In the PR world, storytelling is bedrock of what we do. From a strategic standpoint, we often leverage it through thought leadership, a strategy in which we uncover opportunities to position our clients as thought leaders in their industries through contributed articles, op-eds, executive interviews, broadcast/podcast appearances and more.
In other words: earned media coverage. This is important to note because it’s directly tied to the art of storytelling’s latest, and least-human, iteration: the influence of AI.
Recent research shows that in an analysis of more than 1 million links cited by AI, 85% came from earned media—or third-party storytelling about your brand. Earned media across major media outlets, industry-specific publications, and even niche, local news sites are shaping how AI search is telling your organization’s story.
The best way to leverage this? Tell your story, and tell it often. Another interesting finding from the Muck Rack research is that recency matters. Articles published within the last year are more likely to be cited by AI than publications more than a year old.
Most often, our clients worry that they have no good stories to tell. They’re in a slow season, or far off from a big news moment, or flat out of ideas. This hesitation can cause gaps in earned media coverage, which are not only missed opportunities to build brand trust and credibility, but can now also impact AI search visibility.
So, is it possible to never run out of stories to tell? With the below tips, we think so:
Develop a nose for good stories—and where to sniff them out
Put on your journalist cap and start thinking with a newsroom lens: what’s new? Who might care, and what do they actually care about? Why now? These questions will lead you to topics that have urgency, timeliness and relevance, all essentials that journalists look for.
Once you know what makes a good story, try looking for them in new places. Interesting stories might live outside of your communications team. Reserve a few minutes of calls, or hold brainstorm sessions, with other teams or team members. Develop a way that all team members can quickly flag or share a story idea.
Good stories also can live outside your workplace. Listen to your peers. What challenges are they facing? What trends are they seeing? Picking up on the chatter about emerging pressures, successes and hot takes might lead to your own thought leadership piece on the matter.
When in doubt, educate
No news moment? No problem. No matter what industry you’re in, there’s likely an infinite supply of things people could learn about it—as long as you can tie it to an issue people care about right now. What could the general public, business owners or industry peers learn about what your organization does that would make their lives easier today? Tomorrow? Next week?
Don’t shy away from the outside world
What are the issues impacting companies like yours, or the entire industry—not just your business or city? What cultural moments can you comment on or relate to? There must be a strong connection, but if you can tie your work to attention-stealing moments like the upcoming Winter Olympics, economical shifts, presidential executive orders, Taylor Swift’s latest album, consumer data reports—it’ll make your story that much more interesting. As an example, our team once wrote about PR lessons from the Barbieverse during the height of Greta Gerwig’s Barbie.
Partner with the storytelling pros
While it is possible to never run out of stories to tell, mining for them isn’t easy work. Partnering with a PR team that has a pulse on the latest trends and emerging news cycles is a sure way to elevate your storytelling capacity while infusing it with fresh perspectives and ideas.
As our founder Filomena Fanelli likes to say, if you don’t tell your story, someone else will. That’s because there really are endless stories to tell about your business—especially when you know how and where to look.
