MICRO-CASE STUDY: Real-time example of the earned media 'ripple effect' in action

The story of how one article sparked a ripple of earned media exposure - proof that when you put in the work, your content can amplify your personal brand beyond your own channels.

Aug 21, 2025

A red drop creates ripples in water. — Photo by Wolfgang Weiser on Unsplash

I recently published an article unpacking earned media, explaining why isn’t just PR buzz anymore, and how it has become one of the most powerful trust signals you can have.

But what does earned media look like in action?

Glad you asked :)

READ THE ARTICLE -

Earned media has got its sexy back (and it’s time to get on board)

Trevor Young

Jul 24

Read full story

Something happened to me this week that demonstrates the power of earned media and how it can work when we put in the work.

This will get pretty meta, given my piece on earned media (above) is the article that generated some, ahem, earned media for my good self.

Here’s what happened.

First, I wrote and published the aforementioned ‘Earned media has got its sexy back’ article here on Substack.

I also published it on my long-running PR Warrior blog, which got picked by the editors of INFLUENCE, the digital magazine newsletter for public relations professionals published by the UK-based Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR).

The INFLUENCE editors republished the article as: Why earned media is so powerful in the age of AI and GEO

Now, this was a nice surprise. But let’s first let’s dig a bit deeper, and then unpack what happened next.

Here’s the article as it featured in the INFLUENCE digital magazine:

But this here is the kicker:

The editorial exposure is a nice-to-have, absolutely, but what’s more important, I believe, is the personal brand mentions and links I received as well.

See below - the first link goes to the blog on my website, while the second link directs people to the original article itself.

Why is this important?

This is what I wrote about in the original article (I told you, meta, eh!) 👇

Your earned media - those mentions, quotes, interviews, and citations - are not just reaching people, they're training the machines that influence the people.

But let’s keep going …

Substack newsletter Daily PR Brief also included the INFLUENCE piece in their daily round-up of curated PR and communications news.👇

LinkedIn comes to the party …

Next comes the sharing on LinkedIn. I was tagged in this post (below), so that’s how I found out my article was published on INFLUENCE website in the first place. I’m not aware of any other mentions on LinkedIn though.

Anyway, it was nice of Melissa to share the INFLUENCE article with her connections on LinkedIn, and for David, in turn, to share Melissa’s post with his network. Happy days! 👏

The gift that keeps on giving …

I also republished the same article for my LinkedIn newsletter, which has 2800+ subscribers. This version of the article generated some positive commentary, which was nice to see, and was a solid contributor to the editorial exposure the article had already generated.

Regular readers of this newsletter will know of my predilection for creating long-form content assets - articles, podcasts etc, preferably evergreen in nature - that can then be ‘sliced-and-diced’ (technical term!) into shorter formats to share on social media.

FOR EXAMPLE: This Substack note 👇 - this is a standalone ‘slice’ from the original article. I haven’t as yet, but I will in coming weeks create a social graphic and publish both mini-post and image on Instagram and LinkedIn.

I can easily repeat this process another 3-4 times creating further mini-posts and images, in turn providing some valuable spillover content derived from the original post.

Oh, and I might even use this article as the basis of a forthcoming episode for my new EARN THE RIGHT podcast (keep an eye out for that when it launches).

And finally …

Interestingly, Ross Monaghan, a communication lecturer at Deakin University, here in my home town of Melbourne, also took notice of the earned media article.

As part of his teachings, Ross put together a short Descript video presentation (titled: “Understanding media releases and earned media”) for his students. In it, he highlighted my article (the version I posted on LinkedIn), using it to highlight how there are some really interesting ways to think about earned media in 2025.

“I noticed that Trevor Young, a well-known PR practitioner here in Melbourne, has posted about earned media. Now, that was fortuitous because I wanted to put this week's lecture about media relations into perspective.” - Ross Monaghan

Let’s wrap up …

Now, not everything you or I publish is going to have a ripple effect like this ‘earned media’ piece did.

But given this all played out in front of me in real-time, I thought it would be useful to share how the long-form content we publish can sometimes have longer lasting value than we might imagine.

I often talk about the integration of owned media, social media and earned media - well, this is a perfect example of what that looks like in action!

FURTHER READING: Organic earned media - what it looks like in action

Onwards!

In case we haven’t met yet …

Hi, I’m Trevor. I help genuine founders, experts and thought leaders build visibility, influence and trust - on their terms, in their voice.

Would you like to discuss how I can help you in a mentoring capacity to build your profile and reputation as a trusted and credible expert or thought leader in your industry? CLICK HERE TO BOOK A NO-OBLIGATION 20-MINUTE ZOOM CALL