Dealing with obsolete platforms and links

Make sure your audience sees the best of your company on all platforms.

Content is vital in the world of online public relations, especially since it’s the cornerstone of all online PR efforts. Great content can elevate your company in a way that makes it just as powerful as classic public relations content, such as interviews or being a guest speaker at a major industry conference.

However, you need a place to put content somewhere, and that “somewhere” is platforms. Platforms can be social media websites like Facebook and Instagram or your own site. But trends can change, and platforms that looked like they had potential a few years ago can be dead in the water. This can cause problems, as users will be seeing old and out-of-date content that might not no longer reflect your company’s current views and stances, which can easily damper your online PR.

But how do you handle this problem? You have two ways to take care of it:

1. Have users go to current platforms.

2. Make sure all links your company is using on its site have current information, including content you link to on social media.

Cleaning up obsolete platforms

First, you need to ensure all of the platforms you’re using are up to date in terms of content and messaging. If your company has platforms you’re no longer using, you have two options:

1. Put a note somewhere on the page telling people they can follow you on a new platform. A pinned post on an obsolete platform is a great way to do this, as it’ll be one of the first things a visitor sees.

2. Redirect the old platform to one you’re currently using.

It’s very important that you do this. People can find old platforms through search engines, old links, and bookmarks. You need to ensure that people, no matter how they reach your company, are seeing content that currently reflects your company.

Look at your own site and links

You also need to make sure the links to your company’s platforms are up to date everywhere you have control of. Ensure that links are pointing to actively maintained platforms on:

1. News releases

2. Links on your website

Also, make sure that the pages, landing or not, that you’re linking to on social media are up to date. You don’t want people going to content that no longer accurately reflects your company.

Broken links are also a problem. If you need help finding broken links, use a crawler, such as Dead Link Checker, to discover where they are so you can fix them.

Content is king for online PR, but making sure you’re linking to supported platforms for that content and making sure your content is up to date is just as important as the content itself. You need to make sure that audiences are getting the latest as far as your company’s information and views go. If not, you could be in trouble.

Clients love Jacob’s speed. Jacob is an inbound marketing-certified webmaster. He earned an integrated communications degree from Florida State College at Jacksonville. Jacob joined Axia PR as an intern in August 2015 and earned his way into a critical role at our PR agency.