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Marketing with Social Media Means 4 P Shift

February 18, 2013 Suse Barnes Leave a comment

4 P’s of Marketing Make Way for 7 P’s of Social Media

In traditional marketing schools, there are 4 P’s in marketing. These are product, price, place and promotion. In the 20th century these were followed as rules and guidelines for marketing anything and the marketer with an acute understanding of the 4 P’s generally succeeded in achieving his/her marketing goals.

The four P’s may also be translated into solution based approach known by the mnemonic, SIVA, i.e.

Product = Solution
Promotion = Information
Price = Value
Place = Access (Distribution)

Social Media Marketing expert Brian Solis recently posted an article about the 5th and 6th P’s in marketing. He believes these are People and Purpose. I agree that these are very accurate additions in in the twenty tens, however I think the shift is much bigger than simply adding these two.

Positioning may be the seventh P in the traditional (older) marketing world. In social media marketing, however, positioning stands for messaging, which can sometimes be frowned upon. Positioning or messaging in marketing has connotations of the wolf in sheep’s clothing, and the stigma of false advertising.

And conversely to Brian at the risk of rattling off several words that being with the letter P, I think the following seven words beginning with P provide a useful picture of the philosophy of social media. I believe we have shifted from the 4 P’s (Product, Promotion, Price, and Place) to the following:

People
Purpose
Passion
Proximity
Participation
Partnerships
Promises

We start with People as people are the most important component in any marketing campaign.
In social media marketing, as in life and all marketing, nothing happens without people. Gary Vaynerchuck once said “The people in your life make the world better. People are literally the best thing in the world.” If there are no people to see/hear/respond, there is no promotion.

With the onset of “world of mouth” media, yes that’s not a typo; all people now have a voice and a purpose to share what is most valuable to each of them. Social networks facilitate the human need to connect and share, breaking all previous barriers of place, making the world smaller and giving people courage to participate at their own levels.

The shift from traditional marketing to word-of-mouth marketing is an evolution from a broadcast to the masses sales-like approach to one that is much more focused on community, tribes, followers, fans and connections. Social media marketing is about People first and foremost and people with a purpose.

The next six posts will explore the rest of the new P’s in the context of Social Media Marketing. Please feel free to add your comments below.

Marketing, Social Media Marketing, Social Media

Speaking Social Strategy

May 19, 2012 Suse Barnes One comment

I am honored to be speaking at two business organizations and teaching several classes on social media marketing strategy for SF State University’s College of Extended Learning’s Social Media Marketing Program over the next month. If you’re looking to learn a little more about social media marketing and how to develop a winning strategy, I hope you’ll consider joining me at one of the following events:

On Tuesday, May 22, I speak at the NorCal BMA, Business Marketing Association’s Marketing Roundtable in Palo Alto. The topic is Strategic Thinking for Social Media Marketing and should start your Tuesday off nicely since it will be jam-packed with juicy worms for those early birds.

The Introduction to Social Media Marketing: The Power of Community class starts on June 4^th and usually sells out, so make sure you register soon. The classes are on the evening of Monday June 4^th and June 11^th and all day on Saturday June 16^th. We cover social media marketing basics, what it means to be a community manager, developing your social media strategy and successful and failed implementations of social media marketing. This class is part of the Social Media Marketing Certificate program and is the kick-off course for students seeking a certificate, but it’s most definitely open to everyone.

On Thursday June 7^th I will be presenting at WIC (Women In Consulting). This is a four-hour workshop on how to Master the Art of Strategic Social Media Marketing for consultants marketing their own businesses as well as marketing consultants, implementing marketing strategy for their clients. I’m excited to be collaborating with Women In Consulting as the organization has several veteran marketers and consultant members and is a great opportunity for in person social networking.

On Wednesday June 13^th, we kick off the Social Media Marketing Intensive: Strategies, Campaigns and Measurement at SF State’s downtown campus in San Francisco. This is a three-day workshop including Day 1: Strategic Social Media Marketing, Day 2: Social Media Campaigns: Best Practices, and Day 3: Social Media Metrics and Performance Measurement. I teach Day 1 and the supremely talented and my co-advisor of the Social Media Marketing program, Avery Horzewski is teaching Day 2. Then we tag-teach the Measurement class on Day 3. It should be a fun and collaborative intensive lens into social media marketing, how to develop your strategy, campaign building best practices and tips for measuring your social media marketing efforts for constant improvement.

I’m very excited to have all of these engagements and looking forward to discussing ways to keep your audiences engaged. Since the topic is social media, it’s sure to be fun for all and well, super social.

