Bill Jacobson Internet

Branding, Social Media and Maslow

Posted on 09. Dec, 2009 by admin in Social Media Trends

Reminded of Psychology 101, and Maslow’s Hierarchy of need at a recent Web2.0 conference, the following visuals are helping me realize how Social Media has and is becoming so prevalent on a global scale.

As noted in the previous post “Lead or follow, it’s time for Action,” successful organizations of today are moving beyond just the practice of Price, Product, Promotion, where each of these fit within the bottom two levels of needs. Forward thinking companies engage people as a community.  The “Social Web” is  about social identification, branding and emotions: Love/Belonging, Esteem and Self-actualization.

Who would think that selling T-shirts could become a million dollar business in an economic downtown as we are facing today.  Check out Threadless.com and you’ll find a company whose business model is changing the way in which price/product/promotion thinking is moving up the pyramid of needs.