There are 3 separate types of traditional media that Altimeter has reported to begin overlapping into a new cross-channel integration or Converged Media. Content Marketing is Owned Media, Public Relations builds Earned Media and the overlap is Converged Media with or without Advertising as Paid Media.
“Converged Media utilizes two or more channels of paid, earned, and owned media. It is characterized by a consistent storyline, look, and feel. We foresee that to achieve cross-channel integration in a consistent way there will be considerable changes inside of the marketing org chart, and a clear strategy on getting agencies to collaborate, and intensive system integration of vendors.” – Altimeter Report
I believe Owned Media is about publishing a brand narrative customers should enjoy reading. Publicity for these stories need to be properly managed so they can compete with interruptions customers have from all the other brands they love. The new Public Relations responsibility is to build Earned Media and motivate subscribers to read and share Owned Media.
The Attention Connection is my formula to avoid audience burn out and help motivate customer engagement. Your Attention Connection will begin with Content Marketing a set of short informative posts that build your Owned Media. Next a feature story is produced to focus on a community narrative involving the recent set of short informative posts. This process becomes a monthly or quarterly publishing cycle.
Simply stated, The Attention Connection is when you first publish relevant short stories publicized with message placement on your social media channels. Then you publish feature stories linking to the short stories and continue to build social media sharing of your brand message as a part of the Conversion Funnel.
