Around 2010, consultants started blathering about “owned media”, “earned media” and “paid media”. Owned media meant a company’s website(s), their blog, Facebook and Twitter presence, catalogue, leaflets etc.

Just like owned media is the new word for “collateral”, earned media is the new word for “publicity”: the mentions a company and their products get for free in the mainstream media or in “new” media, blogs and social media.

Paid media, of course, is advertising.

Most companies and their uninspiring “content” found little free publicity. Unable to get their dumb or manipulative "stories" shared, too often companies used social media as a place where they had "earned" the right to force-feed people marketing messages for free forever, until people “unliked” them, or until Facebook stepped in.