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I think one of the things that small business marketers struggle with around the entire topic of social marketing is trying to jump into the new new thing without enough analysis of what they should focus on. I happen to think this is an important, evolving and essential area of marketing for small businesses, but there’s a hierarchy to it. In other words, there is a logical progression of utilization that comes about much like Maslow’s Hierarchy of Human Nature.
As Maslow theorized, the ultimate potential of your marketing or human self-actualization couldn’t be achieved until the most basic human psychological needs - breathing, eating, sleeping, sex were first met. (Yes, I’m about ready to compare blogging to sex.) In fact safety, love, and esteem all come before transcendence. Now, before I edge too close to the deep end here, I’m simply comparing what I think is a bit like progressing up the social marketing hierarchy.
Most small business owners should look at the following progression or hierarchy as they move deeper into social marketing tactics. So, jump in, but do it in this order and don’t move on until you have the basics of each stage down and working for you.
Blogging - the foundation of the pyramid - read blogs (Google Reader or Bloglines), comment on blogs and then blog. This is the doorway to all other social marketing - WordPress, TypePad, Blogger
RSS - aggregate and filter content around subjects and use RSS technology as a tool to help you repurpose, republish and create content - Some tools - Feedburner, Google News and mysyndicaat
Social Search - this is often ignored in this discussion but I think it’s become very important for small business owners. Directories that publish reviews from customers - good and bad. You can participate and should stimulate and manage your reputation here. Insider Pages, Google Maps, Yahoo Local, Local.com, Judy’s Book, Yelp
Social Bookmarking - tagging content to and participating in social bookmarking communities can be a great way to open up more channels to your business as well as generate extra search traffic, but it takes work - del.icio.us, Digg, StumbleUpon, Reddit, Mixx, Small Business Brief
Social Networking - branching out to take advantage of the numbers of potential prospects that you might find in sites like Facebook or MySpace will frustrate at least as a business tool if you don’t have many of the above needs met. These networks take time to understand and thrive on ideas and content. You’ve got to have much to share if you wish to build a business case. The good news is that industry and idea specific sites for everything from book lovers to green living are springing up every day. Here’s an enormous list of social networking sites from Mashable
Micro - I’ve lumped some of the more experimental social tools into the edge trend of micro, social, real-time communication that will likely only confuse most small business owners. The confusion is not because they can’t figure out how to make them work, it’s just not obvious why they would spend the time. I think Maslow suggested the self-actualization was a place that most might never reach and in social marketing terms Twitter, Thwirl, Plurk and FriendFeed might be some sort of sick transcendence.
All the evidence that we have indicates that it is reasonable to assume in practically every human being, and certainly in almost every newborn baby, that there is an active will toward health, an impulse towards growth, or towards the actualization.
Abraham Maslow
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This entry was posted on Monday, June 9th, 2008 at Jun 09, 08 | 1:36 pm and is filed under Blogging, Digg, Facebook, Feedburner, Local Search, RSS, Social Media, Social Networking, Tools I Use, WordPress, delicious. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.
Tremendous summary of all this info. Thank you.
This was very interesting and put some things in perspective for me personally. I admit to joining Twitter only to find out that I simply don’t have the time to constantly put in one sentence items about my day. The list in the post is impressive and daunting. If I’m doing all of that, when am I working my business? And, I still don’t understand what RSS is - just can’t wrap my brain around that one.
Excellent analogy. I’m putting together a presentation on effective search engine marketing and social networking and this fits perfectly. Being a marketing coach means researching all these new tools and knowing when (and which ones) to recommend to a client. This diagram and your explanation help to make sense of it all. Thanks.
Great visual on blogging - but what interests me most and what your pyramid doesn’t reflect are the interstices between online and offline social networking that I’ll be addressing at a seminar, Building Relationships, Referrals and Reputation On and Offline - http://www.acteva.com/booking.cfm?bevaID=161181. Great course!
I enjoyed this clever comparison of Social Media to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. I think that you are right on target in suggesting that many small business owners are overwhelmed by all the opportunities in social media marketing. By placing them hierarchically into this format I think that you have helped it become clearer where a new entrepreneur or small business owner should start.
Great summary John - agree with the pyramid structure. What interests me is that so many people are yet to even know, read or understanding blogging, and many of them are still our potential clients / customers.
So, can one live on love, esteem (blogging) alone? I’m with Linda a bit. I may be using RSS more than I think when I subscribe to newsletters and blogs. I’m plenty glad to let someone subscribe to mine. But, the technology of some of it has been overwhelming. I’ve been investigating Typepad since yesterday. Yesterday, it didn’t feel really comfortable yet.
That’s very interesting. Maslow did put physiological needs at the bottom such as food, water and shelter as must have before anything else can be met. I guess blogging can be alien to a lot of business owners who are already on Facebook etc where there interation is already there socially but they are not interacting yet with people they don’t already know ?
Besides Maslow’s law, the key to successful internet social marketing is understanding your ideal client, otherwise you are just spinning your wheels. Understand their demographic and pyschographic characteristics to know where to find them, how to target them, how to communicate to them effectivley, and how close them. The best book I’ve ever read for the answers to these types of questions is John Assaraf’s new book “The Answer.” It is phennominal and a must read for internet marketers.
http://www.readtheanswer.com/index.php?rta=blog
Any thoughts? Has anybody read it yet?
With so many avenues to pursue social marketing I find it’s daunting trying to keep up. I do agree that blogging is probably the best foundation to start with and can lead into other avenues.
