Earned media is one of the best areas of marketing that you can invest your time into. If done properly, you can reap serious rewards. All it takes is a little hard work.

Here are a few quick ways you can get more earned media by using your social channels.

1. Do your scheduling within Facebook and mention other pages in your posts

I’m not saying you have to do all of your scheduling within Facebook, but there is one major advantage to using it as your scheduler: you can tag other Facebook pages in your posts.

Video we shot on our favorite WordPress Plugins — mentioning them all in the post

If you’re sharing an article written by another brand or an author with a large following, it’s a good idea to tag them in your post. This notifies them immediately that you’ve mentioned them, and gives them the opportunity to share your post — opening up your brand to their audience.

2. Use Medium’s publications

(Note: some define Medium as a social network, some as a publisher — but I’ll include it on my list because either way, I think it’s a great tool to earn exposure)

Unless you have 50,000 followers on Medium already, you’re probably looking for a larger audience. Writing for a publication on Medium is a great way to get in front of more people on the platform.

I can attest to the validity of this tactic personally. As of 5 months ago, I had less than 100 followers on Medium and rarely had more than 10 people reading my articles. After I started contributing to ART + Marketing, Life Hack, Politics Means Politics and 42 Hire, the reads and followers came quickly. Today, my reach on the platform is up 2,774% from where is was in February. My writing hasn’t changed, but my outlet has.

You may think that this is small potatoes, but it all adds up. Having a larger audience on Medium led to me being featured in Business Insider, gaining my company hundreds of new email subscribers, which led to new clients — all from earned media.

3. Write for publications that give shout outs on social

It’s not a hard and fast rule for us at Cave Social, but for the most part, we only write for publications that will give us a shout out on social media.

We’ve contributed to Fast Company, Inc, Entrepreneur, Adweek, and many other websites that give social shout outs and it’s been entirely worth it.

Mentions like this on Facebook and Twitter open up your brand to a much wider audience, you just need to be sure you pick your pitches carefully. If you’re interested in contributing to big publications, here’s a look at how we did it at Cave.

4. Tag the LinkedIn Editors in Tweets featuring your LinkedIn Pulse articles

If you haven’t started writing on LinkedIn Pulse, you should. It’s a great way to get in front of your audience. LinkedIn notifies any followers you have when you publish an article, so even if you’re writing for your own blog or on Medium originally, you should be sure to republish on LinkedIn Pulse as well.

To further your reach and get some earned media, reaching out to the LinkedIn Editors can pay dividends. Share your Pulse article and tag [at]LinkedInEditors and [at]LinkedIn in your Tweets. If your article gets featured, it can result in a huge traffic boost.

I truly believe that earned media is one of the most effective types of marketing you can pursue. This has been the experience of both us at Cave Social and our clients. Saying something about yourself is fine — but having someone else say it for you is much more powerful. Give these strategies a try for yourself!