I am sure all of you know all about the marketing mix. You know, “The 4 P’s” which includes Product, Price, Placement and Promotion. Today I just wanted to explore the mix with a different angle that relates to social media marketing. The four P’s I am about to bring up are a bit different than what we are used to seeing in the marketing mix. However, I believe they are the four fundamental elements of social media marketing.
You will also notice that I have left “Product” out of the mix, the reason is simple, if you don’t have a good product or service there is nothing to market or create customer loyalty towards. It will fail either now or later. So I have taken product out of the mix cause everything else surrounds the product or the service itself. That is why there is a mix and your product or service is fundamental to making this mixture work.
The First P = People
This is the most crucial part of the social media marketing mix. In the old days when traditional media reigned supreme, brands pushed their products. Today consumers are in control. People want to be heard and people know they can be heard. So the first thing that needs to be done to utilize social media is listen to these people. Let’s not even get to participating and engaging right now, cause they are secondary. The main goal at this point is to listen to what others are saying.
If you are a known brand, there are people talking about you. They are talking on the web, they are talking over dinner at the table and they are talking on the phone about your product while taking a shit. The power in social media lies in being all ears at first so you can analyze. So as to see what they are saying, what emotions your product is evoking among these people. Whether you call them your target market or people that help you with research and development (yup they can be your R&D team if you listen to them), the first element of your mix is people. Without people you have no one to listen to, you have no one to cater to, you have no one to engage with and you have no one to sell to.
The Second P = Platform
Now that you know the key to making things happen for you business revolves around people, you need to know where these people are hanging out. Although your first reaction might be to jump on Twitter and Facebook, that may not always be the wisest decision. You need to know what platform these people (people you want to reach out to) are on. If most of your consumers reside in Brazil, your first option might be to monitor Orkut which is huge in Brazil rather than Facebook and so on. The key is to know where the people you want to reach out to are. Opening a Facebook account just cause everyone is using it may not be the right approach for you.
Maybe your target market isn’t really heavy on these “social networking” sites, and communicate heavily on one of the early forms of social media such as forums. In that case you should be finding these forums where “your people” are talking, and listen to them to see how they see your product or services. Just cause everyone is on YouTube, Facebook, etc. doesn’t mean these are the first platforms you should target on. You need to find where the people are (the first element) and choose your platform and then expand to others. It will be much easier to jump in where the people who use your products and services are because that’s where they are comfortable. You can’t move a community that is already thriving on one platform and try and pull them where you want, you have to adapt to the paltform they are on and keep listening.
The Third P = Participation
Of course you know all about the participation. Nothing happens on social media without participation and this is the third element of social media marketing mix. You are listening to people, you know where they are and it’s time to engage. It’s time to respond and tell them you are listening. Everyone is always touting you should participate and engage but this is not the first step in utilizing social media for your business. You need to listen first and know what they are saying so you are ready to participate and respond.
Social media is all about participation. But participation doesn’t mean simply starting a conversation for the sake of it. Participation means knowing how to build a relationship with people who are using your products/services or are thinking of it. How do you make these people to buy and talk more about your product so the word spreads? Just listen to them and respond to their concern. Be where they are and BE THERE.
The Fourth P = Promotion
Promoting a product on the web isn’t easy. Sure you can shout and say “buy me,” but it would be hard to sell using that approach. The last element of social media marketing is the one that is already happening if you are integrating the first three element. You may not see the impact in sale or word of mouth activity right away but as you move forward, you will be monitoring a lot more chatter about your brand, hopefully in a positive way.
Of course to sell products and services you have to promote. Just listening and responding won’t do the magic alone, so you need a strategy to tap into the people you have now made friends with. Try going on Facebook, Twitter, Forums, YouTube or any other community platforms and say “buy our products” and the community will say to you “Don’t tell us what to do, ask us. Ask us politely cause we matter.” The words may not be exact but that’s what the implications will be. Be careful when promoting.
Wait it out, build the community around your brand and listen to them when they bring problems. When they have a concern, respond to them what you are doing to fix them. That right there is your promotion. That right there will boost word of mouth marketing. When you have a loyal group of people that are ready to talk about you, unleash the marketing genius in you.