Are you planning to attend any of the presentations or classes? If so, do you have anything specific you are hoping to learn? Please let us know by commenting below. Thanks!

Marketing, Social Media Marketing, presentation, Social Media, teaching

8 Social Media Trends for 2012

January 23, 2012 Suse Barnes 4 comments

Social media continued to gain popularity in 2011 and will grow even more in 2012. If you haven’t caught the social media bug yet, 2012 may be your year! Below are some of the trends we expect to see in the next 12 months.

Happy connecting!

1. Google+ is the new kid on the block

The latest big idea from Google and major social network on the scene, Google will continue expanding Google+ in 2012 and plans to integrate the social network with many of their other properties such as SEO, Reader, AdWords, and YouTube.

Though most social media users still spend the majority of their time on Facebook currently, it’s a good idea to create personal profiles and business pages on Google+ now so that you’ll be one step ahead while interest in Google+ continues to grow. Furthermore good implementation of your Google+ page can produce search engine ranking benefits.

2. Facebook on it’s own timeline

While Google+ is giving Facebook a run for its money, Facebook is projected to reach 1 billion users in 2012 (via dreamgrow.com). We’ve seen major changes with Facebook since Google+ entered the scene, not least of which is Timeline. This new profile format encourages users to “live their lives via Facebook” and use the social network as a virtual scrapbook. Although introduced a year ago, timeline is yet to be implemented on all personal profiles. You still have a choice. However, to remain competitive in 2012, Facebook will be releasing Timeline for brand pages and introducing mobile ads. Additionally, Facebook’s 2011 purchase of Gowalla is expected to result in some 2012 enhancements to Timeline. (This links up with the Geolocation trend as described below.) Mobile meets local meets social meets viral.

3. Twitter keeps on tweeting

While 2011 was the year of the URL shortener, 2012 will be the year of advertising. We are used to seeing sponsored tweets, but expect to see increasingly prominent ads on Twitter this year.

Additionally in 2012, Twitter will continue to be an important part of the world news landscape. In 2011 we saw microblogging play a major role in sharing news about Arab Spring and Occupy Wall Street, and the 2012 presidential election will make Twitter usage even more mainstream.

4. Aggregators keep getting better: Buffer and Crowdbooster

While technology becomes more advanced across social media, Twitter aggregators are making excellent gains as well. Buffer, an aggregator that schedules your tweets based on when your followers are most likely to see them, is now offering ifttt (if this then that). The ifttt service allows you to specify an action (such as favoriting a tweet) that will then trigger another action (such as retweeting said favorited tweet). There are many combinations that can be used with this technology so it is definitely worth a try! Buffer also allows users to email tweets via your phone or iPad.

Crowdbooster, another scheduling tool, provides a chart with data regarding your most successful tweets. With impressions on one axis and retweets on another, you have the ability to view total reach of your tweets. Pretty cool!

5. Pinterest – Yes, pin your interests!

Interest in Pinterest grew immensely in 2011. By allowing you to “pin your interests” with images you find online, Pinterest is blazing the trail for an even more image-centric social media landscape. Additionally, Pinterest is leading the way in the transition from long form curation (such as tweets) to push-button curation. Much more popular with women than men, because of it’s wide usage for planning weddings and looking at fashion, Pinterest is a niche network competing in some ways with the likes of Stumble Upon.

As Pinterest continues to gain steam in 2012, more and more brands will sign on as well. Expect to see more “Pin It” buttons next to the “Like” buttons you see across the web.

6. YouTube – the number 2 search engine

Using video to get the point across (whether you are an individual or a business) will become even more prevalent in 2012. With 4 billion daily views on YouTube, why not put yourself out there? YouTube videos are very sharable on practically every platform and 57% of internet users surveyed by Yahoo say they watch videos daily. People will be online to watch videos even more in 2012, so now is the time to get in the game.

7. Geolocation – “I am here, are you near?”

Social will be even more local in 2012 with services such as Foursquare expanding their offerings and geo-deals such as Scoutmob becoming more and more popular. Users can already add their location to tweets and Facebook posts, so expect to see more and more connection between location and social media in 2012.

8. Infographics

While certainly on the scene in 2010, infographics became even more ubiquitous in 2011. Practically anything can be expressed via infographics these days and soon visual.ly will be providing a service that lets you easily build your own infographics. There are already several such tools available.

Infographics will be used more and more to display data. It’s easier to learn from a colorful picture than three paragraphs of statistics, right?

We’ll be back soon with 2012 trends in search, so stay tuned!

In the meantime what are your thoughts about social media trends for 2012? Please add your comments. Thanks!

Marketing, Social Media Facebook, Google, Marketing, Mobile, Social Media, Twitter, YouTube

Social Media Marketing Book List

September 27, 2011 Suse Barnes Leave a comment

When I teach classes I’m often asked if I have any book recommendations. While I hesitate to recommend books in a new media field, because the content changes frequently, I do read books and also have a wish list. Here are a few books to consider for getting started in Social Media Marketing.

Inbound Marketing: Get Found Using Google, Social Media and Blogs by Brian Halligan and Dharmesh Shah. Brought to us by the founders of the ever successful and highly popular HubSpot, this book covers everything you need to know to be a good digital citizen today. It includes tips on how to optimize your profile, content and general attitude in order to secure work in today’s competitive marketplace. It’s an easy read and well worth a listen if you prefer books on tape too.

Engage: Revised and Updated: The Complete Guide for Brands and Businesses to Build, Cultivate, and Measure Success in the New Web by Brian Solis. I’m a Solis follower and fan and believe he knows his stuff from both traditional public relations, and new media. He was extremely influential in my getting started in this field and he said “Participation is marketing” before anyone really even understood what participation meant.

The Zen of Social Media Marketing by Shama Hyder Kabani. This is a fresh approach written by a very successful 25 year-old entrepreneur. I enjoyed the insights from many leading online marketers and entrepreneurs included in the book as well.

Social Media Metrics: How to Measure and Optimize Your Marketing Investment by Jim Stern. This is a great introduction for tracking results in social media and how best to use the built in data to maximize your Return On Influence. Don’t miss this one.

Marketing 3.0: From Products to Customers to the Human Spirit by Philip Kotler. A more academic look at the state of marketing today including and social media, sustainability and how businesses are solving new challenges today.

On the wish list:

Launch: How to Quickly Propel Your Business Beyond the Competition by Michael A. Stelzner

Success Secrets of Social Media Superstars by Mitch Meyerson

Likeable Social Media: How to Delight Your Customers, Create an Irresistible Brand, and Be Generally Amazing on Facebook (And Other Social Networks) by Dave Kerpen

If you have read and/or are reading any of these books and would like to share your thoughts about them, please do so in the comments area below. Thanks.

Marketing, Social Media

Social Media Marketing Certificate Program

January 26, 2011 Suse Barnes One comment

I’m very honored to be on the faculty with several highly accomplished people in the new Social Media Marketing Certificate Program that is starting next week at SF State’s College of Extended Learning. I planted the seed for this program two years ago and worked with Linda Popky of Leverage 2 Market and Lauren Vanett of SF State to get it going, so I’m very excited about the launch.

I’m teaching the intro course which is Introduction to Social Media: The Power of Community, followed by George Kao‘s tools class called: Masting Social Media: 3 Essential Tools for the Business Professional in which students will understand how to use these three tools for effective business networking online. This course will greatly benefit small business owners, life and business coaches, independent business and marketing consultants, authors and speakers. George is an excellent business and marketing coach with a track record for empowering people on the best tools and strategies in social media.

Then in March, Avery Horzewski of Ave Consulting will be teaching Engaging Your Community: Creating an Effective Social Media Campaign in which students will learn learn the essential do’s and don’ts for planning and executing effective social media campaigns that keep your community engaged and committed. Avery is also the president of Women in Consulting and Program Advisor for the SF State Social Media Program. She regularly speaks on social media, its impact on business, and implementation best practices and has a very impressive client list.

Our Social Media in the Real World: Successful Applications of Social Media Strategies will be taught by Jennifer Neely Lindsay of The A-List fame on Blogtalkradio in between visits to the middle east for training sessions she has scheduled there. Jennifer’s course will provide a closer look at the strategies and planning used by effective social media practitioners within organizations. Case studies and hands-on projects will reveal which strategies are most effective and why. You’ll learn to think strategically and adjust your plan to changes in the community conversation.

In the summer, we’ll be adding a Mobile Social course about social media marketing on mobile devices taught by Mario Tapia of Mobile Mondays Silicon Valley, as well as a capstone course with Linda Popky of Leverage 2 Market Associates titled Integrating Social Media into the Overall Marketing Strategy.

Our goal is to provide participants with a foundation in the new evolving world of social media tools and strategies that they can immediately apply in the workplace. It is sure to be fun and I’m excited to learn a lot from the students too.

For more information please visit the Social Media Marketing course pages.

Marketing, Social Media SF State, SMM, teaching

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People are the best thing in the world.

4 P’s of Marketing Make Way for 7 P’s of Social Media

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