I knew things seemed too quiet. Web 2.0 terms have gotten a bit boring and Web 3.0 is still too far away to pontificate about, so alas a new BUZZ term ‘earned media’. I actually really like the term and use it to distinguish between what my team does and what our advertising team does. Both teams are on the web but have different tactics. I used to say “I’m the free stuff, and they are the paid stuff (now called ‘bought’).” But it’s not exactly true because Social Media is really free like a puppy – think about that for a moment and you’ll get what I mean. But back to ‘earned media’.
Earned Media is everything that happens with your brands word of mouth that isn’t paid for. Your brand ‘earned’ it by doing something that made people talk. The wall posts on Facebook.com/Windows is earned media. Blog posts when someone writes about Windows is earned media. You can measure this through free digital tools like TweetDeck and Technorati. Earned media doesn’t mean it’s free to the brand. My team works to build earned media but there is a cost; our salaries, our agencies. The goal isn’t to get earned media for free, that will almost never happen. The goal is to build earned media because research time and again shows earned media is far more influential to consumers making purchase and referral decisions. If I’m going to see a movie today I’ll likely check RottenTomatoes or Fandango reviews first. That’s earned media for the movie I’m interested in.
All brands want it, it’s just that most brands don’t know how to get it. And if they do get it, how do they decide if it’s good, bad or measureable. We monitor on Twitter how often Windows is talked about. We monitor the volume of blog posts about Windows and sentiment (did they like us or not). Don’t use bought media techniques to measure earned media, and don’t use the same yard stick to measure them against each other. One is easier to get because it’s for sale – bought, the other is harder to get but exponentially more powerful – earned.
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I love your comparisons between “earned” and “bought” media, especially how you differentiate them and the way they should be measured. I am in total agreement. Each tactic should have its own measurements and goals.
You say that you use tools like TweetDeck to measure earned media on Twitter, but how are you quantifying that to your executives? Are you using any other software from a reporting perspective?