Mediaboss Marketing

When Lisa suspected she was pregnant, she did what other teenagers might: She Googled her options to terminate. One of the first links that popped up in the search engine was a clinic in Volusia, Florida, where the 19-year-old lived. The offer of a free pregnancy test tempted Lisa into booking an appointment and she drove there with her boyfriend, parking across the street. It was a small town, and she did not want to be recognized.

The consultation room was filled with posters depicting fetuses with speech bubbles, as if they were asking to be born. Lisa sobbed as one of the women running the clinic confirmed she was pregnant; they had refused to let her take a test home. Lisa needed to return for an ultrasound in four weeks to be certain, and then they could discuss options. But until then, they told her, she absolutely should not go to an abortion clinic. Maybe youll miscarry and then you wont have any problems, the woman suggested.

More:
Anti-Abortion Centers Find Pregnant Teens Online, Then Save Their Data - Bloomberg

By Lucy Tomeka

Reproductive health is a wide topic that is usually met with a lot of taboo topics and awkward silences in many of our communities.

Proactive action in this regard is also very low, mostly out of misconstrued notions of stigma and very poor understanding.

This, paired with our socio-cultural norms, religious practices and poor exposure to options, leaves many in a bind when faced with infections like STIs and HIV/AIDS or unplanned pregnancies.

Many companies come and go with ideas on how to tackle reproductive and sexual health and unfortunate as it is, this burden is not just restricted to Tanzania as many other societies still struggle to beat the awkwardness that comes with these seemingly uncomfortable conversations.

In Tanzania, the Ministry of Health (MoH) has earmarked reproductive and child health as an important focal point and created programs that address various issues along these lines. Some of these programs include Family Planning, Safe Motherhood Initiative and Adolescent Reproductive Health.

According to the MoH website, family planning is a major component of reproductive and child health services. The goal of the Family Planning Program is contribute to improved sexual and reproductive health, social and economic wellbeing of women, men, adolescents and children including new-borns, through provision of quality family planning services, it states.

Objectives of the program are:

To ensure availability of adequate contraceptive commodities and functioning logistics systems;

To ensure that service providers in the health sector have the necessary family planning (FP) clinical skills for effective delivery of integrated family planning services;

To increase the visibility and support for FP among government leaders and development partners, program managers, service providers, and raise community awareness;

To increase access and utilization of quality, affordable and sustainable family planning services;

To strengthen family planning management systems and monitoring and evaluation, to ensure effective program implementation.

To better understand the understanding of availability of choices availed to our communities, Your Health had an exclusive conversation with the DKT International Global Chief Operating Officer, Daniel Marun and Country Director, Kevin Hudson.

DKT International is a non-profit organization that was co-founded in 1989 by Phil Harvey and Tim Black to focus the power of social marketing in some of the largest countries with the greatest needs for family planning, HIV/AIDS prevention and safe abortion.

According to Daniel, In the early 80s, Phil founded Population Services International which then turned into DKT International and since then, we have been operating in countries with a large population as well as middle to lower income.

We are all across the world; Asia, Africa, South America and our main goal is to empower couples on their reproductive health and build a world where couples have a say in how many children to have and one where every child is wanted, he adds.

Question: Why did you choose Tanzania as one of the countries to have our presence in?

Daniel: Tanzania is a big and important country and one we believed we could make a difference in, in terms of the health impact. We measure our success by how many people and how many couples we impact every year.

Kevin: DKTs aim to focus on countries with high populations as well as middle to lower income populations to benefit those most in need has led to the emphasis being on emerging markets. In terms of our unique skill set then, Tanzania presented an opportunity for us to widen our ability to improve more lives, give people choice and helping every child feel wanted. We then registered and set up in 2015.

Q: What have been the wins thus far?

K: Our goal is social impact. In 2021, we impacted 54 million peoples lives across the globe by providing them with quality products so they can make a conscious choice on how they want to conduct their activities. So that measurement of social impact is what we are trying to achieve and expand.

Q: What are the kinds of products and services available?

K: Condoms, emergency contraceptive pills, IUD devices, implants, safe early termination pills that are administered by trained medical professionals; which also help prevent a lot of maternal deaths especially in incidents where a woman finds herself opting for a clandestine abortion and risking her life.

We are also involved in counselling women in terms of what their options are as well as on their choices. All DKT products are sanctioned by the Ministry of Health and the Tanzania Medicines & Medical Devices Authority (TMDA) and are sold in Tanzania.

