commbasics

We've looked at content for purchase content, owned content and social content in the previous posts and we're getting close to the end of our series.  Today we look at the reality and difficulty of earned content. This is why earned media is so valuable. The chart indicates relative costs and effort that go into the various forms of content and how the market audience views those various forms. Paid content (advertising) is the most expensive of all media and requires the least amount of effort but is the least trustworthy .  Owned content costs less and takes about more effort but us not viewed with the same level of suspicion, generally because there is a level of human contact involved.  Social content takes more effort but even less cost than owned because you can do it even without a website. Social begins to cross the trust barrier because objective third parties may have the opportunity to state their position... if social is done right.  ...

Penton Publishing, Electronic Design's parent company, is ceasing print operations, making them the first electronics trade press publisher, historically print-based to go entirely electronic.  UBM, Hearst, Advantage Media, etc. still have some print pubs.  The good news is, no one loses their jobs... except for the printers. Penton has come a long way since the media revolution began.  They were one of the last to "get" social and have become one of the better users.

Thanls Scott Adams!

Just got off the phone with Alix Paultre who has left his editorial director position at Advantage Media ( ECN ) to take a marketing position at Globetek, a privately held player in the power supply industry. What makes this an unusual move is that there is no downsizing at Advantage.  Globetek made a direct offer to Paultre, who cut his journalistic teeth on power supplies, "out of the blue," according to Paultre.  Chris Warner, current executive editor, will be taking over Paultre's duties for the time being. Paultre said this opportunity gives him an opportunity to take what he has learned about the changing media landscape and practices and put them into practice in a growing company.  We can probably expect to see Alix's fingerprints on several social media outreaches for the company.

 We come now to a discussion of earned media, which we will attack in two parts.  Today were going to look at search results as earned media.  We've touched on this in earlier discussions.  Not all search results are earned media, especially if you've paid for placement, but they can be considered earned if you've put the effort into making your content accessible through proper SEO practices.    One of the main ingredients in proper earned media is effort.  Earned media takes more effort to get than paid or owned media, but is an order of magnitude more valuable than the others because people tend to trust it.  As I've said earlier, the aspects of search that can be paid for (keywords, SEO gaming and outright pay for placement) have lessened the value, but if done right, it can be very beneficial to your communications program.  For now.  A few months ago, Google announced that it was changing the way in approa...

Contributed articles became a very big deal during the Web 1.0 boom.  Suddenly, print and online publications had a huge need for new content.  Not only did publications start running news releases, verbatim, but they started asking companies to write opinion and analysis about their own industries.  Public Relations companies were flying high organizing the rush of opportunities.  Then the boom busted.  Publications started disappearing, mostly print but several online publications as well and both journalists and PR folks started looking for other means of income. That did not, however, stop the demand for contributed articles.  The publishing world found that they could fill a lot of space, especially on line, with opinion, white papers, technical documents and presentations that they didn't have to pay for and could cut their newsroom budgets even more.  When webinars came around, they could actually charge companies to put their crappy ...

Social and earned media content is seen as truer because it is uncontrolled and has the perspective of the third party. Whether it comes from a known journalist or from the comments on a Facebook post, the readers know, in the least, that the author is not on your payroll. That provides a level of objectivity and even integrity that doesn't exist in an advertisement or corporate website.  Last post we looked at "suspect content" that is distributed over owned and paid media.  It's suspect to the audience because it is highly controlled and partisan.  Today we look at the "trustworthy content" that is found in earned media.  Social and earned media content is seen as truer because it is uncontrolled and has the perspective of the third party.  Whether it comes from a known journalist or from the comments on a Facebook post, the readers know, in the least, that the author is not on your payroll.  That provides a level of object...