Page 338 - Social Media Marketing for Dummies

Making Paid and Earned

Media Work Together

Earned media — editorial, radio, or television coverage of an event or product that
you don’t have to pay for — has its roots in the public relations world. Earned
media is usually free publicity through promotional and marketing efforts outside
advertising. Public relations professionals have mastered the art of getting their
clients earned media at a cost significantly lower than buying the media attention
through paid advertisements or promotions of one form or another.

With the continued growth of social media, earned media has taken on a new
dimension. Your brand no longer has to depend on the mainstream media to earn
attention among its consumers. Your brand can also earn that attention directly
by interacting and engaging with its consumers and their influencers across the
social web. All of a sudden, earned media means engaging with consumers on
social platforms from Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook to YouTube. If you can
attract your consumer’s attention directly, why bother with the mainstream
press? And for that matter, why bother with paid media, either? In fact, journal-
ists, too, use social media for story ideas. Keep in mind, though, that earned media
in the social space isn’t necessarily predictable, and although it can be a critical
element to communicate your brand messages, it can’t be depended upon.

Working harder to gain attention

In the early days of the social media phenomenon, brands that engaged in direct
conversations with their customers, and their influencers automatically gained
prominence. After all, what they were doing was revolutionary. The first time a
user got a response from a customer service agent via Twitter must have been
quite a seismic moment. Similarly, the first time a chief executive officer of a For-
tune 1000 company started blogging, it drew a lot of media coverage and won him
praise among his customers. Zappos developed a reputation for phenomenal cus-
tomer service through Twitter; Figure 22-2 shows the Zappos Twitter feed.
Zappos was among the first to leverage Twitter strategically for customer service.

The days of participating in the social web to simply earn attention are over. Your
brands absolutely must still receive attention, but doing so has gotten harder —
and it requires more of your time. Every other brand is doing what you’re doing
online.

So the question is, how can your brand earn the trust and attention of consumers
online in a meaningful sense? This is where paid and earned media needs to work
together. We discuss this in the section that follows.

322 PART 5 Old Marketing Is New Again with SMM