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“The social web will be the most critical marketing environment around.”

Larry Weber, p.14

That much Larry Weber had right in his 2007 bestseller Marketing to the Social Web: How digital customer communities build your business. But how have his insights kept up to through the past 4 years of social media shifts?

The evolution of marketing and social media

As Weber points out, companies still need a good product and good content if they are to be successful online marketers. This much will always hold true.

However, as the chart below shows,  social media and the ability to share information instantly has changed:

• · the company-consumer and consumer-consumer dynamic
• · how marketers segment and target their markets
• · how product reviews are conducted
• · the role of the advertiser and publisher

(p.33)

The role of Marketing and Marketers

The web has not role of marketing: it’s still about defining your target market, communicating with prospective and current consumers, and building trust and loyalty. However, Weber argues that a marketer’s role has changed from a “broadcaster” pushing information out, to an “aggregator” who brings together content and communities. He falls short of foreseeing a shift from push- to pull-style marketing, where consumers take the initiative to find information relevant to them. Pull-style marketing goes a step beyond his “aggregator” vision of collecting information, to consumers actively seeking the information they want.

In “Old Marketing” companies controlled the content, however, with the advent of blogs, discussion forums, and other social media tools, consumers have much more power and control. Weber argues that, rather than attempting to control their customers, companies must create opportunities for their customers to be part of the publishing process by incorporating two-way communication tools such as blogs into their websites, and by sponsoring sites pertinent to their industry. While he addresses independently created community forums such as facebook, twitter, yelp, etc., he doesn’t foresee the extent to which these sites would overtake company controlled and sponsored blogs to become the place where consumers turn for trustworthy advice and consumer ratings and reviews.

Targeting and segmenting your market

Weber speaks of the importance of segmenting and targeting the market by behaviour, including website behaviour. Since 2007, software technologies have become far more sophisticated in tracking user behaviour, allowing the advent of technographic segmentation and data mining that he could not have possibly imagined. Companies must include this type of segmentation into their research in order to decide how best to incorporate social media into their marketing strategy.

Company strategy and social media

Weber recommends companies integrate social media into their online strategy. However, what the most successful companies will do is integrate their online and social media strategies into their overall marketing strategy, which works in conjunction with their business strategy and company goals. Social media and websites cannot be a separate aspect, but an integral part of how the company’s message is disseminated and how the company interacts with consumers.

Seven-steps to using social media

Weber outlines seven steps to creating and executing a social media plan. While many of the steps still apply, the order and sophistication in which they are accomplished has shifted.

Costs of marketing

Where Weber falls short is in saying that marketers must build online communities in order to “cut marketing budgets” and “reach people more effectively” (p.19). Yes, if social media is successfully incorporated into a company’s overall strategy, it can reach people more effectively, however what is saved in not using traditional media is paid towards labour for creating online campaigns, responding to online consumers in real time, and monitoring what consumers are saying on blogs and independent review sites. So really, the costs have simply shifted to internal labour and have not disappeared if social media is to be used most effectively.

Conclusion

The foundational principles in Marketing to the Social Web: How digital customer communities build your business still hold true. A good product and good content are key, and the shift from companies controlled messages to consumer control is continuing to occur.

However, consumer use of technology is becoming more sophisticated, so companies must take this into account as they align their social media strategies to the marketing plan and company goals.

While the social web is still a critical marketing environment, it must be used strategically. The evolution continues…