Are you getting your share of earned media?

Earned media Bill Gates’ phrase “content is king” has become a well-known mantra for all marketing professionals. To expand on that, great content is king, and it has its own stiff competition for consumers’ attention and dissemination to the right audiences through earned media.

Wikipedia defines “earned media” as “publicity gained through promotional efforts other than advertising.” In other words, earned media is online word of mouth (mentions, shares, reports).

In contrast, paid media refers to publicity gained through advertising (according to the same article). However, sometimes, exposure that starts with a paid campaign (a video or blog post, for example), continues with earned media (viral shares after advertisement stops).

Every piece of content you publish is an opportunity to engage your audiences, point them to your website and convert them into loyal customers. But even the best content won’t increase your brand awareness and search engine rankings if it doesn’t reach the right audiences. Content marketing and distribution is as important as content creation. A good marketing strategy not only puts your content in front of larger audiences and keeps it shared and circulated longer, but it also helps you reach out to new audiences, expanding your organization’s public.

How do you make sure your audiences consume your content? Your effective and timely content marketing strategy may include:

Announcing content launches with press releases
Sharing your content on social media
Using specialized niche platforms to promote your content
Using other marketing materials that you publish (newsletters, presentations, reports)
Reaching out to influential professionals and working with them
Doing analyses of your promotional efforts to improve your content distribution strategy

Carefully planned publicity efforts to promote your interesting, sharable content are very important for increasing your brand awareness and giving your search engine rankings a boost.

It’s also critical that you give the journalists you hope will cover your news exactly what they need in order to do it. For a straight-from-the-source guide on how to do exactly that, download Axia Public Relations’ e-book Learn Media Relations From The Media.

Yulia Dianova is a public relations professional who is skilled in building relationships with target audiences. She provides counsel to organizations that seek PR help to further growth and reach goals. Yulia earned a master’s degree in public relations management from University of Maryland University College. She is fluent in Russian and is always looking for a new challenge.