Group Gordon’s Erin Gaffney offers advice on how to get the most PR value out of award-winning work.
Winning an award can be good PR for your company—but in most cases, it won’t make headlines. Awards that recognize individual achievements, great workplaces, or industry expertise might be a big deal internally and a cause for celebration, but that doesn’t necessarily make them newsworthy for reporters and editors. (Call them when you clinch that Nobel Prize.)
But if award recognition doesn’t garner more media attention, why do PR teams spend the extra time and energy submitting nominations?
Credibility: Awards offer an external credential that appeals to competitors, partners and peers, and clients. Third-party validation boosts your reputation, expertise, and contributions to your industry.
Brand identity: Awards can help convey what sets your company apart. They can amplify your values, recognize your strengths, and show how you stack up against your competitors. They also help with searchability: inclusion on a list of the 50 Best Law Firms in New York City, for example, could help drive prospective clients your way.
Recruitment and retention: Employees want to work for companies that are good at what they do. Awards can make your company more attractive to candidates and become a source of pride for staff.
Newsworthiness aside, you can and should amplify your award wins to maximize PR value. Here’s how to make the most of external recognition:
From your organization’s LinkedIn account, share the news in a post tagging the awarding organization and the individual who was recognized (if applicable), including a link to the accolade. Encourage employees to interact with the post from their individual accounts and to reshare the organization’s post or write their own unique post.
If the awarding organization posts the honor on its social accounts, like and comment on the post. Add a reference to the award to the “About” section of your company’s LinkedIn profile (or that of the individual winner, if applicable).
Don’t forget, social media has a lot of value for clients in all industries!
An award win is a versatile piece of PR content that you can use across your company’s assets.
Website: Publish a link to the award on your organization’s website. Consider where else you can reference it or include a link, such as in personal bios or on a dedicated awards page.
Newsletter: If your organization sends out a regular internal or external newsletter, include a prominent link to the award.
Email signature: If the award recognizes your whole organization, add a hyperlink to it in your company’s standard email signature. (If you’ve received an email from anyone at Group Gordon recently, you’ve seen this in action!)
Materials: Reference the award in marketing and new business materials, as well as other external-facing content like reports and publications, if appropriate. You can include it in boilerplate descriptions of your company and in job postings. Nonprofits can reference award wins in fundraising campaigns. Get creative!
Incorporate award wins into individual or company profile-building work. For example, when applying for speaking opportunities at industry events, panels, and conferences, reference award wins to bolster your application. When pitching trend stories or conversations to journalists, mention a relevant award win to demonstrate your expertise. Individual award winners can foster connections with peers who were recognized alongside them to grow their professional networks.
Taking the extra steps to get the most PR value out of award wins is a critical way to make the time, effort, and cost of submitting a nomination worth it. Strategize with your communications/PR team to determine which of the many awards out there will be most beneficial to your organization and your mission.
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