Three Ways to Extend the Visibility of Every Project

How can a firm extend its visibility beyond a single appearance or placement?

Most firms treat publishing a project as an endpoint. The press release goes out, the article runs, and everyone moves on to the next thing. But the firms that build real, sustained visibility treat getting a project published as a starting point.  It’s just the first of many ways that your firm can use one project to reach many different audiences over time.

The difference between these two approaches comes down to having a deliberate strategy for sharing the work once it is done.

Your Project Has More Than One Story Worth Telling

Consider what happens when a major workplace strategy project is approached with the mindset that publishing is the beginning, not the end. The sustainability team has one story: energy performance, green building certification, and long-term operational savings. The workplace strategists have another: how the design changed the way employees work together. The designers have a third: the decisions that shaped the building’s form and experience. The client has a fourth: the culture shift that happened once people moved in.

These are not four versions of the same story. They are four entirely different stories, each with a different audience, each geared to a different publication, and each keeping the firm’s name in front of the right people long after the ribbon cutting is over.

Many organizations inadvertently leave multiple narratives unexplored. We’ve worked with many firms to help them make the shift from focusing on a single story to telling many stories. For example, for one landmark project, we generated coverage in an architecture publication, a sustainability outlet, a workplace design magazine, a facilities management trade publication, a local newspaper, and a regional business publication. The firm connected with six completely different audiences by describing the project through different lenses. As a result, that firm’s visibility continued to grow long after construction was complete.

The Strategic Shift: Instead of asking how to get one article published about a project, ask how many different stories you can tell, and then build narratives that will resonate with a range of audiences.

Try This: Even before your next project finishes—as it’s nearing completion—map every distinct story, connecting each to client outcomes. For each angle, identify one publication that would be appropriate for each story. You do not need to reach out to all of them at once. Start with two or three and build from there.

Every Format Reaches a Different Room

Identifying the stories is only the first step. The next is deciding which channels are the best way to tell them. For example, a feature story in a trade publication puts your project in front of readers who encounter it while browsing. A bylined article positions your principal as an expert. An interview puts a face and a voice to your firm and its talent. A social media series extends the reach to people who use platforms like Instagram or LinkedIn. A lecture or panel puts your people in the room with target clients.

Some of these activities build awareness, some build credibility, and others create conversations. Use  them deliberately, but not interchangeably.

The Strategic Shift: Instead of asking where to place a story once it is written, ask which formats will reach your target audiences most effectively and plan your outreach around those decisions.

Try This: For your next major project, identify at least three channels you could use to tell stories about it: a feature story pitched to a trade publication, a bylined article written by a firm principal, and a social media campaign that extends the coverage over several weeks. Create a strategy to use as many channels as you need to reach your audiences. 

Tap Your Whole Team to Build Even More Influence

Most firms rely on one or two people to speak for an entire project. But every project involves multiple experts, and each of them carries a different kind of credibility with a different audience. Collaborating with them on media coverage is a win-win for everyone. Obviously the architect can describe the design story, but the engineers can also describe a structural or mechanical story to the technical trades. The client, maybe the most powerful voice of all, can talk directly to his or her peers about how the project transformed their organization. 

The firm we referenced earlier had all of these activities running at once. Different members of the project team spoke to different publications, each one reaching the audience where they had the most credibility. The result wasn’t one story told by one person in one place. It was a coordinated body of coverage that reached audiences the firm could never have accessed through a single spokesperson.

The Strategic Shift: Instead of relying on one person to represent the entire project, identify which team members have the most credibility with each audience. Match the experts to the outlets those audiences already trust.

Try This: Map your project team against your target audiences. Identify one outlet for each person and develop a simple plan for each of them to contribute something, whether an interview, a bylined piece, or a quote in a broader story.

Skyline Summary

• Identify the distinct stories for each project and match each one to your audiences. Every project has more stories worth telling than you might think
• Use multiple formats deliberately. Feature stories, bylined articles, interviews, social media, and speaking engagements reach different people. A strong outreach campaign incorporates several of them
• Match your spokespersons to your audiences. The designer, the sustainability expert, the engineer, and the client each have specialized knowledge. Put the right voice in front of the right room
• Sequence your outreach rather than doing it all at once. A project that generates coverage for two years is more valuable than one that generates coverage for two weeks

Keep building influence!