I keep my main focus on blogging and then branch out as I see fit for my particular markets
I agree with a lot of your writing and system, John, but something about the pyramid model doesn’t resonate with me. I’m not sure I have a better model, though.
i tend to stick with the hackneyed old analogy of a toolbox. Each social media technology is a tool. Some tools will work for your business, some will not. Many can be used in combination, and the tools you include in your toolbox should reflect the unique nature of your business, target audience, and objectives.
Thanks for throwing this out there, though…provides a great framework to start thinking about how best to use these tools.
Great post!
One thing I found conspicuously absent was communities. I can appreciate the perspective of marketing that their role is to get the message out. That’s certainly what these media do.
However, customers themselves are a pretty vital part of that process, and they can do that very effectively with communites. They become your ambassadors and they get themselves better educated about your offering so that they can be better customers. The most common community tool is the forum, of course.
Given how long it takes to build an effective community, I would argue tackling it earlier is key. I’d put the forum somewhere between RSS and Social Search.
Cheers,
BW
Nice post. A social funnel, per se. As a Marketer, the benefits of blogs are obvious if for no other reason than my competitors and customers are doing it. Yet lets not forget a challenge with this social funnel model that all businesses face at one time or another - how do you get ALL of the KEY leaders to post relevant blog content to start the entire funnel progression
Love that post. It is simple fresh and really breaks down what can be extremely overwhelming. I am trying to get clarity on the roles these avenues play and that really made it simple to understand so a big thanks.
Cheers
Rich Muir
http://www.companiesnow.com.au
making registering your new company easy
Any attempt to explain the unexplainable helps!!
And by the way, my mother will NOW certainly never be a JJ blog reader with your risqué sex analogy! >:)
I agree just like other waves that come sweeping across the business landscape, blogs/social networks can’t be ignored and must be ridden out in order to stay up with your competition
@Randy and others - I think it’s pretty funny how many people picked up on the sex comment - of course this was part of Maslow’s list of basic human needs, but it sure proves in marketing circles that sex still sells.
@scott - the reason for the pyramid and hierarchy is the main point in my view is that you shouldn’t try to do them all - do the bottom first and work up to the others.
Great Summary! I’ve been working somewhat in the realm of social marketing for a little while now, and now I feel like I have more direction. Thanks John!
@DavidCastro - I like the funnel correlation - I think that makes some sense and what the heck, it’s shaped like a pyramid too.
According to Maslow’s hierarchy, each of the layers relied on the one below. For some business owners, you model does apply. However, there are many examples of businesses that go against this. For example, a small book store might not have enough material to blog about or create RSS feeds, but could use the social networking site shelfari everyday to make the necessary relationships. I think the main point of your post, and many in the past, have been directed toward those businesses attempting to force the use of the web tools instead of accommodating them to their own online marketing strategy. I do agree that the clump micro tools are more advanced and can be used after the previous steps and understanding has been taken. Thanks for the post.
@Chris - I appreciate your comments and scentiment and certainly know that many of my posts are general in nature and should be applied to specific situations as needed, but I disagree with your assertion that a small bookstore wouldn’t have enough info to blog about - hello, blog about the thousands of books - review them, quote them, talk about the thousands of authors, let customers do the same - using RSS for a small bookstore is a no brainer too - collect the collective vibe about some of your book or, all authors have blogs - republish the authors words.
There may be examples where your thought applies, but just not this one.
I can endorse what John has outlined using the pyramid. I experimented with the tools in pretty much this same order (somewhat by accident) and it does help to keep everything in perspective. Something like Twitter seemed like a waste of time when looking at it from the outside. Once I ventured in 3 months ago, I have begun to realize the business value. Keep up the good work John!
I agree John, those are perfectly good examples of a book store using the tools right right way. I was just saying some people have blogs for the sake of having them and not correctly using them. And based on the idea of a structure, some tools just might be more appealing to others for reasons of convenience rather than function.
Interesting analogy at the bottom - blogging is like sex - but at least I understand now why I am addicted.
It is an excellent summary of the different social marketing avenues and a useful prioritisation.
My concern with social media is the time that it takes so much time and returns are delayed and not immediately measurable.
RSS isn’t “social” anything; there’s nothing interactive about it, nothing user-generated about it, it’s simply a content delivery protocol like HTTP, FTP, SMTP, etc.
@Crotch - I agree completely and technically if all you are doing is considering RSS as plumbing. Let me ask this, how did you find this post? An RSS feed I’m guessing and now here you are getting all social with this community.
In this sense I’m referring to the broader application of RSS technology to enable social media for readers, commenters, aggregators and filterers.
Great way to explain the theory. Neat diagram.The main purpose of SEM is to increase your presence and popularity on the internet, which will eventually convert to increased traffic.
Thank for this post. Many of my clients get so lost around social marketing. They feel that they need to do “everything” so they end up doing “nothing”. Your pyramid provides a clear, well-reasoned path for people to follow.
Nice pyramid. It works.
You probably should, however, refer to all of this as “social media marketing,” not social marketing, which is a recognized marketing discipline (usually non-profit based) dedicated to affecting social change.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_marketing
@Jasper - thanks, maybe we’ll take over the term
I bought my first computer in 1984. Now I’m just starting to scratch the surface of social networking. But I enjoy learning new things. The comparison to Maslow’s hierarchy and the old Dept. of Health food pyramid helps us older-newbies understand the basics and where to start in this new cyberscape. Thanks.