If you have a great story, you should tell it…over and over and over again.
I mean isn’t that what Hollywood does? I certainly thought you could only tell the story of Spider-Man so many times, but Tobey Maguire, Andrew Garfield, Tom Holland and the countless animated versions beg to differ.
While most organizations don’t have a theatrical story or big picture budget, that doesn’t mean you can’t utilize the same premise in your own content development and distribution.
In communications and marketing, we utilize the PESO model for content development and dissemination. PESO stands for paid, earned, shared, and owned, and each represents a channel your organization can use to reach people. The real magic happens when you stop treating those channels like separate lanes and start using them together to tell the same story in different ways.
You don’t have to save your content for a certain channel
It’s easy to fall into the trap of saving a story for earned media. Who doesn’t want to see their organization on the front page (for a good reason, of course)? But that’s outdated thinking. We no longer get our news in the morning paper. Before a story can make it into print – if the print product even exists anymore – it’s been published online, shared across social media, summarized in a newsletter, and recapped by a newsfluencer on TikTok and YouTube.
In fact, many news stories today are digging into things reporters saw online first.
Journalists’ email inboxes may be deeper than the Pacific Ocean, so standing out is harder to do. But what they are still doing is scrolling, whether for personal or professional reasons. The average person now spends more than two hours per day on social media, and mobile devices are often the first screen people check in the morning and the last one they see at night.
If attention lives on the phone, your story should too.
One story, many versions
This doesn’t mean copying and pasting the same caption everywhere like it’s chainmail from 2007. It means adapting your story to fit the platform.
A media pitch might focus on what’s timely and newsworthy.
A blog can go deeper and showcase your expertise.
An email newsletter can speak directly to your biggest supporters.
An Instagram Reel can bring personality and energy.
A LinkedIn post can position your organization as a thought leader.
Same story. Different costume changes.
Think of your content like a press tour. One movie, dozens of appearances, each tailored to a different audience.
Stop waiting for permission
Too many organizations act like a story only matters if someone else publishes it first. That’s old-school thinking. Earned media is valuable, but it is not the only stamp of credibility. You already have platforms, audiences, and tools at your fingertips. Use them.
Post the story. Pitch the story. Film the story. Email the story. Repeat as needed.
Because if your content is good enough to tell once, it’s good enough to tell everywhere.
Devine + Partners is a Philadelphia public relations agency. We offer a full range of communications services – from message and content development and media relations to issues management and employee and community engagement.
