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If you were wondering where does Social Media Marketing fit into the classic “4 Ps of Marketing” model, check this out. Traditional 4 Ps of Marketing encompass Product, Price, Place and Promotion. Social Media as well as social networking sites enable the Promotion aspect, especially the Word of Mouth part of it. (Related question I posed on LinkedIn Answers — 44 answers). Subsequently, the Word-of-Mouth component enables the 5th P of Marketing - Participation.
So, if you’re a company wondering whether you should engage with your users through social media or social networking, here are the first four steps one should follow (marketers, listen up), all of which culminates in the 5th P of Marketing - Participation. Thoughts?
Here are the first four steps in social media adoption for marketers and businesses or as I call it, the Social Media LAMP theory:
1. L - Listen
* Where are your customers online/offline?:
Blogs, Social media tools (e.g. LinkedIn Answers), Discussion Forums, Twitter, etc…/Events
* Monitor these conversations:
Use a central tool to track the different conversations happening around your company. Most online conversations are RSS enabled, barring a few Yahoo! groups that don’t support RSS. Use a RSS reader (e.g. Google Reader) to gather all these conversations into a central repository and create a folder that you check on a daily basis.
2. A - Awareness
* Calculate Brand perception within these conversations
- News & Blogs (Google search, Google Blog search, technorati search)
- Keyword mentions & incoming links
- Corporate Blog (Unique users, hits, trackbacks, comments)
- Brand Scoring system (similar to brand attitude survey)
(Source: Clickz article)
3. M - Measure
Any social media presence of your brand can be calculated by simple methods (example below):
* ROI of corporate blogging (Resource: Charlene Li’s new ROI of corporate blogging study)
4. P - Participate
* Create a strategy around how you wish to participate
* You have the following options:
- Be where the users are
- Facilitate easier means of communication with them
- Create brand evangelists
- Be a source of information on the company
- Respond swiftly and honestly
- Start publishing content
- Stir internal company conversations
- Improve product and user experience
(Brief excerpts from my keynote presentation at the Online Marketing Summit)
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Comments
Mario,
Terrific advice. Thank you for sharing.
Posted by: Lewis Green | 08.16.07
Right on!
Posted by: Jon | 08.16.07
Mario,
Interesting post. Thanks for the tips!
Posted by: Topher | 08.17.07
The 5th P, in my opinion, the most important in the Internet age, is harder to quantify.
But long term, it has the biggest payoff.
Posted by: B.L. Ochman | 08.17.07
Thanks for the positive feedback.
Also, I agree, the only possible way to quantify "Participation" is sheer numbers and possibly engagement, but we're still at a very early stage in figuring that out.
Posted by: Mario Sundar | 08.17.07
Mario -- You're doing great work!! Thanks for sharing fresh happenings and observations. This is a very helpful and succinct post. For many, following the order LAMP is good and methodical, but for others it might be good to listen AND participate (at the same time) by sharing Podcasts and other storytelling that gets tagged and RSS'd. This combo may help the M step become more meaningful. Thanks for the inspiration! And BRAVO for stepping out into the speaking circuit!!
Posted by: kenekaplan | 08.18.07
While it is a nice observation how to use new technologies in marketing, I would just like to ask you Mario, what do you think the first P is?
As from my point of view, first P (Product) stands for product in all it's forms. And mostly, it means to develop product through different research method. Involving consumers is one of the strongest.
And there I see actually the participation of the consumers through different new technologies just as a tool inside first P - involve your target groups to develop your product (with participation).
What do you think on that? Why do you set this as a standalone P?
Posted by: Dusan Vrban | 08.19.07
Thanks for the wonderful insights. How can one achieve embedded sponsorship?
Posted by: adam | 08.23.07
Nice, Mario. How do we adapt this for nonprofits? I am going to give a seminar on soial media for the non profit community, and some of this doesn't apply, but they need these convos more than corporations.
Posted by: francine hardaway | 08.23.07
Social media is an important element in commmunicating with customers and this is a nice contribution from Mario.I will advise him to call the 4 steps "LAMP".
Posted by: SHEIK SADIK | 08.23.07
Great article, Mario...thank you for this. I just graduated from college with a marketing degree and social media was one concept that no one was teaching. I am now working in the marketing department of an interactive agency and am just beginning to realize how important social media is for brands and people today. I just finished up working with my supervisor on developing the rules of engagement for social media for one of our clients, and everything that you discuss in this article helped me to better understand the strategy behind everything that I've been learning. Thank you so much.
Posted by: Lisa | 08.23.07
Dear Mr. Sundar,
many thanks for this excellent advice. As I am new to Social Media and corporate blogging well thought out tips like these are very useful indeed. For me, I think I have not done "P" justice. I hope to rectify this in the future.
Best regards to you all.
Posted by: God | 08.24.07
B.L.,
I think 5 is both very important and perhaps the most difficult. It has to be consistent and good. A very challenging task.
Posted by: Neil Anuskiewicz | 08.27.07
Ug, I have not had enough coffee yet, I meant #4.
Posted by: Neil Anuskiewicz | 08.27.07
Mario, thanks for shining the light on social media steps with your LAMP! As for the 5th P in marketing, I wholeheartedly agree. Participation should take place in both the company, as you have outlined, and ultimately in the customer base. If we have done our job right with social media, the customers will be participating regularly, and from it, we can indeed learn more about them and which products they want!
Great thought provoker.
Posted by: Becky Carroll | 08.28.07