Intelligence: Earned Media

"Earned Media" is the new black when it comes to social networking replacing or rather - evolving from user generated content (UGC). But what is it exactly and what do we need to know about it as marketers? Short answer - it's not about marketing at all, it is about syndicating true, unsolicited and unbiased audience dialogue.

As noted by Forrester below, earned media is different from owned media, which can include your brand or unbranded web site and partially owned entities such as Facebook and Sermo. This has intrinsic value in that you are facilitating a true dialogue by providing the tools to do so. This is also often called word of mouth marketing (WOMM)- but again, the concept of "marketing" is attached to this. Earned media is organic, also called word of mouth, absent the marketing part. Earned media is a results of brand behavior, but as Forrester notes - it stems from the old PR notion of enabling free media or buzz. With today's social media "constant context" however, this term has morphed to include true transparency, relevant value or even participatory value, and instant feedback. This holds true whether the earned media is positive or negative. The 411 is as follows:
So how can we apply this to pharma and wellness marketing? It involves a shift in embracing the potential negatives along with the hopeful positives. This then requires well thought out approaches, processes and not only monitoring, but being able to react in real-time. Heidi Youngkin from Johnson and Johnson stressed in her webinar on how J&J has tackled and actually deployed a fully integrated social media strategy (successfully), that it starts with corporate governance and a well laid out business plan, plus having a welcomed value proposition to your target audience to begin with. Well said, and carpe diem!