Owned, Paid and Earned media

In web-marketing, there are several types of media that can be used by a company in order to develop marketing on the Internet :
• Owned media are media the company possess and controls. For example : websites, blogs, social media accounts such as Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram. Using this type of media is not very costly. However using effectively this media is time consuming and impact on customers is not guaranteed.

• Paid media are media the company pays to improve its visibility on the web. Usually companies use advertising announcements and services of internet referencing. In fact, web professionals offer more services to optimize web marketing.

• Earned media are the ones the company acquires throughout its activity. The most common example is word-of-mouth and virality mechanisms. Earned media are the most difficult to control but we can try to influence it (by creating a buzz, for example). Nevertheless, consumers and other companies are the real players that ca nhave an impact on the reputation of the company. In fact, Internet users are more likely to believe what others say about the company than what the company says about itself. Having good press on forums, specialized sites and sharing sites is a good way to improve earned media image. The opposite could be potentially devastating for the company’s reputation.