There has been a recent surge touting Earned Media as ‘The Thing’ public relations professionals and communicators need to be focused on as if it’s the newest thing. Fact is, it isn’t new at all.
If you follow the public relations and communications industry you may have noticed a serious uptick in the term Earned Media.
- “Track your brand’s paid and earned media!”
- “Earned Media is back in the driver’s seat!”
- “Check out our new Earned Media Cloud Platform!”
- “Monitor your Earned Media with <PlaceNameofProductHere>”
Earned media is often the goal of media strategies. It is one of the most relatable measures of success by the executive level (or most significant) of a public relations team’s efforts. Unfairly so, but that is another post altogether…and let’s not talk about AVE’s right now.
Is Earned Media always Good Media?
By definition, YES, yes, it is. Ask 4 communications professionals and you will get 5 different visions of earned media. But they will all agree that earned media is always good media.
Successful communicators work on a balanced PE(S)O strategy. The S is often included in this acronym to represent Social Media. While it can be pulled out on its own it can also be considered part of the each of the other three depending on how it is utilized.
Paid Media – provides a guaranteed way to get in front of an audience. It is a paid placement; for example: Google Ad, Sponsored Twitter Post, Boosted Post in Facebook, Pre-Rolls on YouTube, Paid ads in Apps and so on.
Earned Media mentions your company, brand, product, research, webinar or any other asset in a positive light. Earned Media are those mentions your brand/product/<Insert Item Of Importance Here> receives coverage in a medium (television, radio, all things digital) without payment. It is the polar opposite of advertising in a manner of speaking.
It can be any one of, or combination of:
- organic content in traditional and digital news media
- posts that are shared on various social channels (LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook etc.)
- Positive comments on news articles, blog posts
- Unsolicited reposts of content
- Even, some would argue…word of mouth
Owned Media – provides a channel within which to craft your messaging on your own sites to include your website, microsites, product app, all your social media channels, videos on YouTube and so on.
They all work together. Focusing on just one aspect will not yield optimal results.
Paid, Earned and Owned together help develop a recall of your brand, it’s messaging and thought leadership.
Remember Earned Media is not new
…tracking it, is not new
…praying for your audience and influencers to provide earned media is not new.
Building relationships with influencers, reporters, your customers and audience are the seeds of earned media. Tend to these relationships and the earned media will grow organically.
Organic growth is the power of earned media.
We are PRgloo. We help you manage your public relations efforts so that all aspects of your strategy stay organized and demonstrate your team’s efforts and contributions to earned media (amongst other things).
Keep it all organized in @PRgloo for we are #PRMadeEasy.