Emerging Media Trends And What They Mean To Us

It’s been a crazy ride. We’ve seen a number of changes in the media marketplace over the nearly two decades Coterie Media has been in the media strategy business.

• Television, print, radio and online have merged, purged, and recreated themselves, stealing attributes from each other.
• More news outlets depend upon wire services for covering stories that their reporters would previously do… but were laid off instead.
• An explosion of new online media outlets has occurred, with many established outlets dying off or losing valuable perspective.
• There are now a reported four publicists for every journalist. That explains why pitches go unanswered — and why continuous follow-up is critical.
• Video content is everywhere, with normal folks creating instant content that frequently goes viral.
• Twitter and Facebook guarantee everyone has a platform to tell a story — whether the story is accurate or not.
• Add in mobile media, with all its ubiquity and endless applications, and you’ll realize just how much the media landscape has changed.

With this kind of audience competition for media’s time, attention, and resources, we recently looked at the value we’re providing our clients, and how we can enhance our messaging, create a stronger impact, and provide a solid return on their investment. Principally, we looked at how we can extend our clients’ reach through the content we create, and enable more of our clients’ potential customers to understand, sample, and experience the client’s brand.

As a result of this search, we came to an understanding. The most powerful and effective way to accomplish this is through a combined strategy of three sectors: Earned Media, Shared Media, and Owned Media.

Earned Media: Strategic public and media relations that includes securing media coverage in broadcast (TV/Radio), print /online and social media platforms.

Shared Media: Social Media platforms, including Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram and others where companies can leverage earned media and self generated content.

Owned Media: Content that is generated by the brand itself, including self-generated articles, blogs, press releases, video, interviews, white papers, etc.

Each of these sectors in any launch must be integrated with the other for best results. Most of the time, you’re going to need some outside help to do that. But, remember one thing — marketing is always your most leverageable asset.

As for purchased media – or advertising, as it used to be called? Let’s leave that for another blog. There are a number of trends emerging there — too many for the space allowed.

Finally, if you need to create a PR effort but don’t know where to start, begin by defining your business and the advantages it gives your customer.

That’s a story you can own.