The necessity of converged media

Once upon a time, dealing with the media meant dealing with paid media, owned media and earned media. Paid media consists of traditional ads that you see on television, hear on the radio and see in print publications. Owned media is content created by and owned by a company or organization such as marketing materials and white papers. Earned media is basic press coverage that appears in traditional news outlets.

All of these are now melding together - converging - along with promoted brand content, blog posts, podcasts, ebooks and videos. It's hard to keep them all separate. Some of our clients aren't sure how to prioritize or become enamored with the latest fad.

Think of converged media as giving you more options to tell your story.

If there's any lesson to be learned amid this ever changing media landscape it's that it pays to think strategically about how all of these components can work together. Think of converged media as giving you more options to tell your story.

So, think about how your earned media can dovetail with your paid media and how your social media can help promote both. Think about how you can re-purpose that press release into a blog post or turn a blog post into a video.  

The goal is to think like a digital publisher with the goal of reaching more potential customers. No one customer will follow you at every stage of the process, but with enough effort, you can generate more search engine results, more traffic and ultimately more business.

Mack Communications | Twitter: @Mack_Comm