Earned vs. Owned vs. Paid Channels

What scares me about earned vs. owned vs. paid media? A few things. Let me break it down by channel for you, where I’ll also list off a few positives for the channels as well, but lately I feel I’ve seen a shift and it’s only about to get WORSE. 

EARNED:

This channel terrifies & excites me in a few ways. This is obviously a very effective channel for many brands, as word of mouth is a powerful thing, and the more shares your company gets, the better, but the amount of content being churned out on blogs, youtube, facebook, infographics is beginning to get overwhelming and create a sea of good/bad content to sift through. The face books of the world want to help you sift, which I guess I appreciate, but then again I don’t, when THEY get to tell you what content brands are churning out they want you to see RE: how they’ve started pushing videos SO HARD IT HURTS, when not every brand is there yet, so I feel the ones who aren’t sharing videos are about to get left in the dust… just when they started learning how to share a great photo. 

OWNED: 

This channel makes me (and others I’m sure) happiest because it’s everything YOU can control, you set the rules/guidelines/experience for and it’s unique to your brand alone. I suppose social media can be owned, but not in my eyes, since big social players can change the game at any second and your content becomes worthless. Basically, the rule of thumb is while you’re busy trying to create ‘cool’ content on instagram, you need to find ways to drive people back to your website, and make sure your user experiences match what you’re pitching on the channels you’re using to attract people in. 

PAID: 

Paid is obviously a great (and almost the only way) to get your content on social channels seen, as well as a great way to drive additional traffic back to the mothership, your website. What scares me about paid is how much every brand who thinks they get it is about to pour into it, while Facebook and Twitter can change their own game and make it more expensive to reach your audience, yes, your owned audience, which isn’t really owned if not everyone has a chance to see what you’re selling/pushing/promoting!? I find retargeting and PPC to at least be a bit more straight-forward about the process, but that too is about to get overused by so many companies due to the ease of use, targeting capabilities and relatively lower cost. 

Anyone else have strong thoughts on the various channels? Clearly my fear of these social media channels that are gaining huge traction (and dollars) who I feel could make the playing field harder at any second are a heavy weight on my mind. 

The Instagram Algorithm Debacle

Anyone who is an instagram user (or instagram marketer) realized last week the channel went a bit crazy. Instagram's algorithm was announced, and just like that bloggers, whose livelihood felt threatened, and brands, who just started investing in the channel, start uploading images asking 'fans' to turn on notifications for their brands. Everyone needs to SLOW down and take a breather, because this is NOT a catastrophe... it's life when you are playing on an earned, not owned channel. 

I'm not sure why so many people freaked out exactly, because once Facebook officially purchased Instagram, everyone saw this coming from miles away... and it's not necessarily a bad thing. Yes, you will have to pay to play, but what's new in social media these days? STOP asking your followers to turn on notifications, personally, I stopped following a few for that, and had to get off instagram for a few days to keep from getting too angry about it. 

If you're THAT worried about your instagram content, you either have the wrong audience or you're playing on the wrong channel. For my hotels, I'm not worried, because we get great engagement, we share relevant like-worthy content, and I don't think the instagram is going to decrease any of that. 

"Worry about your CONTENT, not your followers... as you should on any channel. "

Focus on the content you're creating, really make sure you're posting quality over quantity now that the algorithm is in play, and support your incredible content with ads, which is easily and conveniently integrated into Facebook's ad tool. 

How To Use Visual Content To Your Advantage

For those of you who've followed my blog over the past few years, you'll know that not only have I grown up in the digital era, but I've been working in it since before I started this blog. I've seen social media channels come and go, I've seen email marketing lose major faith from bosses & coworkers, and I've seen the digital front change before my very eyes faster than anything! 

One thing that's continued to ring true as social media, websites, email marketing, retargeting, digital advertising, etc,etc, overtakes the marketing front, is that great visual content MATTERS. Not only does it matter, it can make or BREAK your engagement numbers, ROI, CTR, and then some. 

Not only do you need to hire marketers who can spot great photography, it's probably key that they can take great photography from an iPhone as well, because that's what consumers (at least in the travel industry) want. They want you to tell a story with your imagery, don't worry so much about the text content that you have to draft up alongside it - a picture speaks 1,000 words, so don't waste those extra characters if you don't need to. 

By now, thanks to social media, you should know what types of images your consumers are interested in. Do they love food shots? Do they care more about a behind-the-scenes type feel? Do like they to see you do good? Even personally, you know before you post that instagram shot what is going to do well (and what time it does best) vs. what doesn't. 

So, don't overthink it, but use your head. Don't post that blurry shot, don't forget to fix the lighting and post a photo JUST to upload an image, not text - and DON'T feel like you can't hire a great photographer above all when you don't know where else to turn. 

What Is Content Marketing and Why Does It Matter?

Content marketing has become more than just a buzzword, it's all anyone's talking about in marketing everywhere you turn. It's not new, some companies have been doing it for decades, everyone else just came in late to the game and realized with the abundance of social media, it's become critical to create and share VALUABLE (key word here, folks) content. 

Content marketing can fit into almost industry, as well as B2B vs B2C. Everyone's tired of advertising, they want valuable information that may not even be just about you and your company alone. 

It's a great way to attract new or current customers if you're creating content they consume and use, plus it's owned media, not paid media (unless you count hiring copywriters, etc). Content is absolutely the present of marketing and it's only going to get bigger. Customers would rather visit your Facebook page or blog where you're talking about a variety of topics relevant to your industry but not necessarily your company than visit your website alone. It's almost impossible to have an engaging social media strategy without planning a great content marketing strategy alongside it, which can overlap into other channels as well. 

If you haven't yet gotten into content marketing & strategizing based on what your customers want and need, not just what you think they want - it's time to make the switch.