The social web has created an ecosystem where off- and on-line businesses are rushing into blogs, social network pages, communities and other social media. When will organizations start taking a structured, holistic approach, rather than just pouring budgets into all cool ideas? While I have been on the outlook for such supportive frameworks during the previous weeks, the following three seems to be the most referred.
- The POST Method. Perhaps the most popularized framework as of today, the POST method by Groundswell describes a systematic approach to social strategy. POST is a acronym for People, Objectives, Strategy and Technology.
- The Three Spheres. Although Jeremiah Owyang applies the Three Spheres to web strategy in general, social media strategy could be considered a sub-set herein. The three spheres are the Community Sphere, the Business Sphere and the Technology Sphere.
- The Five S’s. Windmill Networking suggests five basic “S” concepts of social media marketing: Share, Support, Social, Strategy, and Sales.
The figure’s colors show correlations among the components in the frameworks. Conceptually there is a technology component at the bottom, and a business/strategy one at the top. In the “middle”, there is a social-community component (often user-generated media) – the business logic that technology and strategy align with. Yet, there is room for more descriptive frameworks for managing social media strategy.
With this middle layer I believe that time has come to revisit the true meaning of bubble-ish network effects and the “openness” as a part of every business model. This is the gist of user-generated content. Also, I’d prefer to add an additional layer, it be “M” for Metrics into “POSTM”. In the months and years to come, measurement will become a key activity and impetus to competitive advantage . While control migrates back to the demand-side (i.e. buyers of social media strategy), knowledge of metrics will become invaluable. As Thomas Davenports title suggests, is Competing on Analytics: The New Science of Winning?
The Methodologist 