Examples of Various Types of Digital Media in Senior Living
Paid, earned, and owned media: What do they mean and how do they apply to senior living?
The Difference Between Paid, Earned, and Owned Media
To break it down easily, paid media refers to purchased promotions, earned is organic publicity, and owned is media under your control. Let’s break down their definitions, examples, and how senior living operators can implement each type of media.
| Paid | Earned | Owned | |
| Definition | You are paying to leverage your community’s awareness, such as placing an ad in a newspaper or paying for a press release newswire service. Paid media can direct traffic to your owned media such as your website, or enhance your earned media efforts. | Media that is picked up on its own merit, such as a family member choosing to write a positive online review, is earned. Another example may be word of mouth from your PR rep, such as a reporter coming out to your community’s event because of an email pitch sent from your PR firm. | Owned media is what you control, such as your social media content or your entire website. You create the media yourself. Owned media is ideal for your SEO efforts. |
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*Although you do not own the platform itself, such as Facebook or LinkedIn, you still control and create the type of content you post to your page. It’s important to note that social media is a mixture of earned, paid (ads), and owned media.
Why We Focus on Earned Media
Paid, earned, and owned media each have their own advantages and disadvantages. There is no rule stating that you must use one or the other. However, your marketing team or public relations agency must be strategic regarding which media to use for your campaign or lifestyle story.
With that being said, marketing and public relations senior living agency Craft & Communicate leans heavily on earned media. This form of media is, in our opinion, the most effective way to tell your community’s stories without weighing down operators’ budgets. If a news station chose to showcase your event on the 6 o’clock news, it means an unbiased source is showcasing your community—for free!
Another advantage to earned media is that it is targeted. Your public relations coordinator must research which reporter, assignment editor, or producer is best to reach when contacting the news publication they are pitching, whether it is a national senior living news source like Senior Housing News or your local newspaper’s reporter on the business or metro beat.
Hook, Line, and Sinker
When comparing earned versus paid media, we like to think of this fishing analogy with the bass as your news pick-up.
- When you only use paid media in your public relations campaign, you could be casting out a wide net into an unknown ocean, hoping to catch a bass. You could come up empty or with a few small catfish, but not the big bass you were looking for. (We could think of the catfish as a news website that posted your release, but it isn’t a site your target demographic frequently visits.)
- When describing earned media, the fisherman first does his research and seeks out which body of water would be best to catch the bass; he zeroes in on that specific place to catch that specific type of fish rather than the entire ocean. His chances of catching the bass rise because he was targeted in his approach and did solid research before casting his net.
Although earned media has its risks (a pick-up is not guaranteed), your efforts will not be wasted.
It’s About Relationships
Whether there is a pick-up or not, your public relations coordinator has still built an ongoing relationship with the reporter. This means that there is a higher chance the reporter will reach out to you for a senior living-related story they are covering, rather than the competitor down the street, because the reporter already knows and trusts you. Most reporters, assignment editors, or producers will save public relations agents’ email addresses and keep their stories in mind for the future, even if they can’t or won’t pursue those stories now.
Read more about how we effectively gather lifestyle stories for our clients through our public relations division’s earned media efforts.
How Can We Help?
The C&C media relations, crisis communications, and reputation management team provides years of experience in public relations and senior living combined. Our niche expertise in senior living gives providers the peace of mind that we always place their communities’ best foot forward. Contact us to chat and find out more!
