Why Earned Media is the key to your digital strategy

For many years, when planning and developing a content strategy, Earned Media didn’t get the proper attention it deserved. Often ignored, this component was seen as a dire relative, often excluded or at best, relegated to the background.

But nowadays, with social networks and with new automation processes, Earned Media has gained new relevance in content strategy. The game has changed.

To understand this change, it is important to understand the differences between these three components:

The Owned Media component consists of all communication channels that are directly controlled by the brand. The brand has absolute control of the contents. In this group we include channels such as a brand’s website or the brand’s profiles/pages on social networks.

Paid Media refers to communication channels, not controlled by the brand, but to which the brand accesses through a payment, obtaining a relative control over the contents and the presentation. A good example is television or press ads.

Mentions, comments or shares of brand content, created and promoted by third parties, are Earned Media. This is exposure gained through unpaid promotional efforts. A share on social platforms, an opinion article in the press or a review of your product in an online store are all considered Earned Media content.

We should consider that the use of the Paid Media component is indicated to start a campaign and to launch Owned Media channels. These, in turn, will contribute with content to sustain the wave of Earned Media that will expand the audience, functioning as an amplifier of the brand’s contents.

To make it simple, your brand creates a television advertisement (Paid) that is then published on your brand’s Facebook page (Owned), where it is viewed, commented and shared by your audience (Earned).

The problems of messaging control and time investment to ensure scalability, traditionally the biggest hurdles to Earned Media, have been losing relevance.

With the evolution of technology and the appearance of automation, today it is possible to scale and guarantee control on Earned Media results. Thus, as a result of higher trust and acceptance from consumers, these tend to gain more and more weight in marketing budgets.

Investment on Earned Media formats is a trend of recent years that will continue to grow.

The Earned component also enhances your content and thrives on them.

This improves your brand’s reputation, counteracts the negative effects of the algorithms improving SEO, helps to build and maintain credibility, establish a relationship between your customers and your brand, and is considered the most reliable format (83% of consumers according to Nielson’s Trust in Advertising study).

Thus, by building trust and credibility, the Earned Media component lays the groundwork for the consumer’s next step: taking action.

The best content in the hands of the right influencers can boost brand results, expand your audience, improve efficiency and reduce investment.

At Socialtalk influencers with detailed demographical and psychographic information can be added easily to your campaigns.

Socialtalk helps you managing campaigns with high quality content, selecting the right consumers and monitoring the results for sharing such content easily.

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check out this article where it was originally published.