When paid, owned and earned media come together, they give birth to what some marketers are calling, “converged media.”
Converged media happens when at least two or more of the above-mentioned media channels come together, use a consistent story line (look and feel), and work in concert to meet a certain marketing or content marketing goal.
A Quick Lesson: Paid, Owned & Earned Media
Paid Media: Paid media is exactly what it sounds like. Think ads, paid search (SEO), or even sponsorships.
Owned Media: Encompasses your brand-owned sites, like your website, social platforms, blog, etc.
Earned Media: This is the GOOD stuff, or when your customers and brand advocates are the medium/channel. WOM (word of mouth) or peer-to-peer recommendations, buzz surrounding your brand, or perhaps it happened when a social post of yours went viral.
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Converged Media
So, by taking two or more of the forms of media listed above and combining them, you have converged media.
The idea is that you’re aiming to have synergy with the media pieces; they need to work together in harmony to create the desired effect.
How To Create Converged Media
I think Amy Porterfield is an excellent example of someone who clearly understands how to create, and leverage, converged media.
Let’s take her most recent webinar (which I attended because I saw her sponsored posts on Facebook).
Through her OWNED MEDIA (her Facebook page), Amy puts out a post about her webinar:
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She does this several times, combined with PAID MEDIA (Facebook Ads & Offers):
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All of which earns her many shares and stories by peers on Facebook about her webinar … which results in EARNED MEDIA:
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Between the four posts showed above, Amy was able to garner 607 total shares for one webinar she hosted, and you can see that nearly 1,000 claimed her offer for the free webinar.
That’s the power of converged media – it’s like a boost of B12 for your marketing campaign efforts because it combines paid and owned media with the all-important WOM, or peer-to-peer marketing.
Granted, we may not all have an audience as big as Amy’s (over 32,000). However, we can utilize her examples as one way to leverage converged media for our marketing campaigns, whether they’re on Facebook or not.
Are you currently using converged media? Has this post inspired you to do so? Let me know in the comments below!
See you in the social sphere!
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