Don’t Forget the Fifth “P”

One of the bloggers I follow is Brian Solis, an author, speaker and thought leader in social media. He recently wrote a blog post about the increasing number of businesses that ask consumers to follow them on Twitter or like them on Facebook. He poses an important question to the organizations in this post and a previous one: why?

You can watch this video to hear Brian's thoughts on this topic. He talks about reminding companies that they need to address what's in it for the customer. His words rang true and immediately caught my attention! Sound familiar?

As we've been learning in class all semester, a company's approach to social media should focus on the buyer first instead of the product as The New Rules of Marketing & PR encourages us to do throughout the book. His comments also echo what we've learned in reading Groundswell, especially with regards to the POST method.

It was a nice confirmation of the class discussions we've had this summer and reminded me that the only way a company's social media campaign will be effective is if its brand fosters a relationship with the consumer. Blasting the target audience with one-time communications that have no strategic direction will only be perceived as spam. To this point, Brian noted that he's seeing a trend of people connecting around what they're passionate about and in a way, becoming their own media networks. I found this to be a clever analogy of today's savvy consumers who are online. If companies view them are more of a media presence, perhaps it will help them focus on the newsworthiness of the content they distribute.

Near the end of the video, Brian also touched upon Google+ and answers the host’s question regarding whether or not companies who have a presence on Facebook should jump on Google+ or not. Brian responds by noting that companies should be looking at if their customers are in that space and what is being said about them or their competitors. In other words, he suggests that jumping on the bandwagon of any social media channel without developing a targeted strategy in advance is a wasted effort.

“It comes down to people, the 5th P of Marketing. Knowing who they are and what they want is enlightening as it affects not just the other 4P’s of product, place, price, and promotion, but also defines the user experience. It brings the ‘why’ to life.”

I couldn't agree more, Brian!