Should Podcasts be a Part of Your PR Strategy?

With 41% of Americans listening to at least one podcast every month, it’s no secret that the industry is experiencing extremely high popularity at the moment. 

If you’re part of the 41% of listeners (or even if you’re not, and you’re just curious), you may be wondering if podcasts should be a part of your PR strategy. We’ll break down all the reasons why you should incorporate podcasts into your media outreach –- and a few key tips for getting started.

For the purpose of this blog, we’ll focus on four main benefits podcasts provide that play into key public relations activities: telling your story, establishing yourself as a thought leader, getting in front of niche audiences, and creating shareable content. 

Tell more of your story, in your own words

While a news story is often limited in words and your comments may be edited down to a few key sentences, a podcast can be anywhere from a few minutes to over an hour in length. If you get the opportunity to participate in a podcast interview, you can tell your or your brand’s story in an extended format. It’s a great chance to let potential customers or users get to know you in more detail and depth, through your own narrative.

Establish yourself as a thought leader

If you have knowledge of public relations, you know how powerful thought leadership can be. A podcast is an opportunity to position yourself or a senior leadership figure of your brand as a thought leader in your industry – an expert in their field who people can turn to for advice, insights, expertise, and wisdom. 

You can use podcasts as an additional platform to share your unique expertise and perspectives on a topic over time, which will help you build credibility in your industry and develop trust with your audience. Contributing your ideas to a podcast is a puzzle piece in the process of establishing yourself as a thought leader; the more you put your ideas out there, the more you will start to be seen as a go-to authority in your industry. As you build your brand as someone who can be trusted on a topic, it can ultimately lead to more speaking or comment opportunities.

Expose yourself to new, niche audiences

With over 4.1 million active podcasts registered worldwide, podcast series need to cater to a specific niche in order to stand out and attract listeners. A podcast can cover topics as broad as the daily world news, or as narrow as a microtrend in fashion, and listeners know exactly what kind of content they’ll get when they put in their headphones for the latest episode. If you can find a podcast series that fits your brand’s niche, you’re almost guaranteed a captive and interested audience.

Create evergreen, shareable content 

Once your podcast has been released, you can turn the episode into small, snackable audio clips that can be repurposed for a variety of things, including social media posts, supporting assets for pitches, or interesting content for your next newsletter. Some podcasts will even capture video while recording the podcast, which can be an even better addition to your social media calendar. 

This benefit also ties back into thought leadership, as sharing podcast interview material on your social channels can help you increase your executive visibility on social media.  

Recap and tips 

Whether you’re doing your own public relations or you have a PR firm or PR team helping you promote your brand, utilizing podcasts is a great way to find a captivated audience, create evergreen content, and share more of your story and expertise. 

If you’re interested in being a guest on a podcast, here are a few tips to keep in mind when getting started: 

  • Do your research — know the podcast’s audience, niche, and whether or not they interview guests in their episodes before you reach out.
  • Fine-tune your unique selling points — be ready to explain why you would be a great guest for this specific podcast, in just a few sentences. If you have them, include any relevant clips from other speaking engagements to showcase your abilities.  
  • Be patient — you most likely won’t land a spot on your dream podcast immediately, but getting yourself and your bio out there can be a great start.  

Exploring the Evolving Role of AI in Public Relations and Business Operations

As technology continues to advance, the role of artificial intelligence is growing more prevalent across industries – and public relations is no exception. The question at large amongst industry leaders seems to have evolved from “Is this something we should be afraid of?” to “How can we use this technology to our advantage?”

Embracing the Future and the Power of AI

Over the past few months, I’ve attended webinars, conferences and consumed any written materials available to me in an effort to educate myself on this topic.  “It’s not going away” has been the sentiment most widely echoed across all of these sources, so with that in mind, I’ve set out to discover the ways in which I can embrace the power of AI within my own role and how other team members at Segal Comms can do the same.

Real-World Use Cases

AI in Public Relations

The most obvious use case is that of generative AI. Drafting written materials is a central responsibility for any PR professional, and for many can be one of the most arduous efforts the profession requires. Even the most innately talented writers still experience the dreaded writer’s block and inevitable fatigue when writing often enough. Generative AI readily eases this burden: by generating ideas for the topic or title of a written piece, it can be a great tool to get the creative juices flowing. In fact, I used Grammarly’s generative AI tool, GrammarlyGO, to inspire the title and theme of this blog.

