@ 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.]

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

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!]

@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.

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.

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?