How Evergreen Stories Can Boost Your Brand and Media Presence

How Evergreen Stories Can Boost Your Brand and Media Presence

Nearly every organization has an evergreen story to tell. It may include a personal story of triumph over tragedy, a rags to riches scenario or an employee who truly makes a difference in the lives of others.  All of these stories could lead to greater communications, but some organizations might not have the capacity or strategy to tell them. We want to explore the power of evergreen features and look at how your organization may turn these stories into media gold.

An evergreen story is one that can be told at any time of the year and does not have to be tied to a specific date or event. Here are some examples of evergreen content:

We have a client who suffered a tragic loss and now uses that as motivation in her fight against substance abuse. This heartfelt story can be discussed year round. However, when an alarming statistic about drug use or overdose comes to light, we pitch the media using the latest stats and include the personal story. This strategy enables reporters to put a face to the story, which helps to engage viewers.

One of our clients has a list of volunteers, their bios and special information about each person. We strategically support brand awareness by sharing those volunteer stories throughout the year. They could be sent to media, posted on social media and shared on their website, for example, and don’t have to be tied to a holiday, observance or key event.

Now that we’ve seen a couple of examples, let’s look at how this could work for your organization:

1. Organize a team meeting to discuss evergreen content (if you haven’t already done this). Go through a list of questions from employees, clients, volunteers and more to see what stories unfold.
2. Know your target audience and what type of stories would speak directly to them or foster engagement. The beauty of evergreen content is that it can serve multiple markets, campaigns, initiatives or beats and lay strategic grounding for your messaging.
3. Keep a working file of each of these stories, regularly update this information.
4. Think strategically. Evergreen information can support your organization’s mission when there is a lull or lack of timely content. This is the perfect time to keep the conversation going. Utilize a strategic editorial calendar or road map to help guide you.
5. Ask your graphic design team to support your evergreen content with infographics that support the message visually since time will be on your side with this information.
6. Evergreen information can often land you top-tier media coverage (think Today Show, USA Today, NY Times, LA Times and more).
7. Utilize evergreen with social media tools, such as Facebook Live, to keep conversation momentum going.

For help in cultivating your evergreen content, strategically planning and maximizing the conversation about your organization, let National Strategies PR help you.