SUCCESS IN MICROMEDIA ISN’T JUST ABOUT SOCIAL MEDIA
The media space used to be divided into well-defined silos by format: radio, TV, newspapers, and magazines. As the Internet grew in reach and importance, online media was added to the list. Then, as social media exploded onto the scene, it was added into yet another category.
Who knows what new categories will come next in terms of media format, and we don’t think it’s productive to divide formats by technology or medium. Instead, we believe it is much more helpful to divide media into categories based on ownership.
As we mentioned in Chapter 1, today there are three categories you need to be aware of (see the table below): owned media (channels you own and fully control), rented media (your social media channels, which live on real estate owned by someone else), and earned media (channels others own and control that you must earn access to).
Owned media
Owned media includes all channels that you have created and fully control. You own your website (and the blog there if it lives on your URL). You own your email list and you fully control the content delivered and frequency with which it arrives. Outside of extraordinary circumstances or poor email list management, no one can rob you of that list, nor can they limit or constrict the way in which you distribute content or information to it.
In today’s environment, it is increasingly important to own a vibrant and effective media channel in your website. Furthermore, you should channel the attention you receive from earned and rented media back to your own media (your auditorium).
Rented media
Many people are under the mistaken impression that they own their Facebook page, Twitter account, or Instagram feed, but the reality is that these are rented media channels. At any point Facebook can change its algorithm and limit your ability to reach your audience. At any point Twitter can receive a complaint and shut down your feed. When you are producing content on each of these channels, what you are really doing is standing in a very small section of their stage and, with their permission, reaching a subset of their audience that has indicated they are interested in what you have to say. This is really valuable for you and is definitely something we want you to keep doing, but you also need to know that you don’t own this real estate, and you don’t want your main micromedia channel to live on someone else’s stage.
Instead, think about rented media as a way to access people in a very large auditorium and interact with them in an engaging way. The goal, though, isn’t to only keep their attention there—it is to find creative ways to drive them into your auditorium to join your list.
Rented media also includes advertising, whether online or traditional.
Earned media
Earned media includes all channels owned by others, from NPR’s airwaves to Lady Gaga’s Twitter account to TED’s stage, that you must earn, rather than buy, access to. It also includes live events where you have earned the right to speak from the stage, talk to fans at a book signing, or reach them through any other kind of forum. The great thing about earned media is that people understand there is a significant vetting process before you are invited on someone’s stage. NPR is one of the hardest bookings in PR. Lady Gaga rarely highlights a book or product outside of her own. Getting an opportunity to speak at TED is among the toughest challenges out there. Thus, when you do get on stage, it gives a huge amount of credibility to you and your message, and people are much more likely to take action on your advice as a result.
Earned media also includes online bios and blogs for the company where you work. The reality is that for many of the people, the first result on a Google search for their name is their bio page on the company website. That’s fine if you own the company, and it’s also okay to have that company page as the first result for a time, but your goal should be to have the first result in a search for your name as real estate that you own.