According to a report titled Costs of Post abortion Care in the United Republic of Tanzania by the Guttmacher Institute in partnership with the Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences (MUHAS) that was published in September, 2021; In 2018, an estimated 77,800 Tanzanian women received post abortion care, and public facilities provided 64 percent of this care.

The total national cost associated with post abortion care in 2018 was estimated to be 10.4 billion Tanzanian shillings with the majority of the total costs nationally incurred at midlevel facilities.

In hindsight, these numbers would be a lot better had the understanding of reproductive health been less of a taboo and the option to freely choose family planning methods been better communicated.

Q: Considering the stigma and societal prejudice towards sexual conversations, self-care and proactive choices and even awareness; what is the state of reproductive health in Tanzania amongst the youth?

K: The youth are a focus for DKT because they are the early adopters. Part of that process is in educating and we do so within the regulatory environment. There is a lot of stigma and myth about what certain reproductive health products can do so we look at being factually accurate in terms of what options are available to people and to provide choices for people.

The youth as early adopters are going to be able to provide opportunities for their children and in doing so, we provide them with choice and giving them the option to participate in their reproductive health.

Unburdening the contraception burden placed sorely on women

Family planning methods are still treated as hush-hush, regardless of whether they are legal or not. This fact goes on to speak to the nature of openness and understanding of family planning methods as well as the options availed to consumers.

Q: How does DKT International tackle the issue of the contraception burden placed majorly on women?

K: Unfortunately, this is not a Tanzanian problem alone, it is global. Men expect women to sort the contraception issue. Prior to bringing Kiss to the market, the majority were very masculine; Bull or Dume. We brought Kiss out to try and combat the stigma that when a woman has a condom in her bag, shes regarded as loose; a fact that is not necessarily the case in other parts of the world.

Part of this process in bringing these products to the market is to try and ensure that women have an equal say in terms of their reproductive health, rather than men assuming that women are just going to take care of things.

D: However, prevention of pregnancy is not the only goal. The biggest difference between now and the early 2000s is that HIV is not seen as terminal anymore and it is common to find young people who after the second or so date, easily and completely abandon their protection which is very unsafe.

According to data shared by MoH, Tanzanias progress towards 95-95-95 currently stands at 88 percent being aware of their status, 98 percent on antiretroviral therapy (ART) and 96 percent virally supressed.

The 95-95-95 strategy is a tracking strategy that aims to see 95 percent of people living with HIV knowing their HIV status; 95 percent of people who know their status and are on treatment; and 95 percent of people on treatment with suppressed viral loads by the year 2030.

DKT International has a variety of condoms, tested and approved that cater to a variety of tastes and preferences. It is no secret that as it stands, the barrier methods, i.e condoms, are the only types of protection that are successful in keeping HIV/AIDS infections at bay.

Future goals in Tanzania

DKT International aims to keep working to ensure people are aware of their options, understand them through education and counselling as well as be able to make informed choices that best suit their individual needs.

A change in how sexual and reproductive health issues are approached in our various communities remains a conversation and a work in progress. A lot of unconditioning, un-learning and re-learning needs to be done for us to reach a stage where men and women can take charge of their sexual health without feeling the sting of stigma.

There is also a need to sensitize both genders to understand the equal role and responsibilities they each bear in ensuring unplanned pregnancies, needles sexually transmitted infections and clandestine abortions are a thing of the past.

Read the original post:
A conversation on sexual and reproductive health - The Citizen

In todays world, social media is a powerful tool for businesses of all sizes. However, managing a successful social media campaign can be time-consuming and expensive. Thats why more and more companies are choosing to outsource their social media marketing.

Here are the top four reasons why:

1. LOWER COSTS

Getting someone with experience means fewer resources needed to successfully market your business on social media.

In-house social media teams require expensive equipment, software, and other tools to get the job done. Hiring a social media marketing expert frees you from these requirements. In turn, you can focus more of your resources on your core business.

2. PATCH UP SKILL GAPS IN YOUR ORGANIZATION

If youre a business owner, you know how important it is to stay competitive in todays market. But with so many tasks and responsibilities on your plate, it can be challenging to give social marketing the attention it deserves.

Thats why outsourcing this aspect of your business can be such a valuable solution.