The consensus amongst the PR community regarding generative AI seems to be that its use is acceptable and even encouraged when it’s viewed as one of many tools in a practitioner’s toolbox, with the stipulation that its use, and in what capacity it was used, is disclosed. PR professionals are still expected to intervene with the technology and ensure that the materials they produce are up to industry standards. The current capabilities of generative AI still require human intervention regardless – as it was explained by a presenter at the From Day One conference I recently attended in San Francisco, generative AI can get the job done 90% of the way at its best, but will still require a minimum of 10% human intervention. Like many things, generative AI is as good as you train it to be. The more comprehensive information and thorough feedback you provide, the better the quality of work generative AI can produce.

AI in Business Operations

Beyond writing, AI can also be used to streamline business operations such as recruiting and hiring. The founder of RecruitBot was a presenter at the From Day One conference and shared about how the platform employs machine learning algorithms to identify qualified candidates and expedite the hiring process. Rather than spending hours combing Linkedin for suitable candidates using arbitrary search parameters, the technology now exists to have a bot present us with much more relevant candidates in much less time. Similar to generative AI, the results produced by a platform like RecruitBot will be as accurate as you’ve trained them to be with the platform’s machine learning algorithm working to continuously improve output over time as it learns your preferences.

Parting Thoughts

These are just two use cases demonstrating how AI can be employed in the workplace, but as many are now learning the ways in which this technology can be employed are vast and rapidly evolving. It’s inevitable that the future of communications and various other industries alike will involve a greater reliance on AI-powered tools, so it’s wise to start exploring and mastering these tools now. While these tools can be incredibly useful, it’s important to remember that they should be regulated with human intervention. By using AI in conjunction with human expertise, businesses can ensure they are as efficient and effective as possible by making use of all the tools available in their toolkit.


Let us take your brand’s visibility to the next level. We’re here, ready to help your company showcase your “why” and share it with millions of people.

[email protected]

Our Favorite Social Media Management Tools

At Segal Communications, we pride ourselves on being extremely transparent with our clients. We give them access to all our work and even hand off valuable assets if our relationship pauses or ends. In the spirit of transparency and not gatekeeping, here are our favorite social media management tools to maintain active social accounts for your brand. 

Scheduling and Analytics 

Hands down, our favorite social media scheduling tool is Sprout Social. Sprout’s interface for scheduling content is highly intuitive and provides us with a wide array of tools in one. As an agency, we have a customized plan that suits our workload and provides resources that keep our services top of the line. 

Sprout compiles all the data we need in customizable, comprehensive reports. With the platform’s reporting tools, we can send our clients easily digestible reports that provide them with key insights into the performance of their social accounts in minutes. The detailed analytics Sprout provides are also valuable for informing each social media strategy we devise for our clients. 

While Sprout Social is our top recommendation for a scheduling and analytics solution, there are a number of cost-free alternatives that can be viable options depending on your company’s needs. Later, Buffer, and Meta’s Creator Studio are all worth looking into if you don’t have a substantial social media budget yet. 

Content Creation 

When it comes to content creation, there are tons of tools available that can help you produce engaging content. Here are some of our favorites, along with what we like to use each of them for:

  • Canva – an easy-to-use platform to create graphics, videos, or edit photos
  • Photoshop – used for more advanced photo editing, clean background removal, simple graphics, etc.
  • Premiere pro – video editing software for creating Instagram Reels, TikToks, ad content, etc. 
  • Lightroom – used for bulk photo editing
  • Veed – used to add subtitles to videos

When looking for stock photos or videos, we recommend these free sites: Pexels, Pixabay, and Unsplash

For royalty-free music to add to your videos, we recommend Artlist.io or Pixabay Music as a free option. 

Client Approvals and Team Workflows 

Our entire team at SC operates within Google Workspace, and we love it; most of our clients use it amongst their internal teams too, so our workflows operate seamlessly. 

