The 24 / 7 Social Media Model was created by Ingmar de Lange, Judith Hordijk and Wilco Kaasenbrood. It focuses primarily on the structural use of Social Media. It does, however, indicate the features an organization needs to succeed in the Social Media environment. This is very important information for defining your strategy. Besides, it helps to get a unified internal focus.

The model consists of two axes: horizontally, an organization may choose to focus more on communications (spreading messages) or focus on the transaction environment (sales and distribution). In between are two specific focus areas. Vertically, there is a distinction between simple and complex actions per area. The areas are (starting from communication up to transactional) communicating, experiencing, and propositioning and selling.

Communicating

Many brands use Social Media just for communication. Often organizations don’t exceed beyond the “sending” of information and even less entering into relevant conversations. Just sending isn’t wrong per se, for some entities such as media, political organizations and celebrities, this may work fine. In this model, the distinction is being made through informing (sending) and service (conversating).

Experiencing

Experiencing often occurs spontaneously. Just as in the previous step, celebrities, strong brands like Apple, and news organizations are some of the most ‘polite’ entities. It is important to obtain the right resources for this strategy. The difference in perception in this area is on one side emotion (sharing of identity) and on the other side experience (sharing user experiences).

Propositioning

In reality, going from perception to proposition is a big step to take. To formulate a relevant proposition within determining a Social Media strategy, it is important to understand the preferences of your online target audience. An experience is also necessary in order to find passionate people who want are ‘carrying’ your brand. Co-creation is first priority in this phase of the model. Within this area, a distinction is made between development (incremental improvements through co-creation) and extension (radical changes through co-creation).

Selling

Sales through Social Media can be very approachable and doesn’t necessarily occur in a commercial environment. For this phase, however, the previous steps are necessary to come up with a good distribution process. A distinction is made in promotion (occasional promotional activities) and distribution (structural implementation of Social Media as an (extra) distribution channel).

Source: Sociale Media 24/7 (Dutch)