When you outsource social marketing, you can quickly and easily hire the talent you need on an as-needed basis, such as graphic design, ad copywriting, and so on. This allows you to respond to market changes and opportunities quickly without having to go through recruiting, interviewing, and hiring full-time staff.

3. SAVE TIME

With outsourcing, you wont have to spend hours working on your social media marketing strategy. Not to mention onboarding an in-house social media management team can be just as time-consuming.

Between managing your social media accounts, tracking analytics, and creating content, staying on top of all of your social marketing requires a full-time commitment. Outsourcing can relieve some of this pressure as you hire qualified talent to handle your brands social media presence.

4. SCALE YOUR DIGITAL MARKETING

Less time and money spent means more potential to scale up your digital marketing toward a bigger goal.

Youll have a bigger budget for other aspects of your business. Also, freelancers and agencies offer flexible rates that can be scaled based on your needs.

It doesnt matter if youre a small or big company thats trying to reach more customers through social media marketing and generate more income through social media ads.

A specialized agency or freelancer is a great way to get more out of your digital marketing efforts. Skills on demand eliminate the likelihood of going overboard and overpaying employees whose talents dont fully benefit your marketing goals.

HOW TO OUTSOURCE SOCIAL MARKETING EFFECTIVELY

Outsourcing social media marketing can be a great way to save time and resources, but its essential to do it the right way.

Here are some tips for outsourcing social media marketing successfully.

ASK THE RIGHT QUESTIONS

When outsourcing your social marketing, its important to ask the right questions up front.

This will ensure that you find a partner who can deliver results for your business and align with your goals and needs.

Some key questions to consider include:

1. Have they worked with similar businesses before?

If so, can they provide examples of their work and results? Its important to see not only the results they achieved but also how those results were measured.

Look for case studies or other examples of their work that include metrics like engagement rates, reach, and conversions.

2. How will you communicate?

You need to know how often will you meet, find out what is the deliverable schedule, how progress will be reported, what channel will be used to communicate, and who will have the final sign-off on the work.

3. What social media platforms do they specialize in?

What was popular last year may be old news this year. Make sure the agency youre considering is up to date on the latest platforms and trends.

4. What paid tools do you use?

Tools are critical for social media marketers. They help you listen to conversations, track your brands performance, automate tasks, and more.

Ask the social media agency what tools they use so that you can get a sense of their level of expertise and whether or not theyre genuinely invested in helping clients succeed.

5. How will they help you reach your goals using social media marketing?

This is probably the most important question that can tell whether a particular agency has done some research regarding your business in order to come up with a realistic marketing strategy to help your business grow.

CHECK OUT PAST CLIENT REVIEWS

Checking out their past client reviews and testimonials can often provide valuable insights into the quality of their work.

Go over the reviews from businesses in a similar industry. This lets you know whether they can provide content and social marketing strategies tailored to the needs of your audience.

Reviews from clients also reveal an agency or freelancers flexibility and responsiveness to your needs. You want to look for a provider who can consistently deliver high-quality content on schedule and who is willing to work with you to make any necessary adjustments or revisions.

ASK FOR REFERRALS

Friends or colleagues can refer service providers with whom they had a good experience in the past. This is a great way to narrow down your choices.

Your other option is to get referrals from online resources, like social media communities and forums, to find qualified agencies or freelancers.

Get quotes from multiple agencies or freelancers before making a decision. This will allow you to compare prices and services to find the best value for your money.

Also, make sure to ask about any additional costs that may not be included in the quote.

Outsourcing social media marketing for businesses can be a great way to get the most out of your digital marketing strategy. When you partner with an experienced and qualified social media marketing company, they will help you create engaging content that reaches your target audience and drives conversions.

TL;DR: Outsourcing your social media marketing lets you focus on managing your core business operations while leaving the heavy lifting to the experts.

Candice Georgiadis is an active mother of three as well as a designer, founder, social media expert, & philanthropist |Digital Agency, Inc

Read the original:
4 reasons to outsource social marketing for businesses (and how to do - Fast Company

Tax & accounting firms that highlight their purpose and values while focusing on environmental, social, and governance (ESG) areas may gain an edge in recruiting top talent

A vast majority of people 70% say they define theirpurposethrough their work, according to McKinsey & Co. At the same time, Millennial workers will make up 75%of the workforce by 2025, and they have indicated that they want to work for socially responsibleemployers.

The combination of these facts is driving the majority of employers to identify and communicate its purpose and values and also focus on environmental, social, and governance (ESG) areas in addition to generating revenue through their operations.