When it comes to approval workflows, each client is different in what they prefer. We typically gather preferences during the onboarding period using an onboarding checklist. We let clients choose one of two options to interface with us for content approvals: our customized content calendar templates in a Google doc or our task management software, Monday.com

Our Google doc content calendar provides a month’s worth of content in one document. The client can review the copy of each post and the media accompanying it. Next to each post, we include a dropdown menu that indicates the status of the post: draft, waiting for review, approved, scheduled, or published. On Monday.com, the content calendar is separated into “groups” based on month. We add a link to preview the content, a status section for the client to let us know if the post needs revisions or is approved, and a comment section for the client to provide feedback and edits. Both options are similar in the interactions they allow, with the decision between the two often coming down to which interface a client finds more user-friendly.

Recap: Our Favorite Social Media Management Tools 

Scheduling and Analytics

Content Creation

Free Stock Photo and Video

Royalty-Free Music and Audio

Client Approvals and Team Workflows


Need help managing your social media accounts? When we work together, your brand does more than show up. It shows up with a story, a purpose, a unique reason for being – and it makes an impact. At Segal Communications, we become an extension of your team – we work fast to become brand experts and make sure we’re keeping your company relevant on social media. 

Connect with us at [email protected]

Should You Be Focusing on Quality or Quantity Media Coverage?

Quality versus quantity is something most people struggle with in many aspects of their life. Do you want one really nice, expensive pair of shoes or five cheap, flat-soled shoes? See, you probably find yourself teeter-tottering between the two more often than you think. Today we are going to explore how this topic relates to PR and media coverage, so let’s start by defining the difference between the two.

Quality Media Coverage 

Quality coverage is what the majority of public relations services are geared towards. This means securing earned coverage in highly credible and reputable outlets that have a large readership. This would be the Forbes, Fast Companies, The Verges, Reader’s Digests, New York Times, and TechCrunches of the world. These are the sources most often looked to for advice, insights, tips, and news.

Here’s an example scenario in which you would aim for quality coverage: if your business has launched a new product and you want to build consumer trust and recognition, then you would want to offer a sample to well-known media outlets that will test and review the product. Consumers frequently look to editorial reviews when they are contemplating purchasing a specific product, and a comprehensive and insightful review from a highly credible media outlet can be very influential in the purchasing decision.

Quantity Media Coverage

The goal of quantity coverage is typically to boost your SEO, which not all PR efforts can and will support, but is still extremely valuable. Increasing visibility and brand awareness are the two main reasons to focus on quantity. 

Now, here’s a scenario in which you would aim for quantity: If your business is fairly new and entering a competitive market, then you would want to increase your brand’s name recognition in the media and on search engines amongst competitors. You might consider putting a press release out on a newswire, which is often picked up by hundreds of other outlets. Yes, it’s the same exact story, but it’s now visible to millions of people so you’ve essentially got 100+ media mentions. 

So Which is Better?

Quality coverage is more esteemed than quantity, but neither is necessarily better than the other. 

The answer really comes down to what your PR goals are. A question to ask yourself is, am I looking for reputable coverage or as many mentions as possible? 

It’s also important to note that your answer may change over time so make sure you reevaluate and readjust your coverage goals as your business evolves. 


Segal Communications can help you navigate your media coverage goals and secure your desired placements. Reach us at [email protected] to learn more about out PR services.

How to Partner With an Industry Expert

When developing a PR strategy for your company, it’s important to identify your spokespeople. A spokesperson is someone who speaks to the media on the company’s behalf, often a CEO or a member of the marketing and communications department. While a CEO or a director of communications are best suited to speak about the business and product itself, they might not be the best people to speak about more general, industry-related topics. Depending on the nature of your business, you might want to consider partnering with an industry expert who can provide commentary on common topics in the industry.

What is an industry expert?

An industry expert is someone with the knowledge and experience to provide accurate, trustworthy commentary on topics relating to a specific industry. Depending on the industry, they don’t necessarily need to have credentials, but they should have extensive experience in the relevant field(s) that qualifies them to give advice, make predictions, etc. 

Why should I partner with an industry expert?

Partnering with an industry expert gives your brand the opportunity to expand awareness while bolstering your credibility. Having an expert that can address general topics within the industry means more opportunities to insert your brand into public conversations, especially when you don’t have any major news to announce. Partnering with an expert will also allow you to leverage their audience, which may be large or small, depending on the individual.

