In the marketing world we have what we refer to as four types of media: paid, earned, owned, and shared.
Years ago, being in business meant you really only ever had to worry about paid and earned media.
Then social media came along and created the opportunity for owned and shared media, which business leaders and communicators alike have scrambled to learn, understand, and incorporate.
But let's take a step back and look at what paid, earned, owned, and shared media mean.
Types of Media: Paid, Earned, Owned, and Shared
PESO Model © Spin Sucks
What Is Paid Media?
Paid media is what you know of as advertising. In a PESO Model program, it's not Super Bowl ads or billboards or magazine spreads. It's more the tactics a marketer or a communicator (versus an advertiser) can control: pay-per-click, social media advertising, boosted content, and fan acquisition.
You pay for the awareness, the clicks, the links, and the leads.
There are some places this overlaps with the other media types. For instance, where it overlaps with owned media is email marketing. You own the content you've created but have to pay for software to distribute.
These are the types of things to consider when you think about paid media.
What Is Earned Media?
Earned media is what you know of as public relations, or as we prefer to call in the business, media relations or publicity.
It used to be you'd hire a PR firm because of its deep relationships with journalists in your industry or nationally. Those relationships would help you tell your story so it would appear in your top trade publications, in the Wall Street Journal, or on "The Today Show."
Stories told from a third-party perspective are always looked at as credible and trustworthy.
But media relations is expensive, time-consuming, and comes with no guarantees.
Because of that, we often hear from business owners, "We tried a PR firm but it didn't work." Or my favorite, "A PR firm is like a charity. You give them money and you never know what happens to it."
If you only do earned media as your "PR" program, you'll likely end up sorely disappointed.
What Is Owned Media?
But that leads us to owned media. Unlike in the early days of Google, your website now has to be a living, breathing document. Gone are the days of publishing your site and not updating it again until years later.
The content you create has become even more important than the two forms of media listed above.
We're not talking about the copy on your website that talks about how great you are. We're talking about content that is valuable, interesting, and informative for your audiences.
Things such as how-to webinars, tips and tools, podcasts, informational white papers, or blogs that create value by giving away your best ideas.
We have a blog called Spin Sucks that has the vision of changing the perception of the PR industry (we're not all spin doctors) and provides business owners and the industry alike with the tools they need to do their own marketing and communications.
But a funny thing happened along the way. Most people won't do it themselves and, because we give away the best content for the topic on the internet, we're perceived as the industry leader. That darn blog drives 70% of our new revenue every year—even during down economies or a global pandemic.
When you create the very best content on the internet for your topic, Google will reward you—and so will your prospects.
What Is Shared Media?
Unfortunately, though, you can't just create the content and hope people will stop by. This is not the "Field of Dreams"—even if you build it, they most likely will not come.
Google continues to enhance its search abilities and to crack down on spammers. It will absolutely rank your website higher if people share your content on social networks.
The search engine wants to see that you are consistently creating new content, and that people want to share it with their networks. Double gold stars if you use video and house it on YouTube.
The first step is to make sure the social media share buttons are on your site so it's easy for visitors to share your owned media, but you also have to spend some time building networks of your own.
Don't go out and try to do that on all of the social networks. Studies have shown Facebook is the most effective for consumer-facing businesses (B2C) and LinkedIn is best for those working business-to-business (B2B).
Choose the one (or two) networks that best fit your audience—hang out on the web where they already participate—and start there.
Don't Get Stuck, Move With the Times
If you're in the market for external marketing and communications expertise, look for agencies that combine paid, earned, owned, and shared media—and understand how to use all four media types in an integrated manner.
There are lots of firms that are still stuck in 2010, offering only media relations and maybe one or two other tactics, such as events or a bit of social media, which they might dabble in.
And then there are others that see the future, grasp hold of it, and are there for their clients as technology changes the way we all do our jobs every day.
Find a firm that will help you move into the future today, not five years from now.
RELATED: 16 Creative Ways to Get Press Coverage for Your Small Business
