Advertising offers great message control but questionable credibility. PR offers credibility through third party validation, but there are no message guarantees.
As an industry, we love to look at these separately to compare and contrast, but a better value is looking at how they can work together.
Paid media can earn media. It’s a point that’s stuck with me ever since a professor placed a controversial ad on an overlay for an overhead projector long ago.
Larry Flynt, the publisher of Hustler magazine, uses this approach often. My earliest recollection was during the Clinton-Lewinsky scandal where he placed an ad looking for dirt on any Republican.
Flynt is, perhaps, an odd place to find a PR lesson, but his scheme got a lot of coverage and he’s since repeated this tactic time and again.
Content Worth Unpacking
This tactic is widely adopted in politics because there’s a story in it. As The American Prospect wrote in
In How “Paid Media” Becomes “Earned Media,” the American Prospect wrote, “I also write plenty about the advertising candidates use, which gives them at least a bit of extra earned media, because I think their efforts to persuade voters in 30-second chunks are often interesting and meaningful, so the ads are worth unpacking.”
30-second chunks are often interesting and meaningful, so the ads are worth unpacking
Certainly it’s understandable that a company might balk at spending $40,000 (or more) for a full page print ad, but the social web offers a new twist on an old idea. Web ads, especially pay-per-click, have altered advertising in five major ways:
- It’s cheap.
- It’s precise, especially in terms of relevancy.
- It’s easily integrated with other marketing efforts.
- It’s adaptable; you can change it on the fly.
- It’s measurable.
This means any organization, including a business, can offer meaningful advertising worth unpacking.
Targeting Reporters with Paid Search Ads
Marketing firm AimClear has been an early proponent of this approach. In a post titled, Media Relations in the Social Age, Lindsay Schleisman wrote, “Ads on social networks, particularly LinkedIn, are a great way to seed stories with journalists.”
It’s a great tactic and I’ve copied AimClear’s approach with success in the past for about $100. When publishing survey results on SMBs and social media, I turned to LinkedIn for an extra push. It’s very simple to do and LinkedIn provides a way to precisely target ads by title and topic. Facebook offers similar capabilities, and it’s going to be interesting to see what the
It’s very simple to do and LinkedIn provides a way to precisely target ads by title and topic. Facebook offers similar capabilities, and it’s going to be interesting to see what the Graph Search might bring about for PR.
Google, of course, commercialized digital advertising, but there are other models. I haven’t yet explored Reddit or StumbleUpon but they do look like good alternatives with which to experiment.
Promote a Story Not a Product
There’s an old adage in PR circles that for best results, pitch a story, not the product. The same is true in terms of paid advertising for earned media purposes — it’s got to have a useful and relevant angle.
Solid research, like the content I promoted on LinkedIn, has a stable shelf-life and statistics are inherently useful for reporting. Amid cluttered email inboxes and phone calls that go straight to voicemail, paid ads on social networks are a passive, but an effective way of breaking through the noise. Surely some reporters will find this creepy, but if you focus on promoting something that helps a reporter, many will be receptive.
69% of respondents said that family and friends help them choose what to buy, up 13% from 61% last year.
Paid Media and Social Proof
Every day on Facebook I see ads promoting marketing software — there are dozens of different vendors but generally only two approaches to these ads. Some of these pitch sales demos while others pitch content. HubSpot, which has made its name for its habit of content marketing, clearly pitches content.
Over time, because I know these ads link to content, I’m more inclined to click and see what the company is doing or saying. I’ve learned a thing or two by perusing their content — like this post on infographics — and it winds up with a mention on a minor league marketing blog like this one.
And that makes two points.
- Gaining traction in the minor league. When enough minor league players are vocal about a product or idea, the idea bubbles up until it crosses a threshold where a major league player takes notice. It’s a form of social validation and crowdsourced PR.
- The most trusted name in news. Friends and family are the most trusted source of information for buying decisions. According to Marketing Charts, “69% of respondents said that family and friends help them choose what to buy, up 13% from 61% last year.”
For example, I’m very interested in how Jayme Soulati’s implementation of HubSpot’s software plays out. The company is on my radar from its content marketing, but the social validation by a user carries credibility.
User-generated content, especially from a respected industry professional like Jayme, can cover in far greater detail how well a product works. While that post in TechCrunch might build awareness through its wide audience, Jayme’s experience is more likely to tip the scale of a sale. That’s a good reason for vendors to try to earn her interest in their content.
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Paid media is not the bally-wick of the traditional PR pro, but some of the most venerable names in the industry are endorsing paid media the concept. I do as well, insofar as the focus is on earning media. Advertising should not work in isolation, and neither should PR. The two working together can make a far greater impact.
What clever ideas have you discovered for using paid media to earn media?
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6 Creative PR Ideas for Blended Media
Photo credit: Flickr, Andrés Nieto Porras, Times Square (CC BY-SA 2.0)