What qualities should I look for?

The most important thing in choosing an expert to partner with is to make sure that your brands align. Finding an expert that works on topics relevant to your brand and shares your brand values will ensure a natural and authentic partnership. If your product is a dating app, for example, you’d be better off working with a relationship coach than a marriage counselor.

You’ll also want to consider your budget. An established expert with their own following might expect a large commission. An expert who is still trying to build their own brand might decide that it’s worthwhile to partner with your brand for a small commission or exposure alone.

What should I expect from the partnership?

Before you start to work with your expert partner, you’ll want to define the terms of the partnership. What title will they go by? How many requests for commentary do you anticipate sending per week or per month? Will they be expected to write their own commentary, or is it okay for them to dictate a response that you can then draft for approval?

Given the 24/7 news cycle, you’ll also want to set expectations with regards to their availability. If you send them a request for commentary with a tight deadline, how fast can you expect them to respond?

Finally, you should not expect the expert’s commentary to reference your product every time, if at all. Being quoted in an article as your company’s resident expert is valuable in itself; pushing a product may delegitimize the commentary altogether.


Let us take your brand’s visibility to the next level. We’re here, ready to help your company showcase your “why” and share it with millions of people.

[email protected]

Working With Food Influencers at Scale

When it comes to PR, the food, beverage, and restaurant industries carry a reputation of providing an exciting media landscape that is constantly evolving. In recent years, food influencers have become an integral addition to that landscape. 

A recent study found that influencer marketing in the food industry led to a 16% increase in purchase intent. Here at Segal, we’ve learned to capitalize on that momentum by utilizing influencers to help drive campaigns for a number of our clients.

Today we are going to dive into a few strategies for public relations professionals on how to source and succeed in working with the right food influencers for your next campaign. 

Utilize Your Inner FBI Agent 

When sourcing a batch of foodie influencers that align with your client/brand, don’t be afraid to do a bit of digging on their online profiles. What establishments are they frequenting? What’s their favorite cuisine? Do they opt for savory or sweet treats? Knowing the answers to these questions can help you understand an influencer’s tastes/preferences and whether they’d enjoy your product enough to promote it. For example, when sourcing influencers for our client Johnny Doughnuts, we make sure to keep an eye out for people with a sweet tooth that often post dessert-forward content. 

A food influencer holding a doughnut in front of a doughnut truck.

Work With Fans 

Convincing an influencer to promote your product is easier when they’re already a fan! If you’re lucky enough to catch an account with an impressive following posting about your product by their own accord, don’t miss out on the opportunity to establish a connection for future collaborations. 

Lay it on Thick

The only thing fuller than a food influencer’s stomach is their inbox. Content creators are constantly getting flooded with emails and DM’s asking to collab, so how do you make sure you’re not drowning in the sea of standard pitches? Be complimentary! Express genuine interest in the influence’s content and don’t be afraid to point out or reference specific posts you love and what about them stood out. This shows the influencer that you’ve taken the time to get to appreciate them as a person rather than just a promotional tool. 

Don’t Shy Away From Freebies

If Costco’s beloved in-store samples have proven anything it’s that people are more likely to show interest in a product if they’ve been introduced to it free of charge. This couldn’t be more true when it comes to influencer marketing. Free samples allow influencers to try your product and decide for themselves if it’s something they’d want to promote. While this may not be entirely cost-efficient, generosity goes a long way when working towards securing a successful collaboration, so make sure to set aside a budget for sampling. 

Maintain the Connection 

Once you’ve secured the bag with a food influencer, hold on to that connection for dear life. Good long-standing relationships are hard to come by in the world of influencer marketing so make sure to keep that person in the loop for future projects, campaigns, or product launches. 

The Takeaway

Utilizing influencer marketing in your food public relations efforts is a great way to expose your campaign or product to an extensive and diverse audience and create meaningful mutually-beneficial connections within the social media landscape.


Ready to take the leap on an influencer marketing program for your brand? Reach us at [email protected] to get started.

