What is POE? Paid, Owned, Earned… And Shared… and Converged Media

Douglas Karr

Wednesday, January 13, 2021

Paid, Owned, and Earned (POE) media are all viable strategies for building your authority and spreading your reach in social media.

Paid, Owned, Earned Media

Paid Media – is the use of paid advertising channels to drive traffic and the brand’s overall message to your content. It’s used to create awareness, jumpstart other forms of media, and get your content seen by new audiences. Tactics include print, radio, email, pay-per-click, Facebook ads, and promoted tweets. Paying influencers can also be paid media when an agreement is reached for compensation.
Owned Media – are media, content, and platforms partially or entirely owned or controlled by the business. The role is to house the content, build authority and relationships, and ultimately engage the prospect or customer. Tactics include publishing blog posts, press releases, whitepapers, case studies, ebooks, and social media updates.
Earned Media – the acquisition of mentions and articles on established channels not gained through advertising – often, this is news coverage. Earned media sources typically already have authority, ranking, and relevance to a given industry or topic, so getting mentions helps to build your authority and spread your reach. Tactics include public relations, organic search, unpaid outreach programs to industry influencers and bloggers, and social networking.

What About Shared Media?

Sometimes marketers separate Shared Media to speak directly to strategies for driving traffic through social media sharing. This can be accommodated through social media advertising, influencer marketing, or simply developing social sharing strategies. Shared media strategies can be a combination of paid, owned, and earned media wrapped into one.

Wait… And Converged Media?

This is a growing strategy for content marketers. Converged media is also a combination of paid, owned, and earned media. An example could be my writing for Forbes. I earned a writing spot with the Forbes Agency Council… and it’s a paid (annual) program. It’s owned by Forbes and has an editorial and promotions staff assigned that ensure any content published meets their strict quality assurance guidelines and is distributed widely.

POE Isn’t Limited To Social Media

This is a fantastic infographic on POE from the Interactive Advertising Bureau of Canada and The Brainstorm Group. It speaks directly to POE from a social media angle which I believe is slightly limiting. Content marketing, advertising, search marketing, mobile marketing… all marketing channels are intertwined with any paid, owned, or earned media strategy.

And these strategies can expand beyond the digital realm into traditional marketing. Businesses are repurposing print materials, for example, into digital ones. Businesses are buying ad space on billboards to drive traffic to owned websites. Again… POE is core to any paid or organic marketing strategy.

The POE infographic walks you through the following: