Earned Media is like that awesome compliment you get when you are showing off a new piece of clothing you got for a steal on ModCloth. It’s someone else – beside yourself – telling you or others what you do (or wear) is cool. It’s third-party validation that your organization’s product or service delivers what you say it will.
Sounds fabulous, but you can’t buy it—you have to organically drive earned media through channels like social media and public relations.
At Shift Collaborative, we develop marketing campaigns that integrate paid, owned and earned media services. The Earned Media team is lead by Eric Sloss who has more than 20 years of experience in public and media relations. Tim Colbert, public relations director in New York City, Allison Graham, seasoned media relations professional and Scott Holleran, a social media writer, both in Los Angeles, make up the Shift media team. The team is supported by Andrew Gordon, Shift’s account manager.
Shift uses various tools to achieve the maximum earned media output, including Vocus. We have access to thousands of reporters along with media distribution service.
Here are a few examples of earned media campaign strategies
Steeltown Entertainment Project is a nonprofit organization building the entertainment industry in Pittsburgh. They develop the southwestern Pennsylvania region’s writers, directors, actors and production crews and they fund capstone projects that put the spotlight on the city. In late 2013, Steeltown and its partners set out to create local and national buzz using earned media strategies to raise awareness of a reality project created by actor Zachary Quinto and producer Chris Moore (Promised Land, Good Will Hunting). Shift deployed a media strategy to gain investor attention and visibility on the cable network they are courting for national distribution. Early numbers show traffic to the website from social networks has increased 200% over the prior time period. The Facebook page engagement saw the most significant increase with 202.67%.
The Chair reality TV series from Chris Moore and Zachary Quinto
Toronto Star
New Pa. Reality Series Focuses on Director’s Chair
ABC News
Pittsburgh Reality Show ‘The Chair’ Challenges Hopeful Directors
Huffington Post
Actor Quinto, local groups back ‘The Chair’ film project
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Shift provided a communications strategy for Greater Pittsburgh Nonprofit Partnership’s annual meeting with the goal of increasing attendance from 100 attendees to 350. The communications strategy hit four major channels – email, social media, PR and direct mail. The result: attendance at the event topped 400. Additionally, we assisted with crisis communications as the organization was asked to deal with complicated questions about their stance on UPMC’s status as a nonprofit.
GPNP Annual Media Social Media Report
Peduto pledges Pittsburgh will work more closely with small nonprofits
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Romeo Delivers
This cool local start-up needed earned media strategies to raise awareness of their subscription-based services offering creative DIY goods and tips to men during the Valentine’s Day season. The focus is more on local media and national men’s blogs and outlets. The campaign is ongoing so pitching is in progress.
Need a little help in the romance department? No fear, Romeo Delivers
Pittsburgh Business Times
Below are a few fun highlights of stories Eric’s placed in media that have surfaced around the world.
Conflict Kitchen
A popup kitchen serving food from various countries that are in conflict with the U.S. as an educational mission.
Culinary diplomacy at the Axis of Evil Cafe
Salon
Conflict Kitchen: Making Peace with America’s Sworn Enemies one Sandwich at a Time
Fast Company
One Cold Hand
The placement of Jennifer Gooch’s story in such prestigious outlets gained dramatic and positive exposure for the College of Fine Arts at a critical juncture for higher education arts institutions. U.S. News and World Report was soliciting ranking applications of MFA programs around the United States. Immediately following the appearance of the story in such publications as the New York Times and USA Today, rankings of the MFA program at Carnegie Mellon University improved in several important areas, including overall evaluation.
Created as part of her MFA studies, Gooch’s One Cold Hand project aimed to reunite Pittsburgh’s lost gloves with their rightful owners. Inspired by the many single gloves she saw lying in the streets her first winter in the city, Gooch decided to use the social networking capabilities of internet technology to rejoin the gloves with their missing mates. On the One Cold Hand site, Gooch posted photos and descriptions of the gloves and where they were discovered. If viewers recognized a glove as their own, the glove would be returned.
Lost gloves seek mates on student’s website
USA Today
A partial list of the largest news outlets that placed the One Cold Hand story, as well as their circulation numbers, are below.
National Daily Newspapers:
New York Times Saturday Circulation: 991,335
USA Today Morning Circulation: 2,293,137
The Washington Post Saturday Circulation: 636,945
Internet Outlets:
Yahoonews.com Visitors per month: 35,000,000
CNN.com Visitors per month: 23,496,897
AP.google.com Visitors per month: 118,573,595
International Placements:
Spiegel Online, Germany Visitors per month: 59,403,704
Corriere della Sera Newspaper, Italy: 830,000
Matichon.co.th Newspaper, Thailand: 600,000
Bus Stop Opera
A Carnegie Mellon Art student developed roving opera’s at Bus Stops in New York City. The pitch was deployed during recruitment efforts and was placed all over the nation.
Commuters’ Conversations Rise To High Art
NPR
Write an Aria, Graduate and, Oh, Right, Get Married
New York Times
The Steelers at the Intersection of Iron City Beer and Art Basel
New York Times