Adding in the fact that demand for entry level talent within the tax & accounting profession will not meet demand over the next few years intensifies the need for accounting employers to differentiate themselves in order to attract the best talent. For example, accounting and business advisory firm Sensiba San Filippo (SSF) and global consulting firm Kearney & Co., have both taken purpose-driven approaches to recruiting and retention, albeit in very different ways. Yet both are examples of firms that are leading with purpose to attract and retain people to propel their firms forward.

SSF took a different approach more than four years ago by getting B-certified, which is a rigorous, third-party certification process that ensures employers demonstrate their commitment to the global movement for an inclusive, equitable, and regenerative economy.

When the firm started to explore it, John Sensiba, the firms managing partner, was attracted to the idea of being a socially responsible firm. We figured it would be a great testament to the good work we were already doing, Sensiba explains. And the rigor in their certification process would help us establish some stretch goals ultimately to make us and our communities better.

The firm increasingly has seen the benefits of the B-certification on its talent processes and culture. Notably, Sensiba attributes the firms low turnover, which is less than half of the industry average, to the firms B-certification.

Sholly Nicholson, director of Human Resources at SSF, outlines the full scope of the B-certifications benefits on recruiting, which include:

No matter what the tactics are, the need to ensure that accounting and consulting firms are bringing in like-minded, value-aligned candidates is a necessity, especially amid the current labor shortage.

Kearney & Co. sought to lead with purpose at the first stage of its recruitment process while experimenting with hosting virtual sessions to widen its candidate pool even before the pandemic.

To create an emotional connection with the prospective candidate, the firm began asking questions of each prospective candidate about what they wanted out of an employer. Stephen Parker, the firms chief Human Resources officer, explains that asking such questions as What else matters to you? resonated well.

Kearneycontinues to prioritizepurpose and meaning to engage candidates through the recruitment process because the firm has seen consistent success when hiring existing employees. The firm desired to meet team members where they were based on their life stage with the understanding that what a team member wants out of their job evolves over time. The open dialogue allowed for more transparent conversations about career growth, opportunities, and career development. The firm also benefitted from increased retention.

As the firm leaned into the peoples need to connect, it deepened the emotional connection with prospective hires. During the pandemic, we were able to double-down on virtual, and we found that focusing on purpose was a good companion, Parker states.

This new approach was both efficient and effective, and the firm soon found that the virtual-plus-meaning approach allowed it to be more efficient with recruiting resources. Indeed, the firm soon discovered that it could hold more events at an increased number of schools.

This process also allowed the firm to innovate its outreach by targeting expert groups and societies at more schools. The firm also embedded this approach in its social marketing engagement with students at schools that the firm had not prioritized with the on-campus experience before the pandemic.

The result had a positive impact on the diversity of its pool of candidates while building a stronger connection earlier in the relationship-building process with prospective lawyers.

The rest is here:
How to use "purpose" to gain an edge in attracting accounting talent - Thomson Reuters

The advertising industry is changing. With the phasing out of third-party cookies, the ability for global iOS users to opt out of app tracking, and the rapid shift from social media to social entertainment, 2022 is being defined by brands transforming their marketing strategies to prioritize organic content.

Its no secret that the digital media landscape is undergoing its biggest evolution since its inception. Last year, TikTok surpassed Google as the most popular website on the internet, causing many traditional social channels to begin prioritizing short-form video over static content.

In the early months of 2022, brands began building their video strategies by looking to creators for partnerships and inspiration. Creators have built their careers around entertainment, and the content pillars and trends that guide short-form video channels are influenced by them.

Creator partnerships are proving to be the most effective way for brands to maximize their advertising ROI in social entertainment. In this report, Dash Hudson delivers industry-leading insights into the relationships between companies and creators, including:

Emerging innovations from the worlds most important brands, including the monetization of creators and the rise of virtual influencers

The most important KPIs and performance benchmarks to help brands measure the impact of every influencer and creator relationship

A spotlight on the media, retail, beauty and fashion industries, with case studies from Hulu, Mecca Max, Christopher Kane, Instacart and more

Marketers looking for sustained growth in the wake of the changes to targeted advertising are planning for entertainment-driven social strategies moving forward, and it all starts here with Dash Hudsons Content Creator Marketing Report.

Download the report for free.

Read the original here:
Creator Marketing: Everything You Need To Know About The Next Era Of Influencers - The Drum