Digital Marketing - Study Notes:
Developing a media plan
As part of your social strategy, you will need to develop a media plan. This is simply the blueprint for how paid advertising, as well as organic social media activity, will be implemented over a specific period of time.
Media plans are usually based on the PEO (Paid, Earned, and Owned) media model.
- Paid media is simply advertising that you pay for. For your social strategy, this involves social ads. Paid media obviously costs money, so decide a budget for paid advertising. You may simply want to boost posts that are already performing well organically. Or you might create specific paid ads in social.
- Earned growth refers to the organic growth of your content across social media. This is usually achieved through social sharing and word of mouth. To encourage social sharing and organic growth, create engaging content that people are likely to want to share.
- Owned media is content that your company already owns. This includes your creative assets, as well as your website, brand social pages, blogs, podcasts, and so on.
Through a strategic combination of paid and earned growth, you can increase the reach of your content.
Your media plan could be created internally, or you could work with a specialist agency to develop a plan that meets your social strategy needs. You might also work with influencers, tapping into their experience when developing your own media plan.
Example: LinkedIn Media Plan
LinkedIn use their owned media - the LinkedIn company page and the four directors’ personal pages - to share content. They focus on two content pillars or themes. The LinkedIn media plan shows how each profile is used to share original content and to promote and comment on existing content, maximizing earned media opportunities. Strong posts can also be boosted using paid media.
Once you have your media plan in place, you’re going to need great content to put the plan into action. Your plan will dictate how much content needs to be created, and how much you can spend on developing it. You may have a campaign-specific budget, or a time-specific budget, such as a monthly budget.
For example, when Vodafone developed the VOXI campaign, it had 100 content creators making five pieces of content every week. And once the content was posted, a resharing and repromotion plan kicked into action to increase the reach.
Back to TopJulie Atherton
Julie is an award-winning digital strategist, with over 30 years’ experience. Having worked both agency and client-side, she has a wealth of knowledge on delivering marketing, brand and business strategy across almost every sector. In 2016, Julie set up Small Wonder. Drawing on her past experience, she now supports a wide range of businesses, from global brands, to educational organisations and social enterprises.She is the author of the book, Social Media Strategy which was a top read chosen by Thinkers360. You can find her on X and LinkedIn.
Clark Boyd
Clark Boyd is CEO and founder of marketing simulations company Novela. He is also a digital strategy consultant, author, and trainer. Over the last 12 years, he has devised and implemented international marketing strategies for brands including American Express, Adidas, and General Motors.
Today, Clark works with business schools at the University of Cambridge, Imperial College London, and Columbia University to design and deliver their executive-education courses on data analytics and digital marketing.
Clark is a certified Google trainer and runs Google workshops across Europe and the Middle East. This year, he has delivered keynote speeches at leadership events in Latin America, Europe, and the US. You can find him on X (formerly Twitter), LinkedIn, and Slideshare. He writes regularly on Medium and you can subscribe to his email newsletter, hi, tech.
