Earned media, social media or simply FREE media?

Earned media defined by Wikipedia, “refers to favorable publicity gained through promotional efforts other than advertising, as opposed to paid media, which refers to publicity gained through advertising”. While in the same definition social media is “refers to publicity gained through grassroots action.” In both cases the outcome is “free media” based on consumers generated conversation or actions as a result of well designed social marketing programs. Or perhaps a better definition is earned media through social media activation. Recently a few brand programs have launched that take advantage of the “anywhere anytime” approach to engaging in dialogue with consumers across the social web generating “earned media” in through Facebook Connect.

Burberry launched this week with a clever Facebook Connect integration, http://ArtoftheTrench.com. showing everyday people wearing Burberry trench coats. The company invites trench coat owners to participate and will then add the best of the submitted shots to add to the site. Consumers can, rate and review trench coats, not just Burberry trench coats, but any trench coat picture the consumer uploads to the site. When a consumer is visiting the Burberry site using Facebook Connect all the consumer activities are posted their respective Facebook News Feed. The ratings and reviews post to the consumer’s news feed spread the engagement of the brand to the consumers friends giving Burberry earned media through social activation.

With Facebook connect I rated an image on the site the http://ArtoftheTrench.com my activity generated news feed stories on my Facebook page generating earned media.

http://artofthetrench.com/
http://www.facebook.com/burberry

http://twitter.com/burberry 

http://youtube.com/burberry