I was working late tonight and listening to the Hugh Hewitt show ( a habit of mine) and was enjoying a new segment of his about entrepreneurs and small business when I heard those two words. I knew then and there that I was going to be working even later. This time on a blog post.
Hugh’s guest was a young man just starting a music instruction business and they promised to get around how he marketed without a budget per se’. They never made it there (although Craig’s List was tantalizingly mentioned) and the next caller to his talk show inquired further stating that she “really wanted to know how to do it”. Hugh replied (paraphrased) that today’s guerrilla marketing was mostly Earned Media and much of it online.
I thought quickly about what it is that we do. I thought of all the real estate agents and mortgage professionals out there, struggling to set themselves apart from the rest. Everyday we grapple with how to expand our reach and serve more customers, with the end goal of financial gain in the process.
Our marketing campaigns, however strategically complex (or not), derive their exposure from either the expense of time, money or a combination of the two. They are the two arbiters that determine the exposure that we generate for our businesses. Simple as that.
Blogging is Earned Media. The glory of the internet is that it affords the little guy / gal the ability to compete for eyeballs, minds and hearts in a marketing world that used to be dominated by the sheer force of money. This new found freedom to market using Earned Media is a good thing. It is more available now than ever.
Earned media is fun. The other day our little blogging group in our office got a pretty good laugh. A couple of the charter members of our team, Jon and Jennifer Karlen (Jon goes by the handle “Malok” online – a throwback from his online gaming days) got a pretty interesting voice mail regarding their horse farms blog. Here’s how it went:
“Umm…yeah…this is XXXX from Bloomberg News….I am calling for a ummm Malok(?)….I am looking for an expert on horse farms and the lack of hay stocks that horsemen are currently facing.”
Yeah, online reputation matters. One blog entry turned into an hour long interview with Jennifer and LOTS of great publicity. (read: MEDIA).
Actually, more correctly…(read: Earned Media). In the horse farms real estate market where one sale can MAKE a serious dent into the year’s income, and one buyer could be huge, the value of this Earned Media is priceless.
Way to go, Malok (errr…Jon and Jen)!
Brian Brady says:
I love this post. Earned media- brilliant!
March 13, 2008 — 9:09 pm
Eric Blackwell says:
@Brian…thanks for the kind words.
After writing it (and sleeping on it), I realized that there is much more to be written on this. Things such as:
Earned Media = Sweat Equity for REALTORS’ Marketing Strategies
SEO is also Earned Media.
These both jumped out at me as future posts waiting to be written.
And I could go on ad nauseum…. grin. I just really like the concept of Earned Media.
Best;
Eric
March 14, 2008 — 4:34 am
Mike Taylor says:
Good post Eric and kudos to Malok. You hear about traditional media turning to bloggers on the internet as sources more and more these days. That is the really cool thing about blogging, if you keep pounding out quality content it will get noticed sooner or later.
March 14, 2008 — 5:01 am
Dan Green says:
Malok pwns Bloomberg.
March 14, 2008 — 1:51 pm
Malok says:
Thanks for the nice write up, Eric – and I am greatly humbled by your accolades. It was a tremendous surprise to be called on by such a notable media company.
We were quite pleased and proud to provide additional insights, and discussion regarding the article, and hopefully the full in depth story with our remarks will be getting published shortly.
As an aside, I got to give a plug for Eric as well:
His willingness to help friends and others, sets the model to be followed for long term success in today’s fast paced business environment. He sets the standard for what I aspire on the world wide web.
March 17, 2008 — 6:27 pm