The main goal of public relations (PR) is to boost the reputation of your brand. Every business has a story and PR is how those stories get heard. PR is probably the most efficient, cost effective means of getting your brand message and story out.
Although reputation alone doesn’t always impact sales, it boosts your credibility and promotes your business indirectly. In the business world, credibility translates into trust, which in turn attracts customers, resources, and investment.
To make PR work, you need to develop three types of media: owned media, paid media, and earned media. They play different roles in PR strategies, but all provide ways to reach, engage, and build trust with your industry and stakeholders.
Owned media
Owned media refers to all the content and channels owned, created, and controlled by your business. They are the basis of PR campaigns. The more owned media your business has, the more opportunities there are to shape story angles for the media to write about. The media’s customer is their audience, so you need to have stories that their audience loves to hear.
Owned media is by far the most important type of PR-related media, and you have total control over them. Owned media comes in these forms:
- Website content
- Blogs
- Social media posts
- Email newsletters
- Videos, photos, and other types of visuals in high resolution
- Keywords and tags
- Corporate backgrounders
- Customer testimonials
Owned media act as resources for your PR activity. When journalists and influencers write about your business or products, they are likely to use your visuals and website links in their coverage.
Paid media
Paid media refers to paying third-party media through advertising or sponsorship – i.e. you pay to promote your story and content. It’s a popular practice to promote and capitalize your owned media.
Paid media includes:
- Advertising on third party media or social media
- Paid content promotion
- Paid influencer marketing
- Pay Per Click (PPC)
Nowadays, most social platforms are reducing organic reach for business accounts. Even if you have a large following, your followers often don’t see your content. As a result, paying third party media is becoming increasingly popular, since you can ensure that your PR content gets before the right people.
Earned media
Earned media refers to the unpaid coverage/mention of a business or organization by third-party entities such as media publications, customers, or influencers. It is perceived as credible, cost-effective, and can be easily integrated with other channels in the promotional mix. Earned media is arguably the best PR tactic for boosting conversation around your brand.
But earned media was dubbed “earned” for a reason. It takes lots of effort, consistency, and hard work to obtain it. Earned media includes:
- Featured articles in the media
- Mentions in news and reviews
- Shares, comments, backlinks, retweets, and praise from media or customers on social media
- High rankings on search engines
All three media avenues are ways to use PR to build brand awareness, generate leads, and attract customers. Use them wisely.
