For the September episode of the B2B Comms Breakdown, built environment marketing expert Ayo Abbas and I went live online to discuss how you can use paid, earned, shared and owned media channels effectively.
Here are the edited highlights of that discussion and you can watch the full chat here on Ayo’s YouTube channel.
What are paid, earned, shared and owned media?
The ‘PESO’ Model was developed by Spin Sucks as an integrated approach to communications.
The graphic below gives much more detail, but a very short and simple explanation is paid = advertising etc, earned = media coverage etc, shared = content distribution via things like social media, and owned = blogs and newsletters etc.
Our conversation focused on three main questions starting with:
Have magazines had their day (earned media)?
STACEY: Ad revenue has fallen through the floor and most publications have got slimmer or even disappeared. Obviously, there’s still an online presence, but are they worth trying to get into?
I would say yes; I think there is still great value in having that third-party endorsement from these publications.
It can help in building trust if you are quoted or your comment piece is published.
A lot of publications are under-resourced at the moment; they need good content, so there’s an opportunity if you are producing good quotes and pitching in really good, pithy, punchy comments.
Quality is the key, it’s got to be good, and you do need to put your head above the parapet a little bit, particularly with opinion pieces.
AYO: When I started out in PR in 2000, industry publications were a lot chunkier; they were full of ads. And now, when you look at the print editions, they are flimsy.
But there is newer media, like Substack, where you can pay £150 for a year and get the content you want from particular writers. There are some amazing writers, and you’re happy to pay for that.
So, there is still a market for quality writing, but the format of how we get content is different.
Have magazines had their day? Yes and no.
STACEY: There are also other earned media avenues to explore. A lot of publications also have podcasts and host panel events and conferences.
Those are opportunities to pitch for and an opportunity for third party endorsement.
What other avenues are open for getting more traction for your content (paid and shared)?
AYO With social media, you can be your own publisher. If you look at LinkedIn, you could go to town if you use it to full effect.
There’s a reliance on just posting once and thinking it’s done. But instead think: ‘How can I get more bang for my buck from wherever I’m pushing this piece of content?’
How can you share your story in multiple ways and really sweat the story?
Then look at using ‘paid’. On LinkedIn, thought leadership ads are a new thing where you can boost a really good post from individuals. It’s relatively low cost and can be targeted at specific groups, say development directors in London.
There’s also a role for micro-influencers, certain individuals who have communities and audiences who listen to what they say.
It could be people who move the dial on concrete, on climate change, on sustainability – on all these range of topics.
Getting whatever your story is onto their radar and building a relationship with them so they end up talking about you in some way, could be a good way of spreading your message and work to the right people.
STACEY There’s great value in having people share your content and creating content that is shareable.
There are a few property companies that are creating some really great short, snappy social videos that get shared and loads of views and reactions.
If anything you’re creating gets shared it’s a third party endorsement, It’s getting you in front of a bigger audience.
Are you writing insightful, interesting, useful content that people want to share?
And are you actively building a community around the content that you are sharing?
A classic example of this is people posting on LinkedIn, getting loads of comments, but ignoring them.
If people are commenting and talking about your content, get in there and join the conversation. It’s great for visibility because the more activity you have on your social content, the more reach it will have.
Leverage the communities you’re building through your content. If you get a conversation going, that makes your feed the place to be because you’re talking about stuff that gets everybody talking.
AYO The other thing you can do if you’re working with others on a project is create assets that they can then use.
For example, when I do a podcast interview, I produce clips and share them with my guest so that they can share them on their channels if they wish.
It’s just planning at the start, thinking, what do I need to produce and share?
Are you using your own channels effectively?
STACEY There are two key areas I want to talk about: one is embracing what you control, and the other is repurposing.
We’ve touched on sharing your content with a wider audience through social media channels. With social media, you control the message but not the distribution.
Then there is your website, newsletters, podcasts – all of these things that you do yourself and have control over.
Newsletters are a channel that gets overlooked. If you’re building an email list of contacts, how often are you communicating? Are you pushing your thought leader out to your email list, for example?
If people subscribe to your newsletter, there’s already an investment in what you’ve got to say.
Then there is repurposing: Create less content, but create really good content and do more with it.
I would include things like events, webinars, podcast series, and white papers: splice, dice and reformat them.
Use that content to fill your shared channels, which helps get the message out to a bigger audience and positions you as a thought leader and trusted source of information… which can then lead to earned media.
AYO No channels are completely separate anymore. So look at your own content and say, ‘Can I add some paid behind this to give it more ‘umph?’, for example.
Look to see if you can get more clients involved in the channels that you own. So, for example, a webinar with one of your customers talking about an issue that maybe you’ve helped them solve could be an interesting thing to do.
Look at how you can really get your owned channels to work for you.
STACEY Take events; there is so much content you can get out of them. A carefully curated event with a really good panel, not just a group of people that are all going to say the same thing, becomes something that people talk about and want to be at.
An event can spin out into video content – if you film it – audio content, and all sorts of things.
AYO Even if you just use your mobile to record so that you can get a transcript and turn it into a series of blogs etc.
There are little things that don’t have to cost you an absolute fortune that you can easily do; it’s just planning ahead and having all of those things together at the start.
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