Why Social Media and Earned Media Must Work Together—and How To Make It Happen

Brands that successfully combine social media with traditional earned media strategies unlock a powerful synergy that elevates publicity and engagement. Although often treated as separate disciplines, these two channels are far more effective when approached as interconnected components of a unified communications strategy.

Understanding the Channels

Earned media refers to publicity that a brand doesn’t pay for. This includes press coverage, such as editorial mentions or interviews, which offers inherent credibility and third-party validation. Social media, on the other hand, is an owned channel where brands directly publish and promote content, engage audiences and shape their narrative. When these two forces are aligned, the impact multiplies.

Why Integration Matters

Earned media often loses momentum once a story is published, but social media provides a critical second life. Brands that actively share media coverage on their social platforms increase visibility, drive traffic to publisher sites and reach broader, often more targeted, audiences. This approach not only extends the value of the coverage but also supports the media outlets themselves by generating additional engagement, a factor increasingly tied to advertising revenue and visibility.

Conversely, social media content can act as a springboard for earned media opportunities. Brands that produce compelling or innovative social content frequently find themselves the subject of media stories. For example, Wendy’s distinct and often humorous tone on social media has earned it countless headlines, reinforcing the brand’s unique voice and widening its reach. Similarly, Boston Dynamics regularly shares captivating videos of its robots on social platforms, which consistently generate media coverage and amplify awareness.

Best Practices for Cross-Channel Success

Promoting media coverage on social channels is best achieved through thoughtful, engaging content. Sharing on platforms like LinkedIn, X or Instagram should be timely, include a link to the story and tag the outlet and reporter, if available. The posts should also include a brief description of the story, and can benefit from some further context to add dimension to the post. Calling out a quote or portion of the story can highlight particularly relevant content and boost engagement. 

Brands can use performance data from social content, such as engagement rates or video views, as a valuable tool in future media outreach. A better understanding of what resonates with audiences and generates attention is helpful in developing new storylines to pitch. 

This approach is also relevant for elevating social content. Posts that generate high engagement or achieve virality are primed for potential media coverage. In many cases, objectives of brand social teams and media outlets are aligned: generating content that is engaging and reaches a high-volume audience. Social content that achieves this can be a natural boost for media coverage, and therefore can be leveraged for strategic publicity. 

Analyzing performance across both channels enables brands to gain insights into what resonates with their audience and refine their strategies accordingly. Over time, this feedback loop helps build a more effective, integrated approach to publicity.

The Search Connection

While social media shares don’t directly influence search engine rankings, they play a crucial role in increasing content visibility which can lead to valuable backlinks, one of the most important SEO ranking factors. Optimized social profiles often appear in search results, reinforcing brand presence and improving visibility.

This is becoming increasingly important with the rise of large language models. Reports show that earned media and social media posts can be used to train this AI technology. Strategically placed content can be a valuable tool to help shape responses on these platforms, in addition to traditional search engines. 

The relationship between social media and earned media is a two-way street, each enhancing the value and impact of the other. When treated as complementary rather than separate strategies, they create a powerful publicity engine—one that builds credibility, drives engagement and sustains momentum. By weaving these channels together thoughtfully and consistently, brands can significantly amplify their reach and reinforce their message across audiences.