For some time, we approached LinkedIn the way many companies do: somewhat cautiously, kind of sparingly, and with a concern of oversaying or posting too often. And like many in-house teams, we also believed in giving our posts "breathers" - letting one update sit for a day or two before publishing the next.
But over the past year, we've deliberately challenged those assumptions - not accidentally, not tactically, but strategically and intentionally. We decided to sound more human and less corporate. The aim was not to chase followers per se, but rather to build relevance, familiarity, and trust over time. In doing so, we clarified what actually drives engagement for organisations operating in complex, technical environments.
The results surprised us. Over the past year, Yinson Production’s LinkedIn engagement reached 111.9 per cent - nearly nine times the peer average - while impressions topped 2.2 million and followers grew 74 per cent. Here's what changed, and why it mattered.
Treating LinkedIn as an editorial platform, not just a broadcast channel
The first shift was our mindset. We stopped treating LinkedIn as just a broadcast channel and started treating it as more of an editorial one. That meant trusting content quality over artificial spacing, which led us to remove our previous internal policy of giving posts a full day's gap.
Our simple view still applies today: if content is relevant, well-written, and grounded in real stories, then frequency and quality don't have to be trade-offs. They can rise together.
That said, we didn't abandon judgment. For major announcements or milestones, we still try to create a day's distance where possible - not because of algorithms, but out of respect for significance. Some stories deserve room to breathe, while others don't need to wait.
We're often asked about "ideal" posting times and release windows. While we're aware of them, we found that timing mattered less than substance, especially if you have a global audience. A strong story that's clearly written and grounded travels across time zones, while a weak one doesn't - no matter when it's posted.
We also found that engagement on a recent post often leads to "spillover" engagement on older posts - even if they are weeks, or sometimes months old.
Investing in human stories and letting performance do the talking
The second - and more important - shift was with our content. We deliberately invested in human-angle storytelling, not as a campaign, but as a sustained editorial choice.
Over the past 12 months, we dedicated multiple mid- to long-form pieces to get to know our offshore colleagues - not just about what they do, but who they are. Some examples include articles about our staff aboard FPSO Maria Quitéria and FPSO John Agyekum Kufuor, as well as a piece on diversity and women taking roles in offshore operations.
These weren't glossy profiles or corporate declarations - they were conversations. They took time, required trust, and consistently resonated with audiences, not because they were engineered to, but because the people and perspectives were real.
Importantly, this storytelling didn't exist in a vacuum. It helped that Yinson Production was delivering in terms of our work - operations were stable and reliable, projects were executed safely, and assets were delivered in a timely manner. Operational credibility matters: when organisations perform well and meet their commitments, audiences are more receptive. Stories land differently when they are underpinned by real-world delivery.
At the same time, we consciously strengthened our external communications with the news media. We shared milestones, operational and financial updates, and context around what the business was doing and why it mattered. This combination of strong execution on the ground paired with clearer, more open communication proved to be a powerful engagement driver.
When engagement supports trust, reputation, and business development
Our new approach to utilising LinkedIn also began to support our business development in subtle but meaningful ways. The platform can act as a place where potential partners, clients, and stakeholders see how a company operates, how its people think, and how it delivers - often before any formal conversation takes place. For business development teams, this kind of visibility and familiarity matters. It shortens the distance between introduction and trust, ensuring that when conversations begin, they start from a more informed place.
The impact of this approach was visible in our data. As mentioned earlier, we've seen exponential growth in our LinkedIn engagement rate at 111.9 per cent, which constitutes follower interactions with posts through likes, comments, and reposts, calculated as total engagement divided by total followers. This was nearly nine times higher than the average engagement rate across four comparable companies in our sector, which sat at 12.8 per cent.
Drilling down further, engagement per post - calculated as engagement rate divided by total posts - stood at 0.60 per cent, compared with an average of 0.15 per cent among the same peer group. In practical terms, each post generated roughly four times more engagement than the peer average. We also generated more than 2.2 million LinkedIn impressions and grew our follower base by 74 per cent during the same period.
