Archive for the ‘Social Marketing’ Category

How Nonprofits Sell Behavior Change with Social Marketing

One example of a social campaign. The Ad Council produced this campaign to get kids to brush their teeth. Ad Council

Updated November 09, 2015.

For many nonprofit managers, marketing equals fundraising.

But your organization exists for more than just bringing in donations. By using social marketing methods for behavior change, you can boost the effectiveness of programs and activities that are the reason your organization exists to make a difference.

Social marketing uses the same tools and techniques of commercial marketing, but its purpose is to bring about positive health and social change.

The bottom line for social marketing is behavior change.

Social marketing, as described here, is different from using social media to communicate or peer-to-peer and consumer-generated content.

Indeed, this social marketing has been around for over several decades, used to address issues around the world, from family planning, to HIV/AIDS, to breast cancer screening.

When social marketers develop a program strategy, they consider the same elements of the marketing mix as commercial marketers.

However, the social marketing mix has to be adjusted to take into account the unique nature of the products and environments with which they work.

What does the social marketing mix look like, and how is it different from the Four Ps that commercial marketers use?

The social marketing product is not usually a tangible item although it can be (condoms, for instance).

Social marketers sell a particular behavior. While you may be promoting a life-saving or life-improving practice, quite often social marketing behaviors are things that people don't particularly want to do, such as eat more fiber, conserve water, exercise, or get a colonoscopy.

To address this issue, you must use the same tools as commercial marketing to promote the product's benefits based on the target audience's core values. Show them how using the product helps them become the person they want to be.

While adopting the product may have a monetary cost, more significant price considerations are social and emotional costs.

These include:

The strategic issue is to figure out how to reduce the "price" as much as possible and make it easy and stress-free to perform the behavior.

How will you make the product available? How and where can people perform the action? Where can they get the product?

The idea of a camera's aperture is relevant here.

Just like a camera's lens opens and shuts very quickly to let in the light when you take a picture, you have only a small window of opportunity to get your message through to the target audience at a time and place they can act on it.

Your potential participants will not go out of their way to look for your messages. You need to go to them and provide the opportunity to learn quickly and easily about the product and perform the behavior.

Promotional approaches for social marketing do not differ much from those used by commercial marketers.

One key difference may lie in the types of target audiences addressed. Many are not the kinds of consumers that a for-profit business would even consider going after.

They may be low-income, unable to speak English, difficult to find, and uninterested in making any changes in their lives.

Social marketers must be creative in the ways they promote their products to these hard-to-reach populations.

And because of the inherent challenges faced by social marketing programs, I have added four more Ps to the social marketing mix

When planning and managing a social marketing campaign, you must take into account all of the people who can affect the success of the program, such as the external publics, the target audience, groups that influence the target audience, policymakers, the media, and others outside the organization.

Just as important, there are the people within your organization that you must convince or inform.

For instance Board members and management staff must approve your plans. Even the receptionist who answers the phones needs to know what to do when someone calls in response to your campaign.

Many social marketing issues are so big that one organization cannot address them. That's when you need partners to pull off a particular campaign.

Potential partners include organizations (other nonprofits, government agencies, and businesses) that have one or more of the following attributes:

Government or organizational policies can act as a catalyst for social change on a large scale.

When policies provide an environment of support for a particular behavior, people are much more likely to make that behavior change and stay with it.

For example, nonsmoking workplace policies make it easier for smokers to quit by ensuring that they do not see others lighting up around them, thus removing social cues to smoking.

Unlike businesses, many nonprofit organizations cannot automatically set aside a percentage of their revenue for marketing activities.

Social marketers must be creative and proactive in seeking funding for their campaigns from sources such as corporate partners, foundations, donations, and government agencies.

Use the social marketing mix to go beyond fundraising. Use marketing to make an impact on the lives of the people your organization exists to serve.

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How Nonprofits Sell Behavior Change with Social Marketing

11 Social Media Marketing Facts and Statistics You Need to …

Twitter recently announced that it has started to add content to users timelines, and it will continue. Facebook uses the Edgerank algorithm, which was developed by Facebook to govern what is displayed and how high the display is placed on the News Feed. YouTube continuously plays pre-roll videos before sports clips that you try and watch.

It seems that organic content continues to diminish as the social media titans try to expand their advertising revenue. The late Jim Henson was famously quoted as saying,

If you cant beat them. Join them.

Should social media marketers adhere to the Kermit creators words of wisdom and shift focus to the paid advertising side? If your organic content is not being recognized, the answer might be an astounding yes.

