Earned Media and Influence

We call earned media the result of an organization's mainstream media and blogger outreach. We've been thinking about this relationship as an attempt by the organization to influence third-party content providers to write about the company, its products, or services.

In the old model, the public relations professional sends a pitch, the journalist, editor, or blogger either responds requesting more information, or the PR team follows up with a subsequent reminder about the pitch -- typically, another email or a phone call.

This is still done today, despite the widespread adoption of new media by both the pitching and the pitched.

There needs to be a better way. In many cases the follows ups are not more interesting or tailored than the original pitches. In some cases they are outright annoying. We're used to looking at the journalist and blogger as the influentials and the PR professionals as the people working to persuade or manipulate them.

Influence is a better way

To build a reputation of credibility, reliability, and trustworthiness for the organizations they represent, PR professionals need to influence attitudes and behaviors. Increasingly, the best way to do that is by becoming knowledgeable about the product or service, as well as the industry and context in which they operate -- its market ecosystem.

Influence is built on trust, so there need to be three essential agreements on how to go about getting there:

(1.) Ethics in data collection -- full disclosure is the new transparency

(2.) Open communication -- as business is a process, so two-way communication or conversation is the lubricant that fosters ownership

(3.) Clear language -- say what you mean, illustrate with stories, eliminate jargon, adopt the words of your community

Become a useful filter

Although we've been talking about content overload for quite a while, to me the need for quality content is still very much alive. PR professionals are in a rare situation of being able to affect how information is analyzed, aggregated, and filtered to make it more digestible -- and help people make sense of it better.

This means they will probably also be more likely to share it.

I'm thinking about American Express OPEN forum as the go-to place for small business information and content, as a successful example. Then think about the opportunity missed by organizations in health care to aggregate information and news on the health care reform to help customers make sense of things.

How you get there

Earned media is a result of influence, not persuasion. We write about people and organizations we get to know -- not just know about -- and learn to trust. Influence is a sign that the relationship is going somewhere.

If these are the benefits, what are the challenges? Do new media and technology encourage a less thoughtful approach than that of past influential PR professionals? Thinking about the role of counselor to the CEO that many communicators have filled.

Is it now too easy to be careless about quality and attention?

[image by lynetter]

© 2010 Valeria Maltoni. All rights reserved.

Comments

[Arik Hanson]

Love this line, Valeria: PR professionals are in a rare situation of being able to affect how information is analyzed, aggregated, and filtered to make it more digestible -- and help people make sense of it better.

That nails it for me. I've been thinking for some time now that that's the big future (it not current) role for PR. Aggregating, analyzing and providing the relevant context to the content important to your customers.

And you're so right about health care--huge opportunity. But, obviously for other industries, too. What about the professional services world (accounting, in particular). Couldn't one of the Big Four or second-tier firms create a community aimed at helping controllers and CFOs get quality content that can help them make more informed decision? Don't think that would have a halo effect for one of those firms?

@arikhanson

[Talmadge Boyd]

Hi Valeria,

I'm thinking about this line, "Do new media and technology encourage a less thoughtful approach than that of past influential PR professionals?"

Thoughtfulness isn't based on a medium; new media is an extension of the value you provide for your clients.

And, besides, the tools cut both ways. If you care enough to learn about the people within a niche, then the opportunities to do so have never been more legion.

Ubiquitous content doesn't alleviate you of the responsibility to be novel and useful.

[Valeria Maltoni]

@Arik - what you're proposing sounds like a lot of work for potentially little yield, especially for firms used to having marketers put stuff out there that automatically generates leads. You will see in my posts this week (I do start setting the tone on Sunday), that there are two camps in this conversation, and there are some critical steps a company will need to take to align to this way of thinking... and doing.

@Talmadge - not based on any one medium, based on ease of access. It's easier to push out a thoughtless email pitch or a string of tweets for many companies, than it is to have a dialogue. My observation is that we're still at the push stage (there are exceptions), even when there are opportunities to learn about a company's customers. The reason most cite? All the time is still taken up by committees reviewing and approving messages, with none left to be thoughtful about fitting message to audience.

[Marianna Hayes Chapman]

From the position of new media providing an opportunity for equal footing for small and big business alike, this idea of building relationships with the media vs. pitching a press release seems to be a recurring theme on our ResultsRevTV episodes. We've had two episodes where owner/publishers of small, independent local news publications or blogs talked not only about marketing their own business but how other businesses related to them as media. They both encouraged this idea of building relationships, trust then influence with the media. They described weekly/monthly phone calls, e-mails with story ideas and just friendly relationships as keys to PR success. Basics, but yet most small businesses don't do this or realize they CAN do this.

Here are some links to those episodies:
http://www.resultsrevolution.com/2010/05/resultsrevtv-with-elizabeth-sparkman-fowler-%E2%80%93-may-11-2010-%E2%80%93-archive-coming-soon/

http://www.resultsrevolution.com/2010/04/resultsrevtv-with-jack-criss-%E2%80%93-april-13-2010-%E2%80%93-archive/

I don't think this concept is "just" for PR pros, but also for all business owners, regardless of size.

Good stuff - thank you!