Here is a definition of the difference between earned, paid, and owned media, according to Sean Cocoran. According to Cocoran, “they can be applied as a simple way for interactive marketers to categorize and ultimately prioritize all of the media options they have today.”

Here are some items that Cocoran suggests to consider when creating an interactive media strategy:

• Create a solar system of owned media. Owned media creates brand portability. Now you can extend your brand’s presence beyond your web site so that it exists in many places across the web – specifically through social media sites and unique communities. In a recession in which marketing budgets are being cut by 20%, the ability to communicate directly with consumers who want to engage with your brand through long-term relationships can be invaluable.
• Recognize that earned media is a result of brand behavior. The term has evolved into the transparent and permanent word-of-mouth that is being created through social media. You need to learn how to listen and respond to both the good (positive organic) and bad (spurned) as well as consider when to try and stimulate earned media through word-of-mouth marketing.
• Your paid media is not dead, but it is evolving into a catalyst.  Many people are predicting the end of paid media (aka advertising). However, that prediction may be premature as no other type of media can guarantee the immediacy and scale that paid media can. However, paid media is shifting away from the foundation and evolving into a catalyst that is needed at key periods to drive more engagement.

Ford and its Social Media Success

Here is an article about the success of Ford’s campaign, mixing both social media and paid media.

Few tips to create a successful media campaign:

• It’s important to create an entertaining experience for people on social. Engaging people is fundamental to the campaign’s success
• Social has improved product awareness and consideration of Ford’s products tremendously
• Ford has seen massive savings as they’ve shifted away from traditional advertising budgets and started using PR and internet marketing agencies
• The skills Ford needs to run their marketing has shifted along with their shift to social.

Here are some interesting thoughts of Ford CMO, Jim Farley:

now what we’re learning is the more entertaining we make it for the participants, the better it is for us as a company.

social media hasallowed us to connect with people authentically

we’re really reducing the amount of traditional advertising we have to spend.

Consequently, the key to a successful campaign is to mix both social and paid media, in order to interact with your customers and have a great visibility.

Enjoy this video !

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3SEIz7TXgEM

A Professional Relationship

Social media makes sense. It’s cheap, you can reach your target market, you can expand your market, etc., the possibilities seem endless. But, as much as you can accomplish with social media, there will always be a place for paid media in its midst.

Sean Corcoran visits and revisits this phenomena in his blogs on forrester.com under Interactive Marketing Professionals. The first of these posts talks about the unlikely marriage between paid and earned media. This post was written in October 2010, so it is slightly outdated by social media standards, but it still raises a good point about the issue. Here Corcoran highlights the close relationship that should be found within paid, earned and owned media. Each brings something to the table that the other two cannot.

The second of these posts, written in July 2011, goes into Twitter’s use of promoted Tweets. This was one of the first variations of the use of paid media within social media. I think Corcoran summed it up in his bottom line: “Focus on your organic efforts and the user experience first, and then try out paid media to accelerate your efforts.”

Where do you draw the line between paid media vs. social media?

Barbies Unite Through Media

In an article on Mashable, it talks about the differences between paid, earned and owned media and how they have now become so intertwined.  A company can make as many commercials promoting their products, but they also need social media to help get more people talking about their brand and products.  The commercial would be the paid means of getting people’s attention, while the earned means would be through Facebook, Twitter and such.  An example of owned media would be getting attention through a company’s main website.

A good example of all three of these put together is the campaign to get Barbie and Ken back together.  In 2011, right around Valentine’s Day  and with the new Sweet Talkin Ken doll about to hit store shelves, Mattel decided to begin Barbie and Ken’s reunion.  They used media such as Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, Youtube, and Match.com, along with using cupcakes, candy, and billboards to grab people’s attention.  The owned media used was the website created for the event called BarbieandKen.com.  Although they are all seperated into different sections, many of them can be put in more than one section. The ending result was obviously Ken and Barbie getting back together.

Links:

http://mashable.com/2011/06/23/paid-earned-owned-media/

http://mashable.com/2011/05/05/barbie-ken-social-media/

My Way or the Earned Way

In the past, there has been a fairly clear distinction between paid media and earned media.  Paid media dealt more with advertising, and earned media dealt more with publications, news stories, and events that were more public relations driven tactics.

I found an article by Gil Rudawsky on PR Daily: Europe, titled “Earned Media vs. Paid Media”.  The article relates to the topic of social media causing the “blur” between paid and earned media.  He mentions that, ”Marketing and SEO companies that pay for placement are competing for PR business, and leaving those of us in PR industry explaining why we’re getting fewer media hits.”

Rudawsky describes the key differences that remain, even though social media created some gray area.  Earned media is demonstrated by fostering relationships with public and rewarding them with quality and interesting information.  It involves developing information that keeps going them as well as new publics to a site or page.

Paid media is a good tool for the larger companies that can afford it.  It involves sending out a large message on multiple platforms to the largest groups possible and is considered only one-way communication.

The following is Rudawsky’s list of differences between paid media and earned media.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For more articles by Rudawsky, click here.

