Welcome to the world of rented media

Earned media, owned media, and paid media are things that have been around for, well, ever.

But, I want to talk about rented media.

Spaces that we occupy but do not own, that we may not pay for but that we set up camp in. The nomadic areas and corners of the internet that we populate; that we talk in, create communities in and flourish in that will never be ours to call our own.

Instagram pages, Facebook profiles, TikTok channels and every other social platform that we subscribe to; they’re rented, not owned.

So often, there are stories of profiles taken down, images removed and groans around the dreaded algorithm, but these apps owe us nothing, and really, we are at their mercy.

We shouldn’t put all our eggs into the rental basket. Instead, we should spread them around and give ourselves a good grounding to work from, paying attention to paid channels if they apply, earned through PR, and the much-coveted owned media.

Think about how you can move some attention away from rented media and spend some time elsewhere.