This is the first blog in our Belief series - a collection of short blogs by Base One people on the subject of what we would like to believe in the world of marketing. You can see more of our beliefs at our rather unusual microsite...

The idea of the media trinity is quickly gaining acceptance. Already agencies, clients and brands are rapidly expanding their view of media to include more than just display, or paid, media, and it's causing a real shift in how marketing budgets are spent. Still, the case has to be made more often than you might think.

Today when we develop a marketing campaign we consider three specific media areas:

•    paid - display on the internet, print etc.
•    earned - the share of voice gained from peer to peer communications
•    own - media identities and content provided by brands themselves

It's not hard to imagine how this trinity of media disciplines opens up a great opportunity for showcasing new products, new ideas, and compelling content to maximum effect. The stumbling block is that a number of brands and clients still prefer to aim only for the immediate burst provided by paid media.

But it's in the earned and own media areas that long-term gain is born, because this is where we have the opportunity to build trust, be transparent and engage with customers.

I do believe that the most successful media campaigns will be those that combine paid, earned and owned media. If you need more convincing, I'm happy to give you the more detailed story anytime - just contact me through my blogger profile.

This post has been contributed by Jamie Lee Wallace, a good friend of Base One, who is also one of the founders of Savvy B2B Marketing - a collaborative blog offering unique B2B marketing insights delivered with healthy doses of humility and good humor.

One of the number one complaints about social media is that it takes too much time. 

Companies considering the leap into the land of blogs and tweets often run screaming into the night after they glimpse the reality of what it takes to launch and maintain a worthwhile social media presence.

I don't blame them. The onslaught of digital information is overwhelming, but there is hope. The key is in being selective.