In this post from our series about the PESO content distribution framework, we’re going to talk about the ‘S’ in the PESO model – ‘shared media’.
PESO stands for:
- Paid
- Earned
- Shared; and
- Owned
The reason PESO is more useful than previous models that centred solely on paid, earned and owned media is that shared media transcends all three. Social media is sometimes self-instigated (owned), sometimes organic (earned) and sometimes promoted (paid). None should be considered the preferred approach. And any of these can work in harmony with any other.
In the PESO model shared media means, predominantly, social networks. An effective B2B campaign means making best use of Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, Vine, Google+ and the rest.
It’s tempting to conclude that a B2B or client services campaign should only invest in LinkedIn, the world’s largest professional network as the other networks mentioned above seem more suitable for B2C campaigns. That, however, would be to miss out on the potentially huge opportunities the colossal worldwide audience Facebook and Twitter possess. Let’s consider each in turn..
Owned and earned:
Company and showcase pages, long-form posts on Pulse, groups, and SlideShare all provide opportunities to host and share content that has intrinsic value, extends reach and demonstrates credibility, knowledge, suitability and experience.
Paid:
As with other social networks, the power of LinkedIn is its scale. It currently has over 300 million members worldwide and its platform allows advertisers to filter by a number of categories – job title, industry sector, geography and company size among them.
At that scale, if the targeting is correct and the content promoted is compelling, LinkedIn Ads can prove highly effective.
Owned and earned:
Twitter’s biggest weakness is also its biggest strength – namely that its active user base, 316 million people per month, is dominated by journalists, policy makers and other public figures. If this is a downside, it is a downside you can use to your advantage if you are in the business of attracting key influencers. (To confirm: you are in the business of attracting key influencers.)
Paid:
Again, Twitter’s scale allows for advertising campaigns aimed at a precise and well- defined audience. For the B2B marketer, targeting by username, keywords and interest areas should prove particularly valuable.
Owned and earned:
With 1.49bn unique users a month, Facebook is the dominant force of social networking. To consider that none of these users have a B2B interest is mathematically implausible while case studies from companies such as Maersk Line – the archetypal B2B organisation – is evidence that Facebook is not just for friends and family. Pages on Facebook are akin to company pages on LinkedIn.
Paid:
As an advertising platform, Facebook has all the inherent advantages of the other social networks and two bespoke filters that may be of particular interest; these are ‘Behaviours’ – targeting based, for example, on shopping habits, phone usage or likelihood of buying a new car in the near future – and ‘Connections’, allowing you to determine whether you want to target everyone or narrow it down to only people who have liked your page or RSVP’d for your event in the past 30 days for example.
Other media channels
Although social networks dominate, don’t forget other social media including wikis, forums and video-sharing services. YouTube looms largest in that latter category and is a perfect tool when thinking about unbundling, repurposing and amplifying existing content. Why? Because short, sharp and focused videos that answer a client need – and match search queries – will attract existing and new clients alike. YouTube is not only the world’s largest video-sharing platform, it is also the world’s second-largest search engine.
Benefits for SEO
Search engines bring me to the final benefit that shared media promises. Ever since the 2011 Panda update to the Google algorithm, social shares have played an important part in search engine optimisation. Working much like in-bound links from other websites, shared links via social networks help improve the authority of a site. This is in turn will help improve search engine rankings.
Next time: 'O' for Owned.
