Distributing Content Through Owned Media

Continuing my series on distributing content through paid, owned, and earned media, this week I’m taking a closer look at owned media. To see my other articles in this series, check out this intro post and this piece that focuses specifically on paid media.

As previously noted, owned media is any free distribution channel that you can completely control, such as your company’s website, blog, and newsletter, as well as you social media accounts. They are all great vehicles for reaching existing customers who are already a part of your community and, best of all, you don’t have to pay for them. However, even though they are free, don’t underestimate the amount of time it takes to manage all of your owned media. There are tons of owned media channels out there and overseeing and optimizing them all is a full-time job.

And that’s really a key point with owned media. Since it’s an extension of your brand, to be successful, is has to be constantly maintained. So do yourself a favor and don’t take on more than you can handle. A company blog that hasn’t seen a new post in months looks bad, just like having a presence on a variety of social channels that never get used does. Make sure you have the bandwidth and capacity to do a good job with all of your owned media.

Assuming you have the capacity to oversee all of the potential owned media opportunities out there, where exactly should you be?

The list above is just a small sampling of some of the owned media opportunities you should be considering. In addition to social media, don’t forget about content sharing sites such as SlideShare and Scribd, not to mention your own blog, company website, microsites, and more.

The point here is that there are lots of different types of owned media, and as a content marketer your job is to figure out which ones to take advantage of as part of your strategy. That means really knowing your target audience and where your customers and prospects spend there time. Armed with that knowledge, as well as a realistic point of view on how much work maintaining each of these channels takes, you can decide where to best allocate your time and efforts.

What have your experiences with owned media been? Which channels work best for you?