Earned media is the art of getting free publicity on some media provider. Earned media is something companies have long sought on a variety of mediums and recently there has been some focus on earned media success on Facebook.

The social networking utility has been in the news a lot lately in regards to its IPO. The company is seeking to prove the value of its paid efforts, but earned media is also getting attention. Companies using Facebook for earned media have seen some success.

From Can Facebook Go Beyond Earned Media Success?:

The data showcased how earned media activity on Facebook affected consumers’ offline and online purchases. After being exposed to an earned brand impression from retailer Target on Facebook, 4% of fans made a purchase during the next four weeks, compared to 3.3% of fans in the control group. In addition, friends of fans who were also exposed to the brand messaging had a higher purchase incidence rate than friends of fans in the control group.

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Overall, earned media is still a driving force behind purchase behavior. This is great for marketers, but a challenge for Facebook itself.

There is more in the article and the study. It’s interesting and worth a few minutes of your time. The discussion centers on the focus of Facebook to prove the effectiveness of both earned media and paid advertising.

Earned media is something businesses realize is important, but Facebook doesn’t need to be the main focus on earned media. Consumers are finding earned media mentions all over the Web including on business websites.

Earned Media Strategy for Online Business

Content Marketing is something we discuss here on GBW with almost every post. The concept is that you’re looking to create the type of information your target audience is seeking when they search and share online.

With a blog your company has its own media channel just like Facebook. Over time, the goal is to build an audience of subscribers that trust your brand because of the valuable information you provide. This is a strategy much more valuable than building a list of followers on Facebook or some similar social networking channel.

Social media needs to simply be one part of the way you build your audience. Your blog or your website is the center focus of the overall content strategy. But in order to build the audience you’ll need to tap into existing audiences.

Facebook, Twitter, and other networks including blogs have existing audiences. The goal is to offer some of your best content to those channels in return for access to the existing audiences.

Guest posting on other blogs is a great way earn the attention of your target customers. There is an art to publishing content on existing blogs. You want to make sure you’re not trumpeting your own company. You want to provide useful information to your target audience with the goal of building trust.

The same idea works on Facebook. You want to create information that helps your target audience with the problems they have. By doing this you can see your followers increase on Facebook, but you want to have the focus on the real valuable content available on your site.

An overall content strategy can work for businesses. Earned media is incredibly important in the social sharing world.

What are you doing at your company to develop an earned media strategy?