The Five Pillars of Social Media Marketing
Monday, October 30th, 2006;
-- Ben Wills |
>>Need help with social media marketing? Hire Andy Beal today!<<
So, in the late, late nights that I’ve spent making sense of and organizing Social Media Marketing, I’ve been able to find nothing that outlines strategies or fundamentals of Social Media Marketing. Yes, Rohit Bhargava created a post that kicked into gear the “5 Rules of Social Media Optimization (SMO).” After 20 days and much buzz in the blogosphere, it was expanded into 17 rules, with additions from all over the online marketing and business community’s thought leaders. And yet, while it’s an absolute must-read, there’s still no strategy outlining the fundamental strategies or tactics of Social Media Marketing.
That’s what I’ve racked my brain to figure out and this is what I define as the Five Pillars of Social Media Marketing.
The Five Pillars of Social Media Marketing
Any and all forms of Social Media Marketing tactics fall under at least one of these five forms of action. Often the same channel will incorporate two or more of these:
- Declaration of Identity
- Identity through Association
- User-initiated Conversation
- Provider-initiated Conversation
- In-Person Interaction
Identity-based Interaction is your declaration of your value, who you are, and where you can be found. Your customer happens upon your online identity that you, as a provider, define and declare. This is anything from your About Us pages on your blog or website, to your MySpace profile, to your Naymz profile. Here, there is very little interaction outside of your own declaration, but this becomes critical in defining how you can benefit your marketplace.
There has been a recent outcrop of websites created purely for this function. An expanded business card, if you will. Most also include the opportunity to link to your other forms of presence online, bringing together your presence in one place…well, kind-of. They include:
Association-based Interaction is your customers’ opportunity to associate themselves with you and you with your customers. Most obviously, this is accomplished through things like becoming “Friends” on MySpace, you and your customers’ BlogRoll, or through their social bookmarking. This is your customer wearing your company’s logo proudly - Like Andy wears his Beatles shirts.
The most explicit form of allowing for this ability is through social bookmarking sites. I say this, and not social networking sites, because this is the sole function of these sites. Make it easy for your customers to bookmark your site, blog posts, etc with their favorite tool.
User-initiated Conversation is your users’ opportunity to create their own declarations or questions, and your opportunity to respond. This is your opportunity to be there and cater to them. Here, you serve your customers.
Perhaps the most cut-and-dry examples of this lie in messageboards, forums and “groups” sites such as Google Groups, Yahoo! Groups, community sites, etc. So, how do you find these conversations? Andy Beal’s Online Reputation Monitoring Beginner’s Guide. Here, he walks you through, step-by-step, how to find out what conversations are being initiated by others online.
In order to get directly involved with your customers, the most well-known example of this is “GoogleGuy” on the WebmasterWorld forums, is through your users’ forums, and sites such as:
- Yahoo Groups
- Google Groups
- AOL Groups
- MSN Groups
- Topica EMail Lists
- Kaboodle Groups
- Eurekster
- tribe.net
- Ning
Provider-initiated Conversation is your chance to find out what your customers think, feel, love and hate about your product. Ask them. Challenge them. Present yourself to them, but do so respectfully. As much as it’s an opportunity for them to tell you what they love and hate about your product, it’s also their choice whether to do so or not. Be kind. Be respectful. Appreciate their time.
Although it’s not a primarily online company, there is one company that has made this their culture. Seeking feedback and input from its customers 24/7/265. And it is: Current.tv. There’s little-to-no format, except for about half of the content is contributed by its users. If you haven’t seen it or don’t have digital cable, find someone who does and watch it. Do that this week, you won’t regret it.
Social networking strategies for connecting with your customers can certainly be complex, tricky and cumbersome, so I’ll be writing up strategies in the very near future to hopefully assist on those fronts. In the meantime, find your customers and interact with them here:
In-Person Interaction is the pinnacle form of interaction with your customers. You’re interacting with them online, why not in person? Does it get better than that? This is where relationships are built and authentic conversation is had with so much more input, feedback, collaboration and communication. I had a seven hour conversation with a good friend last night. It was one of the best conversations I’ve ever had about so many things, and I could have never had that quality of a conversation online. Nothing beats face-to-face.
Get out there. Meet your customers. Let them interact with other customers. Build your community. Go to conferences…better yet, organize your own gatherings.
To help this along, coordinating, managing attendee status, etc, there have been several sites that can help in either finding local events or coordinating your own:
Final Thoughts
One thing about social media marketing: It’s complicated for two reasons: no one has created a structure to work from, and there’s so much overlap in functionality of different sites, that it can be quite confusing as to a site’s single purpose because…well…there usually isn’t a single purpose.
Don’t let this hold you back. Get out there. Spend time with these sites. Sign up, Use them, meet your customers, talk to your customers, and LOVE THEM.
But wait! There’s More! Feel free to use my Social Media Marketing Tactics chart (on BenWills.com) to make sure your next campaign is a success.
