Buzz Me Up Scotty - Earned, Paid and Owned Media

Forrester Interactive's Sean Corcoran defines earned, paid and owned media in his latest blog post.  The definition for paid media is the easy one but not many people have come to grips with the concept of "owned media".

This is arguably the most exciting, as it is where your customers become your channel.  Word of mouth maybe the most credible but it is also an approach that requires the most monitoring, as it is outside the direct control of the company or organisation

Monitoring the Buzz need to be built into any digital strategy and while there are many online tools that can assist, there needs to be an equal investment in staff resource.  Listening to the conservations is not enough;  people with the right skills need to be trained to sense opportunities as they emerge and feed these immediately to the business owners.

I would advise caution about jumping straight in to a paid media strategy.  Many of the agency promises simply don't translate into business growth and response rates are declining.

Ask yourself this question, when was the last time you clicked through on a Facebook or Google Ad.word?  I suspect the answer will reinforce the above observation.

Sean recommends treating paid media as a catalyst to drive increased engagement over a specified campaign period.  Don't hang your digital hat on it as a long term solution though.

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