All three types of media — owned, earned and paid — are important to a successful digital marketing strategy. It will depend on your business needs, resources, audiences and goals to decide how to direct your efforts. Remember, paid media is advertising or sponsored content you pay to put in front of an audience, whereas owned and paid media are free. Owned media is that which you create and control — for example, your website or Facebook page — but earned media is material others have produced about you, such as product reviews and social mentions. Each type of media is different, but they all interact and even overlap at times. For example, an influencer could be a paid Instagrammer or a fan who shares their feelings with their followers and earns media for your brand.