a shareable infographic.
  4. Use media relations to generate secondary publicity.
  5. Use traditional or online pay-per-click advertising.

Using your people

Probably the most effective way to get the news out is to take advantage of those closest to you. They will know how and when to share the news in ways you couldn't imagine. And, of course, there are more of "them" than you ...

  1. Let your internal team know, via email, intranet, townhall meetings and internal social media. (And for the most important news, you can also ask them to share with their networks on social media.)
  2. Let key partners know, either by personalized email or a personal telephone call.
  3. Ask key partners to participate in a YouTube interview, discussing the impact of the news on the industry

This week's action plan: Does "news" always need to be about your organization? No! It can be news that is relevant to your members, prospective members, sponsors, suppliers or staff. The fact is that no one really likes spending time with people who only talk about themselves. This week, be a reporter: Use this list to share relevant third-party news.

Share with your peers: What would you add to this list?