Earned
Media is basically free media. Earned Media specifically refers to publicity gained
through editorial influence and has become the backbone of many social media
initiatives and social content development strategies.
With
so much user generated content these days, it would behoove an organization not
to take advantage of the magnitude of earned media – integrating an earned media strategy
during content conception into execution.
Definition
To get the definitions out of the way, those
in the marketing and agency world are privy to the buzzwords “paid,” “earned”
and owned.” Traditionally, they stand for the different types of media and
can be easily broken down like this:
- Paid:
Buying a 30-second Super Bowl spot
- Earned:
Coverage on Mashable (aka user
word of mouth)
- Owned:
Your company’s website
The business case for Earned Media
Don’t forget all content — whether it’s text,
a video or a microsite — will be “reduced to a link” for social spheres making
Earned Media an easy thing to do. There were 500 billion word-of-mouth
impressions made by Americans online according to Forrester. Such
volumes of word-of-mouth marketing can spread awareness of a product incredibly
quickly, and it’s why earned media has become so important to a marketing
campaign.
Understanding its usage
Let’s run through a scenario. Earned Media, for example, is
what you get when you develop a connection with someone that’s compelled to
write a Yahoo review, a blog post, a comment or a tweet, sharing their thoughts
on your brand with their social network. It sounds simple but it does take forethought.
Specifically, you will need to develop a strategy at content conception and then
filter everything
through its earned potential. That is, did I get the right audience, is the
content compelling to share (good or bad) and do we make it easy to ‘syndicate’
the efforts (share tools, icons, other channels and formats) and, most
importantly, does it integrate nicely as a natural springboard from traditional
paid or owned media?
More on Earned Media:
For Social Media
Marketing, Earned Media Rules -- MediaPost
How Social Media
is Changing Paid, Earned and Owned Media -- Mashable
Defining
Earned, Owned And Paid Media – Forrester Blogs
Best
Denice MacDonald