The Future of Communications Is Paid, Earned and Owned

If you are going to tell a story, make sure someone sees it.

The difference between earned, owned and paid media has eroded as more channels provide narrative-driven advertising and contextual communication avenues.

As these two industries converge, it is important to understand how PR and advertising tactics can overlap when creating a strategic communications effort.

Having worked in PR, marketing and advertising over the past decade, I know that public relations requires a unique set of talents. The skills of relationship building, storytelling, news judgment, excellent written and verbal skills are what make great PR professionals. Building upon those skills with a better understanding of audience targeting, reach and frequency metrics can only help a campaign when done tactfully.

As Nielsen reports there are more media channels, more competition for our attention and more devices than ever before. Timing matters, but so does the ability to connect with distracted audiences across the fragmented media landscapes. At the very least, paid advertising can guarantee some audience attention and alleviate the pains of the fluctuating news cycle when paired with a strong PR strategy.

Sponsored content, promoted social media posts and contextual advertising are a few examples of how paid media can extend the impact of an earned or owned media message. Want to reach members of Congress with a story you placed? Target the Twitter handles of those Congressional members through promoted tweets on mobile. Want to tell a complex story and own more of the narrative? Try sponsored content and extend the conversation over several weeks. Then measure whether or not your message moved people, not just if it generated traffic and engagement.

For those in PR who haven’t dabbled in paid media yet, a few things to remember: you will need a decent budget, specific audience targets (down to the zip code) and a timeline that spans a few weeks, not days. You will need to work with people who know how to execute the levers behind an advertising campaign. And at the end of it all, you will need to be able to tie in marketing metrics with your PR industry knowledge to report on the full impact of your efforts.

Whether you intend to drive traffic, influence a conversation or channel media attention when a story breaks, it is time to know how to put your money where your mouth is and pair up your PR strategy with paid promotion.