These figures showed that the underlying shift mattered. We moved from telling people who we are to showing them. Instead of declaring that we are people-focused, values-driven, or inclusive, we demonstrate those qualities through voices, moments, and lived experience, letting the audience draw its own conclusions.
Internally, this requires discipline as not everything makes it to LinkedIn - in fact, much doesn't. Editorial judgment - deciding what not to publish - became just as important as publishing itself. That judgment isn't easy to codify, but it shows up clearly in outcomes.
One of the more counterintuitive lessons was that sounding less "corporate" didn't mean sounding casual or unprofessional. It meant being simpler, more precise, and grounded. In many cases, it required more work, not less.
We're still learning, but one thing is clear: when organisations speak with people rather than at them - and when those stories are backed by real performance and visible delivery - engagement tends to follow. For us, sounding more human wasn't a stylistic choice, it was a strategic one. It fundamentally changed how we think about LinkedIn - not just as a communications platform, but as a contributor to trust, reputation, and long-term business development.
'Perspectives' is a Telum Media submitted article series, where diverse viewpoints spark thought-provoking conversations about the role of PR and communications in today's world. This Perspectives piece was submitted by Vladimir (Vlad) Guevarra, Head of Communications at global offshore energy company, Yinson Production.
Vlad is a former journalist at The Wall Street Journal and The Straits Times, and has held senior communications roles across banking, technology, telecoms, and energy. He focuses on building credibility, clarity, and trust through disciplined storytelling in complex industries.
You might also enjoy
.jpg)
Every few years, someone declares the death of the media release.
Today, the arguments sound familiar. Journalists don't read them anymore. Everything is social-first. AI is replacing traditional media outreach. It's all about the pitch. Press releases are becoming little more than AI-generated filler.
And yet, when we speak with journalists across Asia Pacific and the Middle East, a different picture emerges.
Media releases aren't dead, but expectations around them have changed significantly.
We've analysed more than 10,000 Journalist Interest Survey responses in the Telum Media platform collected over the past five years, alongside insights gathered from conversations with editors, reporters, and producers across the region.
Key takeaways:
- Journalists still value useful PR content
- Relevance matters more than reach
- The pitch and the release serve different roles
- The best releases reduce friction for journalists
- Modern releases need to support multiple platforms
The conclusion is clear: journalists still value media releases, but they value them for different reasons than they once did.
The media release has evolved from a distribution tool into something far more strategic.
The media release is no longer the story
For decades, many PR professionals treated the media release as the centrepiece of media relations activity.
Write the release. Send it widely. Hope for coverage - “spray and pray”.
That approach was far from perfect, but you could get away with it in an era when newsrooms were larger, competition for attention was lower, and journalists had more time to evaluate incoming information.
Today's reality is very different.
Journalists are producing content across multiple platforms, often with smaller teams and tighter deadlines. Their inboxes are flooded with pitches, announcements, thought leadership submissions, and increasingly, AI-generated content.
As a result, journalists have become far more selective about what earns their attention.
The modern media release is no longer just about news stories. It has become a source-of-truth asset, a newsroom resource, and a content hub that supports broader communications activity.
The best PR teams understand this shift.
“The strongest message from journalists can be summarised in a single phrase: ‘Understand what I cover’. Relevance remains the most important factor in successful media engagement.”
What journalists are actually rejecting
One of the most revealing findings from our analysis is that journalists are not rejecting PR content altogether.
What they're rejecting is low-value outreach.
Across thousands of responses, the same frustrations appeared repeatedly:
- Irrelevant pitches
- Generic outreach
- Mass distribution
- Weak story angles
- Excessive follow-ups
In other words, this is less a rejection of media releases and more a rejection of poor media relations practice.
The strongest message from journalists can be summarised in a single phrase:
"Understand what I cover."
Relevance remains the most important factor in successful media engagement. In fact, our journalist surveys over the past two years have seen a sharp increase in a desire for both relevance and personalisation in pitches.
Journalists increasingly assess pitches within seconds. If the connection to their beat, audience, or current priorities isn't immediately obvious, the opportunity is often lost before the email is even opened.
The pitch and the release have different jobs
One of the biggest misconceptions in modern media relations is treating the pitch and the release as the same thing.
They are not.
The pitch exists to earn attention; the release exists to support the story.