How to Create an Award-Winning Campaign

Winning industry accolades is something almost every business seeks to achieve, but many are lost on where to start. There are a number of useful strategies to employ in the journey to becoming an award-winning business, but the most important factor to consider is the timing of your planning process. The best time to start thinking about the award-worthy elements of your campaign isn’t when you’re drafting your entry – it’s before you start work on your campaign.

Define Your Why

Start with a purpose, and make it central to your campaign. Will your campaign advance your industry in some way, make a difference for a philanthropic cause or support innovation in DEI? It’s important to think beyond the positive impact a campaign will have on your business and define how your work will contribute to the greater good. Awards programs don’t reward teams who “did their job”; they reward teams whose impact is bigger than themselves.

Campaigns that have created a tangible effect outside of their organization of origin are the ones that take the cake.

Write Everything Down

Keeping track of your work as you go is crucial. Don’t wait until you’re getting ready to submit an entry to map out the key components of your campaign; recording your process as it happens ensures the highest quality of detail and accuracy.

Most PR awards programs have a similar entry format which asks you to outline your starting point, strategy/tactics, execution and results. Your starting point should summarize what your campaign is seeking to change, improve or affect, and why. In the strategy/tactics section, you’ll be asked to provide an overview of your PR plan. Your execution outline should include the most notable steps you took to carry out your PR plan, and your results summary should lay out the measurable ways your campaign achieved success. Make it a point to track results data for your campaign – numbers speak louder than words!

Polish Your Presentation

At the conclusion of your campaign, you’ll most often need to consolidate all of your work into a concise summary along with compiling supporting materials. Choose a member of your team who is a strong writer with immaculate attention to detail to own this part of the process. How you present your results and what you choose to highlight are the most important factors to pay attention to at this step. Be sure to demonstrate how your campaign has not only impacted your business but other communities, groups or causes as well. Place data at the forefront of your presentation and make sure your summary encompasses all of the successes you want to highlight; often times supporting materials are only scanned.

Spread Your Submission

Enter as many awards contests as your time & resources allow! The more programs you submit your entry to, the more likely you are to get recognized for your hard work and contributions to your industry. Once you’ve perfected each of the steps outlined above, receiving the accolades your business deserves is just be a matter of placing your work in front of the right audience.


Ready to win company awards and recognition? Learn how business awards can be a part of a larger PR plan by reaching out to us at [email protected].

Selecting SEO Keywords to Optimize PR Content

Leveraging SEO in your PR strategy can immensely increase your business’s online visibility, making your offerings more accessible to both current and potential new customers alike. One of the easiest ways to maximize your PR efforts through SEO is to utilize keywords.

SEO keywords are phrases in your web content that cause your website to show up with a relative search term. By embedding keywords a potential customer is likely typing into their search engine in your web content, your business will be placed higher in search results. Ultimately, the point of using keywords is pretty similar to a key goal of PR: to create awareness of your business by getting your website placed in the top results of search engines, ultimately driving traffic to your website and increasing sales.

Even if you already have an SEO strategy in place, the best beginning practice for integrating keywords into PR efforts is to audit which keywords you are already ranking for. You can either use an SEO platform or manually search on Google to see what combination of phrases triggers your site to appear. This will give you an idea of what your business is already ranking for and can inform your strategy for increasing your rankings.

There are typically two categories of keywords you will want to include in your PR content: basic and long-tail.

Identifying your basic keywords 

Basic keywords are your tried and true terms that will rarely change. These are simple, one to two-word keywords that define your business and are directly related to your brand. They can include anything from your business name to a service you offer, your product, or your industry. 

To help define these keywords further, put yourself in the shoes of your customers. A good question to ask yourself is “If I was searching for a product or service similar to what my business offers, what would be the first thing I would google?”

It is important to note that these straightforward keywords can be more challenging to rank for because they tend to be associated with a higher search volume. For example, if you were to google “luggage”, an extensive array of results would appear as opposed to if you searched a long-tail, more concise keyword like “blue carry-on luggage”, which would produce significantly less relevant results.

Exploring long-tail keywords 

Long-tail keywords are a combination of three or more basic keywords. They can require a bit more specificity; however, long-tail keywords can offer great SEO value because they tend to have a lower search volume, making them easier to rank for.