-Eric Hughey

My Porfolio

Someone is Always Watching

Social media has beome one of the biggest ways of communicating for millions of individuala throughout the world.  It is not only a way to communicate with friends and family, or for companies to reach their many target audiences worldwide, but is now used in the classroom.  The question is, is the social media being used appropriately.  Take for example the story of Ashley Payne, the teacher from Georgia that had to resign because a photo was found by a parent of her holding 2 glasses of alcohol.  Although she had a private page, the parent somehow still found her picture.  On this website called Santa Rosa Mom, there is an article that talks about the case and brought up an interesting website called Spokeo.com.  This is a website where even if you do not have an account with them, you are able to find out a persons area of living, age, religion, and even pictures from social media sites!  Now I am sure if you actually paid to join, you could get more detailed information and this is scary. 

This is why if you work for any company or school, etc, you need to carefully choose what and what not to put on your Facebook or any type of personal social media you might have.  It could not only end up hurting you in the end, but hurting whoever you work for.  If you haven’t yet, now might be a good time to look over your personal accounts.

Link:  http://www.spokeo.com/

 

~Mariska

A Fine Line: Social Media Policy

Social media policies are created to safeguard a company from potential crises as well as from bad publicity from its workers.

However, there is a recent notice from National Labor Relations Board, which says “organizations need to be more specific in the language they use to govern the use of social media policy for US-based employees.”

Under the National Labor Relations Act, US-based employees have a legal right to organize to improve their working conditions, even if that effort includes publicly criticizing their employer or discussing confidential information, such as a salaries, on social networks.

So it raises the question, are social media policies legal? Can we prohibit employees from writing negative information about our company?

As social media grows and evolves, so do the rules and regulations. It is important to stay up to date on information and policies affecting your social media policy so that you are not caught in a legal battle.

Source

Social media policies do not need to be boring !

In the article Gap’s social media policy a guide for other companies, written by Gil Rudawsky, you can read a really good example of social media policy. Here is an extract of GAP’s social media policy:

‘Keep in mind…

>There’s really no such thing as “delete” on the Internet, so please—think before you post.
>Some subjects can invite a flame war. Be careful discussing things where emotions run high (e.g. politics and religion) and show respect for others’ opinions.
>It’s a small world and we’re a global company. Remember that what you say can be seen by customers and employees all over the world and something you say in one country might be inaccurate or offensive in another.
>Respect other people’s stuff. Just because something’s online doesn’t mean it’s OK to copy it.

How to be the best …

>Play nice. Be respectful and considerate, no trolling, troll baiting, or flaming anybody, even our competitors.
>Be yourself. Be the first to out that you are a Gap Inc. employee – and make it clear that you are not a company spokesperson.
>If you #!%#@# up? Correct it immediately and be clear about what you’ve done to fix it. Contact the social media team if it’s a real doozy.
>Add value. Make sure your posts really add to the conversation. If it promotes Gap Inc.’s goals and values, supports our customers, improves or helps us sell products, or helps us do our jobs better, then you are adding value.

Don’t even think about it…

>Talking about financial information, sales trends, strategies, forecasts, legal issues, future promotional activities.
>Giving out personal information about customers or employees.
>Posting confidential or non-public information.
>Responding to an offensive or negative post by a customer. There’s no winner in that game.’

If you do not want to end up like this…

Unfortunately, we all know people are more and more lazy; particularly when they need to read a ‘boring policy’. In my opinion, the way GAP wrote its social media policy is both simple and really clear in its content, creating a trust relationship between managers and employees. 

If you are interested by this subject, you can visit the following website:

http://www.prdaily.com/Main/Articles/Gaps_social_media_policy_a_guide_for_other_compani_11088.aspx

Or also the author:

http://crisis.groundfloormedia.com/

Elizabeth Stanton.

Making a Punctual Policy

Social media platforms have given people of all ages a voice to millions of listeners.  Along the same lines, every employee has a voice, and every company is responsible for that employee’s voice.  Many people have lost their jobs because what they have posted on their personal social media.  Many people have caused crises from their companies.  Not only does every business need social media, every business needs a policy or guidelines of how to handle employee’s voices on social media.

In an article I found on Inc. Magazine Online titled, “How to Write a Social Media Policy”, I found a lot of great information.  The article is by Tiffany Black and she makes a few very good points.  One of her main points I thought was very interesting was placing a clause within a confidentiality agreement about social media use.  Although employees may take social media light hearted, it is anything but “light” when that employee misrepresents the company.  I thought this was a great point and is probably going overlooked in many businesses.

It is also important to get employees involved in social media after a mutual understanding of the policy is in place.  Employees of a company should not be silent, this completes no type of audience engagement or brand awareness to the public.  Instead, employees should practice positioning comments about the company that places the company in a favorable light.  Employees that understand this importance, yet feel they have free range to craft their own messages on social media will become the greatest spokespeople for the company.

Black also gives 10 detailed points within the article that are important for creating a social media policy. For more articles by Tiffany Black, click here.

 

-Eric Hughey

www.hugheymedia.com

Social Media Policy Awareness

I found this video through an article on Mashable, “How to: Get your employees on board with your social media policy.” The video is a summary of the Victoria, Australia Department of Justice’s internal social media policy. It is a wonderful basic outline to any companies policy.

The article outlines some tips and advice for implementing a social media policy:

Understand the internal culture of your company.

Educate employees through continuous training.

Extend the conversation beyond training through internal discussion forums.

Empower employees to drive their careers and company forward.

Create a solid process. 

Tune into “What’s In It For Me,” or “WIIFM.”

Address problems efficiently, proactively and gently.

Give them a voice by ensuring people speak for themselves, not the brand.

What suggestions would you give to those creating a policy?