The 8P´s of Marketing in Social Media

The 4P´s of Marketing

There´s a million and one people out there thinking they know something about marketing, so I thought why not me as well. Here´s my 2 cents...

We all know Neil Borden´s 4 big ones, don´t we?

• Product
• Price
• Place
• Promotion

And as we also know, these contain 'flaws' or rather are missing value especially in relation to marketing Services. I guess that wasn´t relevant in the 1960s in the scale we have services available today. There´s been a lot of talk about the meaningful aspects of marketing for generations, and we always seem to go round and round without really coming up with anything new around the subject. After a while since Borden someone came up with the 5th P…

and then someone came up with some more...

• Packaging, or perhaps
• Process, or perhaps
• People, or…

So plenty of P´s all around, but nothing really meaningful as we now look back in time. Someone even added ´Physical Evidence´ and ´Performance´ in the list - I personally really don´t get those.

And then came the alternate 5P´s;

• Positioning, Packaging, Promotion, Persuasion & Performance.

Then the top Idea-buddy Idris Mootee came up with the 4 New P´s

• Personalization - no, not as deep as we now know
• Participation - related to crowdsourcing type of activity really
• Peer-to-Peer - now we´re getting somewhere… a 2-way street!!! Not just Push but including Pull as well.
• Predictive Modeling - algorithms actually

I can almost relate to these, finally something new in the field, not just the same old, same old. At least better than those mentioned before. But I have a need that is not satisfied with these quite yet. SO, I kept digging... And came up with this.

Joan Damico quite recently came up with a new set of P´s that actually triggered this train of thoughts of mine.

Joan says…

• Policy – is just what it sounds like, who can do what and how
• Plan – plan your strategy. Hmmm… Which company doesn´t? I know I do!
• People – this time meaning internal resources… And off we go, to the woods, says I!
• Persona – What do we want to say, how do we want to look? Isn´t that Policy & Planning with some People in it?
• Patience – takes time to see results, she says. And I say 3rd and out. I've seen companies come up with brilliant results in no time at marketing in social media! Think of Gap and Groupon for example.

And I just don´t get it! People I understood in previous conversations, but not anymore when Joan starts talking about it. I do understand all the before mentioned P´s that people have come up with, in a sense, but I don't see the logic behind those nor relevancy in todays web marketing models. Perhaps it´s just me, but I feel like "WTF, am I the only one thinking about Social Media related to all these P´s?" I´m sure thousands and thousands of smarter people than me and a zillion times more experienced have thought about these, so that makes me feel kind of stupid to even consider that I might be into something here. I mean, all the P´s before make sense in a way, but none of them really fit into the idea how I see marketing in Social Media, the so called Social Marketing idea. So if there´s anyone out there how might tramble into this article and feels the way I do about all this, please, please, tell me I´m not insane, okay?!

Cause this is how I see the P´s...

The REAL 8P´s of Marketing in Social Media

You can´t argue with the 4 Big ones, Social Media or not…

Product, Price, Place and Promotion still matter, no matter what you´re marketing!

But the new ones! Hold your breath!

People! Clients, remember?! Same goes for Partners, Suppliers, etc. Basically anyone you engage in conversation with in the web! In Social Media, they rule! There´s a conversation 24/7 whether you´re there or not. It´s a 2-way street, no more shooting with a shotgun at anything that moves, but targeted, Personalized conversations, where you Participate in interaction with the crowds! When you´re using Social Media for marketing, you need to be Present, get involved, reply when asked and that sort of ´stuff´!

So there they are, I finally got them all out. And the next time someone asks you what that Social-Media-thing means to you, you can just say;

In Social Media, we market ourselves by Participating in conversations with People, we give our company the face by Personalizing our messages and we´re Present whenever they want to talk with us!

If you wonder what Personalization means here, it´s all about understanding your client, talking to them in language that they understand, replying when asked, and taking advantage of the huge amount of data that is out there for you to use (think about Social CRM and Social Business Intelligence concepts here). Personalize your message, target the niches rather than use shotgun. (Okay, the shotgun approach may have brand values, I give you that much...)

And I really need to point out that being Present does NOT mean that once you´ve built that Facebook Fan page or Twitter account you´re present, but you need to be able to engage in 2-way conversations when and where the client wants to. End of story!

Think about this article and what it´s trying to say in its own awkward way. Review your marketing plan. Are you already or are you planning to do marketing on social media? (Yes, you should already, and right NOW is a good time to start if not!). Consider the additional new P´s, are you ready to COMMIT YOURSELF TO TALKING WITH your (potential) customers / partners / affiliates / etc., not just talking TO them, pushing your message?

IF YES, like my good friend Nike would say, JUST DO IT!

• Product
• Price
• Place
• Promotion
• People
• Presence
• Participation
• Personalization

Ps. I´m not saying you can´t do the normal push-marketing in social media, it´s not a total no-no, but if you do JUST that, you´re not getting social media nor taking advantage of it in full extent. There´s so much potential there that you´re not getting if you just push your message without listening or pulling in additional data, that´s it´s just a shame!