These four elements are very critical to make things happen for your brand through different social media channels. Like I said, although I didn’t include “product” in the mix, don’t assume it’s not there. The product or the service is the reason why these four elements are required. If you have to call it The 5 P’s of social media marketing, so be it.
Your turn to share. I would love to hear your take on social media marketing mix.
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Hi, My name is Ritu. I am a member of SMA (Social Media Anonymous) ;-) & help bloggers and businesses utilize the social web. 
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Hi Ritu,
I guess you should have included Product with a different definition. Even if it is an individual with no business motive, he shall be promoting himself. So the individual becomes the product.
As far as the promotion part is considered, I think we can add things like monitoring customer reactions, building trust (you kind of mentioned both), creating Top of the Mind Awareness (TOMA) – which will influence the decision making process, reducing post purchase dissonance etc.
Even in the regular marketing academia, people tend to say 5 Ps, 6 Ps etc, by adding things like Personnel (important in service industry), Packaging etc.
Ritu,
great post! In this period everyone needs scheme
However I’ve a question: what about small brands? What about brand nobody knows that wants to implement a Social Media Strategy?
In your post I see many “references” to [let me say] big Brand but the problem, I believe, is for the smallest one! What do you think?
@Shiju : Thanks for sharing your thoughts. I agree with “monitoring, trust” etc. as they indirectly tie in with promotion. However, the reason I didn’t point them out is because I didn’t want to dive into too much detail and simply wanted to point them out and a quick brief on how to go about them.
Also as I mentioned on the post at the end, we can call it 5 P’s of Social Media Marketing but if we add all the secondary elements to the mix I am sure we can stretch it to quite high as far as number goes
@Marco : Glad you found it useful. Although the article discusses mostly about “big” brands, the same rule applies for a brand that anyone has yet to know. For example, if you are a small brand or an individual, the first thing you need to know is where the people in your niche are. What kind of platforms are they active on? What are they talking about? Is there anything that relates directly to your product or service? Are they talking about a problem that your product might be able to solve? Questions like these will help you create a strategy for the long run but once again, the mix is the same whether it’s big brands or small brands, it all start out with people.
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@Ritu: Thanks for that reply.
@Marco – Whether the brand be small or big, you will still have clients/prospects and they are very likely to be present in social media. My take is that social media does give immense opportunities to small brands, because of various factors like lower cost in communication/engagement, possibilities to interact as group or as individual etc.
The key, as Ritu mentioned, is to identify the right platform(s) and build relationships. If we do it right, sales should follow.
Ritu, Shiju,
thanks for your replies!
When I talk about “small brand” I’m even talking about Small Enterprises that want to try the Web [even if they are already big in the "offline world"].
For them two strategies could be useful:
[1] Listen to the community of their Competitors to achieve important indications [i.e. pay attention to beahviour of Facebook Competitors Fan].
This could be another interpretation ofyour first P [People!]
[2] In order to grow [and grow faster] they could make a co-marketing strategies with an another Brand they consider friend [i.e. a restaurant could implement a sort of common strategy with a B&B].
This could be another interpretation of your third P [Partecipation!]
Don’t you think so?
Great discussion
Ciao
P.S. in this reply there’s a short version of my blue Note in my italian post [in which I made a long introduction presentin Ritu's 4 Ps!]
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Ritu,
Yes, I agree with the 4 P’s! Nicely conceptualized approach to thinking about social media marketing.
Platform is most definitely an important consideration. What works for one business and/or industry, will not work for another. It’s not a-one-size-fits-all approach. Thinking through the options available, becoming proficient in working with whichever ones you choose is of utmost importance. And then, consistency and follow-through.
Often people are still writing about how they can’t keep up with their email inboxes–and so, if those are the folks who have been asked to be responsible for keeping up with posting and microblogging, etc., they may need to reconsider whether social media platform management is right for them.
Best,
Debbie Hemley
@ Marco
I do agree with most of it.
Though, on some platforms, you, competitors and consumers, may be in the same pool. Anyhow, listening is the key.
@ Debbie
Time spent and the effectiveness should be a concern on almost everything. We should decide on the platforms and the time, just like the way we would do for regular advertisement channels and budget allocation. [But I would advice to secure your brand names on all platforms, even if you are not going to using them.]
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Thanks guys for checking back in and participating. Shiju, I appreciate you taking the time to connect and discuss on this blog.