There are a lot of opportunities for brands to reach their target audiences. When you’re developing a strategy, how do you work them all in? When? How often? The choices you make may be driven by your strategy or campaign, but analyzing how well your paid, owned and earned media work together and bringing them in line is a great way to give your brand a boost.
Take Facebook. Which is it—paid, owned or earned? The answer is all of the above. There are ads (paid), brands post to their own pages (owned), and fans and followers may post to your page or talk about you on their channels (earned). Ads sometimes look like content in a consumers news feed, blurring the line between what’s paid and what’s not.
So how do you get started? Before you take on the converged media approach, take a look at your strategy. If you don’t like what you see, try this:
Develop a Content Strategy that works everywhere.
“Re-purposing the same content on each channel is not a recipe for success, as each provides a unique opportunity, challenge, and therefore approach. Instead, develop a broader Content Strategy by first understanding that all companies (even those selling widgets) are now media companies.”
Have a Playbook and know when to use it.
You don’t need to reinvent the wheel every time. Develop workflows that deploy content across channels as needed, but don’t get complacent either. “Don’t overly rely on the same play, as competitors may exploit the same play time and time again, so expect flexibility based on what the data tea leaves are reading.”
Be ready to change—and change again.
Does your marketing department need to reorganize and tear down the walls between silos? Is brand talking to social? How about PR?
For example, online real estate sales site Zillow found that the key to success is putting it all together. Here are some ways they used a sweepstakes across channels.
- First, the brand deployed a fun quiz that delivered immediate results to the consumer, entered them to win a prize and captured valuable data for the brand.
- The quiz and the contest were promoted via ads, driving people to the company’s website. The quiz was also able to be shared via Facebook and Twitter, creating valuable earned media impressions.
- As all the new leads (and new data about those leads) filter in, it can be used for future targeting efforts via email or social based on what the brand has learned about those consumers and their preferences.