>> Liked this post? You might also want to read our Social Media Marketing Beginner’s Guide <<
** Are you the next big name in search marketing? Enter our SEM Scholarship Contest & you could win $10,000 in prizes!
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October 30th, 2006 at 11:29 am
[…] As part of a contest over at Marketing Pilgrim, Ben Wills has submitted an article entitled “The Five Pillars of Social Media Marketing.” He names the five pillars and gives example sites for each. The Five Pillars of Social Media Marketing […]
October 30th, 2006 at 11:47 am
[…] Ben Wills proposes that there are five pillars of social media marketing. […]
October 30th, 2006 at 12:13 pm
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October 30th, 2006 at 1:40 pm
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October 30th, 2006 at 7:28 pm
[…] When it comes to social media marketing, no one has created a structure to work from, and there’s so much overlap in functionality of different sites, that it can be quite confusing as to a site’s single purpose, if there’s such a thing. Of late, however, marketing types have churned out rules of social market optimization, strategies or tactics of social media marketing. Marketing Pilgrim has a roundup - 1. Declaration of Identity 2. Identity through Association 3. User-initiated Conversation 4. Provider-initiated Conversation 5. In-Person Interaction […]
October 31st, 2006 at 9:43 am
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November 6th, 2006 at 10:51 pm
[…] The winner for this week was Ben Wills article The Five Pillars of Social Media Marketing with an impressive 1153 unique views, by far the most for any article in the four weeks of the contest. By comparison my own article drew 435 unique views, which would have been enough to win either of the first two weeks, but not either of the last two weeks. Congratulations to Ben for both writing a good article and getting a lot of people to it this week. […]
November 7th, 2006 at 2:38 am
[…] The winner of week 4, Ben Wills, blew away the other 20 contestants with a total of 1,153 unique page views! Apparently Ben knows a bit about social media and wrote the article, “The Five Pillars of Social Media Marketing“. Ben actually ran away with week 4 by getting 400 more unique views more than the nearest competitor. Ben leaves us with some final thoughts. One thing about social media marketing: It’s complicated for two reasons: no one has created a structure to work from, and there’s so much overlap in functionality of different sites, that it can be quite confusing as to a site’s single purpose because…well…there usually isn’t a single purpose. […]
November 7th, 2006 at 12:34 pm
[…] Posted by Dave on 07 Nov 2006 at 05:34 pm | Tagged as: Uncategorized Social media marketing is so painfully new, and there is such an unfocused buzz around it, that it is easy for the laybusinessperson to get completely overwhelmed. Is there any difference between SMO and SMM, for example? How can MySpace and Digg both be categorized as social/new media when they are fundamentally so very different? And, more importantly, how can I claim my own plot and start prospecting? The strokes are very broad right now, and subcategories that are going to help the layperson understand the new landscape are emerging. The best breakdown I’ve found is Andy Beal’s Five Pillars of Social Media Marketing - but I will try and form some original thoughts for the less experienced. Marketing 101 tell us to identify our target market before even getting out of bed in the morning. So boil it all down and think about which new media outlets your targets are most likely to be converging at? Let’s look at a few of the juggernauts. […]
November 8th, 2006 at 11:14 pm
[…] One clear lesson is the power of social media and in fact the last week’s winning article was “The Five Pillars of Social Media Marketing“. Another lesson was that a link from Stuntdul, SEOmoz and TopRankBlog is a great way to get page views since these blogs are all about seo sem, the target audience. […]
November 8th, 2006 at 11:55 pm
[…] Well, it turns out that in the final week of the Search Marketing Scholarship Contest, I was able to squeak out a win with my article titled The Five Pillars of Social Media Marketing. It’s a pretty big honor to win the week that I entered since not only were there the most entries, but it was the strictest competition with some great entries. At this point, the winners of each of the four weeks now go in front of a panel of industry judges to decide which article will win the overall contest. […]
November 9th, 2006 at 10:47 am
[…] I’ve had many a great conversation with Ben lately about his concepts surrounding social media marketing - he’s putting his 5 pillars of Social Media Marketing into practice. […]
November 10th, 2006 at 2:04 pm
And here is how you build buzz and links, ladies and gentlemen. Well …. good content as well of course.
November 10th, 2006 at 6:37 pm
[…] Congratulations to Ben Wills,  winner of Marketing Pilgrim’s SEM Scholarship contest. After 4 weeks and 48 entries Ben was declared the winner of the $6,000 in prizes. The final four contestants’ articles were reviewed by a panel of 9 judges who chose Ben Wills’ article “The Five Pillars of Social Media Marketing” from among the other four weekly winners. His 1,154 unique views are what gained his entry into the final four but his well written article about the power of social media is what impressed the judges. […]
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December 29th, 2006 at 9:35 am
Great read. Well put together, succinct and organized. I found it insightful. Very smart!
Congratulations Ben!
