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BY KRISTINA CISNERO | 2 DAYS AGO | STRATEGY | 1 COMMENT

As content marketers, we know by now that we can create great content but

Paid, Owned, and Earned Social Media: A Complete ContentPromotion Plan

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As content marketers, we know by now that we can create great content butstill get very little traffic to it. The reason for weak traffic, you ask? More oftenthan not, it’s that you’re not promoting your content properly.

While creating great content is an important step, creating a great contentpromotion plan is the key to reach. Content promotion is a crucial aspect ofyour content strategy because people don’t just stumble upon your content atrandom; they end up on your page because they saw it on social media, got arecommendation from a friend, or via an ad.

These three ways your audience discovers your content are the product ofthree distinct promotion levers: paid, owned, and earned social media. Thispost will provide insight into how these three levers work and how they shouldfit in your content promotion plan.

How to include paid, owned, andearned social media in your contentpromotion plan

Owned social media

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Acquiring traffic through owned social media means you’re using your ownsocial media channels (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, etc.) to drivetraffic to your website. Owned social media traffic provides you free traffic fromyour own social media following and allows you to build a social mediacommunity of return visitors.

There are many benefits of social media for your business, but with ownedsocial media traffic, you’re able to dig deeper into who your followers are, andwhat they like to engage with. The more people you’re able to engage withthrough your owned social media channels, the more you’ll be able to growyour social media following.

In order to effectively acquire owned social media traffic, make sure you have astrong social media content calendar to promote your content.

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An example of a social media content calendar, download it here.

By having a well-organized social media content calendar you’re ensuring thatyou will maintain a consistent flow of owned social media traffic to yourwebsite. It’s also important that you’re posting and tweeting at the best time,doing this will make sure that your social media posts are being seen by themajority of your social media followers.

Earned social media

When your social media following, or people who viewed your content, linkback to your website organically through a mention, retweet, or share, you’reacquiring earned social media. Similar to word of mouth, these unaffiliatedusers are voluntarily sharing your content through their own social media

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channels.

Earned social media traffic, in my opinion, is the best kind of social mediatraffic. The reason for this is because you’re receiving traffic without puttingany effort from your own channels into acquiring that traffic. You’re reachingpeople without paying for that reach, and these are the kind of social mediasignals Google likes to receive when they decide whether or not you deserve torank high in their search engine.

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An example of different channels you can acquire earned social media traffic. Image byTopRank Online Marketing

You can acquire earned social media traffic by creating content that peoplewant to share, engaging and promoting content in LinkedIn Groups andGoogle+ Communities, and building relationships with social media influencers.

Paid social media

When you use paid social media, you are leveraging social media ads to drivetraffic to your website by putting money behind your social media posts. Paidsocial media traffic allows you to target a specific audience and increase yoursocial media reach, or the estimated number of people exposed to yourcontent.

The act of paying for social media traffic ensures that you are seen by the rightpeople at the right time. The analytics that accompanies paid social mediatraffic provides you with deeper insights into your target audience, and whatdrives them to engage with your social media content.

You can acquire paid social media traffic through social media ads such as:Facebook ads, Twitter ads, LinkedIn ads, Stumbleupon ads, YouTube ads, andany other social media advertising channels. Each social network has their own

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advertising guidelines, so make sure you abide by their specific guidelines toacquire the return on investment you aimed for in your content promotionplan.

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An example of a Facebook Ad

In Summary

Now that you know the difference and the benefits of acquiring paid, owned,and earned social media traffic, you can start to shape and organize yourcontent promotion plan. Doing this will allow you to effectively manage yourbudget, time, and effort, when it comes to driving traffic to your content.

How do you promote your content via social media? We’d love to hear how inthe comments below.

Start promoting your content with Hootsuite Pro.

It’s free for 30 days!

Promote my content

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content marketing content promotion

social media marketing

Written by

Kristina Cisnero

Kristina is Hootsuite's Inbound Marketing Specialist. Each day shefocuses on bringing small businesses valuable content on social

media marketing.

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Sometimes it is good to remind us of the basics. Promote, promote, promote.

The content value is a given, its promotion needs consistent efforts and loyalty!

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