How Knowledge Creators Can Earn Authority Outside Their Own Platform

As a creator, your owned channels can only take your authority so far.

You can have followers, but you’ll still struggle to gain recognition and authority outside your echo chamber. 

At some point, the credibility you’re building needs someone else to confirm it. 

That’s where earned media comes in. 

Marketing is what you say about yourself. PR is what other people say about you.

Most experts focus on creating content to market themselves or their services. However, marketing favors your own account of your expertise. 

PR, on the other hand, is your reputation, meaning what others say about you in media coverage, at events, on podcasts, and in referrals. 

The difference matters because readers process each one differently. When someone sees you quoted in an article, they assume a vetting process already happened, subconsciously adding trust and credibility. This creates an authority layer that marketing can’t do on its own. 

AI is already telling your story, and it's sourcing it from other people's platforms.

Very little of what surfaces about you in AI comes from your own channels. For many brands and people, showing up (and how they show up) in an LLM search is becoming a visibility benchmark. 

AI engines pull information about you from everywhere, so it’s important to know how you show up and where the gaps are. If you say different things in three different places online, the AI version of you won’t be a consistent narrative.  

Your story sits at the center of everything.

Marketing covers your branding, positioning, paid channels, SEO, and newsletter. PR covers earned media, influencers, and events. Stakeholder comms covers the audiences that multiply as you grow, like boards, employees, and partners. Together, marketing and PR create compounding visibility. 

Image courtesy of cracklepr.com

At the center is your story. Every audience gets a slightly different message, but every message ladders back to the same narrative. 

This is where a brand narrative comes in handy. It's a living document that maps your pillars and perspectives, acting as a North Star for every piece of content you produce—even media opportunities.

Think like a journalist

While social platforms reward niching down, media rewards zooming out. When you pitch media outlets, think about how your narrow expertise can matter to many people right now. 

A good pitch has three components:

  1. Find the angle. News is built around what's already happening, so connect your expertise to a seasonal moment, a live debate, or a broad theme like parenting, money, or health (otherwise known as “newsjacking”). 

  2. Make it human. Emotion is what makes people care about experiences they haven't had, so find a way to relate to the person you’re pitching.

  3. Make it quotable. Know the three to five topics you can speak to on short notice, with a ready elevator pitch for each, so you're the expert a reporter calls when they're on deadline.

Relationships are lead generation

Much like business development, building relationships with media outlets works the same way: find the right people, start conversations, and plant seeds: 

  • Connect with reporters, editors, and producers on LinkedIn, Threads, and X. This doesn’t just have to be for large, nationwide outlets; it can work for industry and trade media too. Look for titles like “correspondent,” “staff writer,” “reporter,” etc.

  • Don’t stick to traditional media. If someone has a “new media” channel like a live talk show, podcast, a private community, etc., pitch yourself to be a guest or for a collaboration. Media is still media, and as long as it’s public, you can still get cited.

  • Respond to open calls. Reporters and writers will also regularly post open calls for sources and experts, whether on social media or through sites like Help a Reporter Out or Qwoted. Keep an eye on your feed and shoot your shot for anything that catches your eye and where you think you can contribute to the conversation.

  • Connect with your local newsroom directly. If you’re a local business in a smaller media market, connect with your local newsroom directly to see what kind of stories they are looking for and how you can help. 

Most reporters want a good story delivered on a silver platter, with visuals, interview subjects, and background materials ready to go, so if you have all of these, you're far more likely to get a yes on your pitch. 

When writing the pitch, keep it simple and conversational. Most reporters and outlets disregard AI pitches; however, AI can help you brainstorm newsworthy angles rooted in your expertise. 

Some best practices to keep in mind: 

  • Cover who, what, when, where, and why

  • Tie it to the now, because timeliness and broad relevance are what make something news. 

  • Research the outlet so your pitch fits what they actually cover

  • Reach out to individual editors directly, via DM or email (hunter.io is a great resource for finding emails if you have the name and publication URL)

Takeaways you can implement this week

  1. Run an AI self-audit. Ask ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, and Google's AI Overview what they know about you, using your name plus your title and city. Note which sources they cite and whether what’s surfacing on those platforms matches how you want to be known.

  2. Write down your quotable lanes. List the three to five topics you could comment on tomorrow with a one-line take on each, plus the adjacent topics that sit outside your lane.

  3. Put every idea through the zoom-out test. Before you pitch, answer why this matters to many people and why it matters right now. 

  4. Block time to build media relationships. Connect with reporters, editors, producers, and podcast hosts in your market or industry.

  5. Subscribe to the source pipelines. Sign up for Help a Reporter Out or Qwoted. Join the Find a Guest, Be a Guest Facebook group, and watch Threads and LinkedIn for open expert calls.

  6. Build your silver platter. Assemble a short folder with a headshot, a bio, visuals, background materials, and anyone else who could be interviewed. Having it ready turns a yes into an easy yes.

  7. Let AI find the angle, and write the pitch yourself. Feed your brand narrative into your AI tool of choice and ask it to help you newsjack current conversations.

  8. If you sell a physical product: holiday gift guide pitches need to go out now.

So many experts do excellent work in their fields but never get seen beyond their own platforms. Earned media changes that, and it's available to anyone willing to plant the seeds. 

Watch the recap of Beyond the Feed: How Knowledge-Driven Creators Can Earn Authority Outside Their Own Platform here: 

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