December 31st, 2006 at 9:26 am
[…] This is interesting, Andy is known as a Search Engine Marketing Guru, but is showing some incredible knowledge in the area of Social Media Marketing, in context of relationship rules. In fact, I would rename his article from The Five Pillars of Social Media Marketing to the Five Rules of Social Media Marketing. “Get out there. Spend time with these sites. Sign up, Use them, meet your customers, talk to your customers, and LOVE THEM.” […]
January 3rd, 2007 at 11:02 am
[…] One of my very good friends, Ben Wills has written a great article on social media marketing that I would recommend everyone to take a read. You can find it at:The Five Pillars of Social Media Marketing […]
January 7th, 2007 at 12:47 pm
[…] For more information: 5 Rules of Social Media Optimization (SMO) (Influential Interactive Marketing) What’s the Big Deal With Social Search? (Chris Sherman) The Dark Side of Social Media Optimization (Graywolf) The Five Pillars of Social Media Marketing (Marketing Pilgrim) Social Media Marketing, eh? Let’s See What’s in Our Bag o’ Goodies (SEOMoz) Social Media Optimization (SMO) in 2007 (Social Media Optimization Blog) Add to feed reader | Digg this | Post to del.icio.us | Add to Reddit Posted on Sunday 7 January 2007 Filed under: Search engine marketing and Online search tools and services and All […]
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January 23rd, 2007 at 10:29 am
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February 3rd, 2007 at 11:45 am
[…] Over the last couple of months, there has been a allot of buzz around Social Media Optimization (the New Rules of SMO, the Five Pillars of Social Media Marketing and Treating Social Media Optimization as another Distribution Channel) and the list goes on. However, what I haven’t noticed is any discussion on how to measure social media optimization. We all know from Marketing 101, that the ability to measure the effectiveness of marketing initiatives and calculating a ROMI (return on marketing investment) is imperative to a company’s bottom line. In fact, just yesterday; Comscore announced a research and development initiative that is designed to provide comprehensive measurement of conversational media such as blogs and community-driven sites. […]
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March 5th, 2007 at 12:43 pm
[…] Pandia Search Engine News suggested as 2007 opened that this is the year of Social Media Marketing (SMM). The most referenced definition of SMM is perhaps that of Ben Wills as he set out in The Five Pillars of Social Media Marketing. He suggested that Social Media shared one or more of the following five forms of action: […]
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April 7th, 2007 at 7:36 am
[…] Andy Beal started a really cool scholarship last year, and has brought it back this year. With an esteemed group of judges and then me - he’ll be giving away a bunch of great SEM prizes worth upwards of 10k to the lucky winner. There was some really excellent entries last year - and the big winner was Ben Wills, a very sharp dude (and also a real good guy) who wrote about the 5 Pillars of Social Media Marketing. Find out more about the search engine marketing scholarship at Marketing Pilgrim. […]
May 8th, 2007 at 2:11 am
Interesting perspective of Social Media Marketing.
Curious when a business comes at it from their “selfish” perspective. What do we need from social media marketing?
How many of the pillars go out the window? What will they compromise?
May 10th, 2007 at 11:25 am
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August 7th, 2007 at 9:59 pm
[…] The five pillars of social media marketing by Ben Wills. Provider-initiated Conversation is an impor… […]
September 9th, 2007 at 8:44 am
It is the first time for me to hear the idea of Social Media Marketing but it appears to be a brilliant idea. I will try it and give you my feedback….
September 25th, 2007 at 11:39 am
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November 25th, 2007 at 10:39 am
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January 14th, 2008 at 11:08 pm
Great post. I really liked how you broke down the sites into “pillars”. Great idea. Well done.
January 27th, 2008 at 7:24 pm
[…] winner for this week was Ben Wills article The Five Pillars of Social Media Marketing with an impressive 1153 unique views, by far the most for any article in the four weeks of the […]
February 11th, 2008 at 8:04 am
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February 29th, 2008 at 1:54 pm
[…] job of trying to encapsulate what Social Media Marketing was all about with his so-called “5 Pillars“. All to often though, and unfortunately though, is that buzzy nomenclature is used to […]
March 6th, 2008 at 7:54 am
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March 27th, 2008 at 3:24 am
I would like to add one more and that is “Massively Redistrutable Media”. This would be things like “Badger Badger Badger” - there are some good comments about packaging media so it can be redistributed http://www.demonzmedia.com/DemonzBlog/?p=9
A good example is the “Dolphin Bubbles” video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TMCf7SNUb-Q). I have seen this posted on many of the sites I frequent and it is brilliant content. At the same time it is a brilliant advertisment for Sea World Orlando, and every time someone reposts the video, that means another potential lead back to YouTube to read the comments.
The conversation is important to - if you can get content that is appealing and post it on your own site with good comments, people may link to your site.
March 31st, 2008 at 7:08 am
[…] ability to identify the passionate interests of community site-users is a modern media miracle. Conversational marketing is the true promise of demographic research embodied and a pillar of social media. That’s the […]
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[…] are often conversations about where social media fits, who owns it now and who will own it in the future. I’m not one to believe in the strict […]
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May 11th, 2008 at 1:48 pm
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