Pillars for Social Marketing

A feature on marketingpilgrim.com outlines five pillars of social media marketing through the Internet and Web site design. In order to maximize effectiveness and impact upon the public, it states the following five forms of action are recommended.

1. Declaration of Identity: This phase requires an organization to declare its value, who they are, and where you can find them. This needs to be clearly articulated so that public interest is heightened, while simultaneously bringing them back to the organization. Clear facts and information should be presented throughout the medium.
2. Identification Through Association: This act is basically about getting people to associate themselves with the organization. This is hopefully largely achieved through the clear establishment of its identity (as stated above), but takes it to the next level and pushes the public to talk to others.
3. User-Initiated Conversation: The public comes to the organization with their declarations and questions, largely emerging from interactions thus far, and the organization needs to respond. This is very important to the success of the organization, as it needs to cater to the needs and questions of the public. Basically, it’s about customer service.
4. Provider-Initiated Conversation: This is the time when organizations need to probe the public on how they feel, what they like, what they hate, and how they think. Feedback is invaluable. It’s important to express to the public the value in their opinions, as it can make a lot of positive change emerge.
5. In-Person Interaction: This is the pinnacle form of interaction. After users have visited a Web site and established what exactly they want from it and are receving from it, the interaction needs to be taken to the next level. This solidifies and expands opinions and feelings toward brands.

It has been complicated to achieve this notion in the past through internet-based interactions because of the fact that no one has created a solid structure from which everyone should work, and the problem of overlap of functionality within Web sites. This can be addressed by truly understanding objectives and how to best associate those with the identified targets.