Earned media skills are more important than ever

Pointing to the Edelman Trust Barometer, Defren notes that “‘traditional’ news is not only the most trusted source of information, but also is growing.” Trust in “someone like me,” within the social media category, is growing even faster.

With a lot of discussion in communications/marketing circles turning to conversion, it may be tempting to shrug off earned media as a discrete effort. After all, a lot of communicators are focusing their efforts on breaking down silos. There is a growing understanding that people don’t stop to check provenance of the content they see (for example, “Was that YouTube video originally a paid TV commercial or just some content somebody cranked out?”).

The idea of convergence recognizes that—from the consumer perspective— everything is one big content stew. But silos shouldn’t be destroyed; we should just be punching a lot of holes in them. What would happen to all that grain if farmers didn’t have silos?