Living the "4 E's" of social media

Summertime and the living is E-asy.

A Conceptual Map of the Social Web by Ryan Turner

My passion for social media stems from what it can offer not from what it can sell.

I have a post-it note above my monitor with the four words:
ENGAGE - EMPOWER - ENTERTAIN - EDUCATE

Engage - Listen and recognize contributions
Empower - Create a space to encourage active role
Entertain - Have some fun, make someone smile
Educate - Enrich, bring something new to the table

This is my social media mantra. These words represent not only what I want to achieve in each blog that I write or tweet that I send but in each personal or professional interaction that I have.

As someone who is not a marketing professional, I use my many years of experience in managing arts organizations and restaurants to provide the context from which to execute a social marketing campaign.
And while I believe you don't have to be a marketing expert to practice social marketing, there are some basics that you have to understand.

Take the four "P's" for example: Product / Price / Place / Promotion; they've been around since the "Mad Men" were slapping secretary's asses and still form the bedrock of modern marketing practice.


Trade you 4 "P's" for some "E".*

From an outsider's perspective, it seems that some Marketing and PR firms are having trouble navigating this new landscape. You still see lots of  broadcasting out there. On the other hand, there are some Marketing industry visionaries out there leading the way; interpreting for us the very complex language of the media 2.0.

Social media is still very new, so I'll keep my mantra handy and hope that by using it as a guide, I'll find my way out of the maze.
  

*disclaimer: Any double entendres are purely coincidental and do not represent the habits or preferences of the blogger.

Here is a video of Jeffrey W. Hayzlett, past CMO for Eastman Kodak on his own four "E's":