The Social Media
Marketing Mix - The 4 P’s
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. But
now 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 that. It will fail either
now or later. So I have taken product out of the mix because 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 listening to these people. Let’s not even get to
participating and engaging right now, because 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,
which 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 because
everyone is using it may not be the right approach for you.
Maybe your target market is not really heavy on these
“social networking” sites; 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 because 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 platform 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 elements. 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 because 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.
Source: Scribd.com