The best pitches are:
- Brief
- Human
- Relevant
- Contextual
- Conversational
The best releases are:
- Structured
- Factual
- Complete
- Reusable
- Easy to reference
At a recent Telum Media event, a senior journalist described the fastest way to kill a pitch with a single word: “Respect”. Or a lack thereof.
A generic greeting. A story unrelated to their beat. A mass-produced email that demonstrates no understanding of their audience.
All signal a lack of respect for the journalist's time and expertise.
High-performing PR teams increasingly write pitches and releases for different audiences. The pitch is written for the journalist. The release is written for the journalist's audience.
That distinction matters.
Why journalists still value media releases
Despite predictions of their demise, journalists continue to actively request media releases.
But they want releases that help them work more efficiently.
The most common requests include concise writing, clear headlines, strong news angles, supporting data (with downloadable images and assets), spokesperson access, and easy-to-use formats.
These preferences reveal the modern role of the release: it functions as a workflow tool.
A strong release helps journalists:
- Understand the story quickly
- Verify information
- Access supporting materials
- Build content efficiently
The best releases reduce friction. And in today's newsroom environment, reducing friction is often more valuable than generating hype.
Think beyond media coverage
Another major shift is that media releases are increasingly serving multiple audiences.
A modern release doesn’t just support journalists; it might also support clients and prospects, employees, investors and analysts, partners, and search visibility.
Rather than creating a single-use document, leading communications teams are building content ecosystems.
The release becomes the foundation for:
- Media outreach
- Newsroom content
- Executive communications
- Social media content
- Email campaigns
- Sales collateral
- Thought leadership activity
This approach not only improves consistency but also increases the return on investment from every announcement.
The role of the modern media release
Not every story needs a release
Perhaps one of the most important lessons is recognising when a media release is the wrong tool.
Releases tend to perform best when there is:
- Genuine news value
- Multiple stakeholder audiences
- A need for factual consistency
- Strong supporting assets
- Broader business significance
They are often less effective for internal milestones framed as major news (or self-congratulatory announcements), generic thought leadership, and untargeted mass outreach.
In some situations, a targeted pitch, LinkedIn strategy, executive commentary programme, or direct relationship-based outreach may be more effective.
Good communications strategy isn't about defaulting to a media release; it's about choosing the right tool for the objective.
A framework for modern media releases
If there is one word that captures what journalists are asking for today, it is respect.
At Telum Media, we summarise this through the RESPECT framework:
R – Relevance
Make it relevant to the journalist, their audience and the moment.
E – Efficiency
Help journalists work faster through clear, concise, and usable content.
S – Substance
Provide genuine value through expertise, data, insight, or access.
P – Personalisation
Demonstrate that you've done your homework.
E – Ecosystem
Think beyond the release and consider how it supports broader communications goals.
C – Clarity
Make the key message immediately obvious.
T – Timing
Reach out at the right time, not simply any time.
What journalists are asking for in a pitch / media release: RESPECT
The future of the media release
The debate over whether media releases are dead misses the point.
The more useful question is how do we make releases work better in today’s media environment?
Journalists still value relevant information, credible sources, strong story angles, and efficient communication. Media releases continue to play an important role in delivering those things.
But success today depends less on the existence of the release itself and more on how strategically it is used.
The media release remains a valuable communications tool.
Just not in the way many of us were taught to use it.
FAQs
Are media releases still useful in 2026?
Yes. Journalists still value media releases, but these days want targeted outreach, relevance to their beat, alignment with their audience, and contextual pitching.
What makes a media release useful to journalists?
Journalists are looking for releases in a format that helps them work efficiently. Which means releases that are concise, factual, with a clear angle, contain usable quotes, and come with downloadable assets and supporting data.
What is the difference between a pitch and a media release?
A pitch earns the journalist’s attention in their cluttered Inbox. A media release supports the story by providing structured, factual, and reusable information relevant to their audience.
With more than 30 years’ experience spanning journalism, corporate communications and media intelligence, Reuben Aitchison is Telum Media’s Head of Insights and Communications.
Explore Telum Media tools that help PR teams pitch with precision.
.jpg)