David Alston, VP of Marketing and Community at Radian6, recently did a twebinar with AwarenessInc called “Answering the Social Phone”. In the twebinar, David discussed how social media is not really media but a two-way communications channel and that all of the conversations going on out on the web are like phone calls. The phone could be ringing off the hook with mentions of your brand and if you aren’t involved in social media who is answering those calls?

Some brands think that if they don’t have a FaceBook page or a Twitter account then they aren’t involved in social media. This isn’t true. People are using social media to talk about everything… including your brand.

If you missed out on David’s twebinar, be sure to take the time to listen to it. He shares all kinds of great insights on marketing in the age of social media. And if you don’t have the time to listen right now, bookmark this page and come back later.

Some of the highlights:

David talked about how marketing was traditionally about the 4 P’s:

• Place
• Promotion
• Product
• Price

But social media has changed marketing. Now that everyone is connected the place no longer matters, people don’t like to be promoted to and the product has become the whole customer experience and not just what you are selling.

He tells us how the 4 P’s should be replaced by the 5 C’s.

• Content – offer content that has value and can be shared.
• Community – join the community and get interactive. By being involved you can offer help and discover needs and trends.
• Conversation – listen, learn, converse and engage. Be open and accessible.
• Collaboration – once you engage with your community you’ll discover that there are great ideas and feedback out there.
• Connections – reach out to people that are passionate about the things that you are passionate about.

There are plenty of roadblocks to keep you from using the 5 C’s:

• Policy
• Culture
• Bureaucracy
• Momentum (in the another direction)
• Window Dressing
• Misinformation
• Lack of Top Level Support
• Lack of a Plan
• Lack of Commitment
• Lack of Resources

David addresses all of these topics and more during the twebinar so take the time to listen to it. And follow David on Twitter where he shares lots of great info with everyone.

In closing, David explains how brands should look at communities as an investment. If you learn from and engage with your communities they will be an asset that grows. Community members will be your biggest fans and a source of feedback and inspiration.

And in case you don’t know, AwarenessInc is a social media platform provider that helps organizations engage with their audience through the use of communities.