Implementing these keywords in your PR approach is crucial to ensure that relevant and appropriate traffic is reaching your website.

When generating long-tail keywords, you can start with combinations of your basic keywords. For example, a long-tail keyword could include your company name + specific product + price. A good rule of thumb is to keep long-tail keywords between 3 to 8 terms to ensure reliability and accuracy. 

Integrating keywords into PR content

Once you have your list of targeted basic and long-tail keywords, this becomes your guidebook. With this, you can start brainstorming ways to integrate these keywords directly into your written content. Op-eds, sponsored posts, paid press releases, and blog posts are all opportunities to strategically include the keywords your business wants to rank for. 

Don’t forget to monitor and audit

Tracking the search volume of your keywords and monitoring their performance is an essential housekeeping task. This is especially important in PR because you want to confirm that your content and keywords are working cohesively to optimize impressions on your potential audience.

A simple audit can be done manually by searching the keywords you’ve selected to see if your site appears. Alternatively, specialized SEO tools and programs can be employed for more thorough analysis. If you end up restrategizing your target keywords, the good news is you will not need to scrap your initial list entirely. The fluidity of long-tail keywords allows them to be rearranged and reformulated, allowing you to adjust as needed. 

The Takeaway

Selecting the right SEO keywords and integrating them into your web content, along with monitoring these keywords for performance, is a simple and effective strategy to produce powerful results for increasing your business’s online presence. 


Need help creating a PR plan that works in tandem to maximize your business’s SEO potential? Reach out to us at [email protected]

How to Increase Your Reach on Instagram

Instagram Collab posts have become increasingly popular since their unveiling back in 2021, and they’re probably one of the simplest ways to increase your reach on Instagram. Collab posts give users the opportunity to multiply their reach and engagement by adding a co-author to the post. If you’re not incorporating this trending feature into your current social media strategy, you’re missing out on potential customers. 

How do Instagram Collabs benefit your brand?

While originally intended to be a way for creators to maximize branded content, Collabs have proven to double as a sure fire way for brands to increase their reach and appear in the feeds of potential customers too. Collabs have also become a great way to beat the ever changing Instagram algorithm by showing up in two different feeds – your own and the feed of the account you’re collabing with. Brands now have the opportunity to insert themselves directly into the feeds of their target audience – be it through influencers, partnerships, or other relevant accounts. 

Additionally, Collabs have the ability to increase Instagram engagement. When utitlizing the feature, the post will not only appear in the brand’s feed but also the feed of the account they are collabing with. Likely, the collab account will have a different variety of followers, giving brands the opportunity to further build their communities.   

How to use Instagram Collabs 

Creating an Instagram Collab post is incredibly simple to do, however, it can be hard to find the feature if you’ve never used it before. Here’s a step-by-step process on how to invite a collaborator to your post. 

  1. Begin by starting a new post. You’ll need to do this directly within the Instagram app, rather than on a third party scheduling platform. 
  2. Once you’ve added your media, caption, and hashtags, click on ‘Tag people’ beneath the post. 
  3. Click on ‘Invite collaborator’ and begin typing in the handle of the account you would like to invite as a collaborator. 
  4. Publish your post.
  5. The collaborator will then receive a notification to accept your invitation to the collab post. 
  6. Once the collaborator has accepted, their handle will appear on the post within your feed and show in their feed as well. 
A graphic showing how to increase your reach on Instagram by using the Instagram Collab feature.

Use all platform features to your advantage  

While the Instagram collabs feature is a surefire way to increase your reach on Instagram, it’s essential to make sure you’re utilizing all of Instagram’s features in order to round out your efforts. Are you using Reels and Stories? Do you create polls and use the Question Box within your Stories? Are you incorporating Carousel posts into your content plan? Using all of Instagram’s features will not only maximize your chances of getting in front of potential customers but also increase your engagement as a whole. In today’s digital media landscape, you can no longer get away with posting a single image on social media


Need help maximizing your Instagram strategy? When we work together, your brand does more than show up. It shows up with a story, a purpose, a unique reason for being – and it makes an impact. At Segal Communications, we become an extension of your team – we work fast to become brand experts and make sure we’re keeping your company relevant on social media. 
Connect with us – [email protected]