Below are 11 fascinating social media marketing facts and statistics, which will blow the mind of all social gurus. Even if you consider yourself the Cookie Monster of paid advertising on social, the astounding statistics provided below do not lie in regards to how businesses are flocking to promote their content on social media.

Advertising on more established social networks like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube now provide yearly data, which demonstrates the relevancy of promoting content via social media. Whether you are one of the major players like Samsungadvertising heavily on Facebook or a smaller company, like an apartment community in Charlotte, the results will speak for themselves.

Newer platforms like Instagram have allowed selective companies to start advertising on its photo sharing application. According to Tech Crunch, the reason why Instagram is so popular is because of the limited distractions on the application (hence, no advertisements). The real question is how social marketers will react if the organic reach via social continues to decrease. Creating compelling content is time consuming and the backbone of social. As the saying goes, With hard work comes great reward. If there is no reward for the organic content that is being created, some of the most powerful social networks could start to lose users. Unless marketers accept that in order to be seen, you must pay a pretty penny. If this is the case, the statistics referenced above will just continue to grow.

Author bio: Jason Parks is the owner of The Media Captain, a Social Marketing and SEO Company.

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11 Social Media Marketing Facts and Statistics You Need to ...

B2B Social Marketing Glossary Terms Marketo.com

Today, a growing number of B2B customers are interacting with companies through social networking channels, from Twitter to blogs to LinkedIn. B2B social marketing is quickly gaining ground as a result.

Organizations that integrate B2B social media into their marketing mix can monitor what prospects are saying about their company and capture interest from those in search of products and solutions.

Get to know the following definitions and start incorporating B2B social media into your own marketing plan:

B2B Social Media refers to the various channels of the social web (blogs, social networks, wikis, etc.) as they pertain to business-to-business interactions. B2B social media also refers to how prospects, customers and businesses use the social web to research, listen, communicate and engage with each other through the exchange of content.

Blog An online journal, with new entries appearing in sequence as they are written

Groundswell A social trend in which people use technologies to get the things they need from each other, rather than from traditional institutions like corporations

Hashtag A community-driven convention for adding additional context and metadata to tweets

Inbound Marketing A type of marketing characterized by prospects and customers finding companies rather than vice versa

Influencer A person who is highly recognized in an online community and has the ability to sway others thoughts or opinions

Lead Scoring The process of determining the sales readiness of leads using a pre-determined scoring methodology and ranking them accordingly

LinkedIn A business-oriented social networking site

Meme A catchphrase or concept that spreads quickly from person to person via the Internet

Microblogging A type of blogging that allows users to send brief text updates or micromedia, such as photos or audio clips, and publish them. The most popular microblogging platform is Twitter

RSS (Really Simple Syndication) A web standard for the delivery of content blog entries, news stories, headlines, images, video enabling readers to stay current with publications without having to browse to their content.

Sentiment A level of assessment that determines the tone of an article, blog post, a company, etc.; usually positive, negative or neutral

Short URL An alias short URL used for redirection of long URLs

Social Media Any strategy, software system or media outlet that relies on social interaction and the participation of individuals or communities to create and publish content

Social Media Monitoring The use of search engine technology to listen for specific keywords as defined by your organization

Social News Websites where users submit and vote on news stories or other links, thus determining which links are presented

Social Proof The determination of what is right by finding out what other people think is right

Social Selling Also referred to as Sales 2.0, the merging of Web 2.0 technologies with traditional sales strategies, enabling salespeople to better prioritize their time and serve as expertsnot just negotiators in the product selection process

Twitter -- A social networking and microblogging service in which users send and read other users' updates known as tweets that are 140 characters or less

Twebinar - A mashup between a live podcast/audio broadcast and Twitter as the backchannel for discussion

Web 2.0 A term used to describe the second generation of web tools and software that encourage users to become more active participants, creating content and interacting with each other within web-based, social communities

Widget A mini application that performs a specific function and connects to the Internet

YouTube A video sharing website on which users can upload and share videos

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B2B Social Marketing Glossary Terms Marketo.com

Social Marketing is a Process – Jeff Korhan

Social media marketing, now simply known as social marketing by many, is a strategic process that is designed to create a buzz that ultimately leads to profitable sales.

The earliest modern marketers understood this Sell the sizzle, not the steak was one popular catchphrase.

Charles Revson was one of the masters of modern marketing. He built the Revlon cosmetics empire that made him a billionaire nearly 50 years ago back when that was an outrageous amount of money.

Revlon sold cosmetics, yet their marketing focused on attraction creating demand by selling excitement, fashion, and fantasy.

Thats the goal of your content marketing to make your brand attractive.

Nothing more, and nothing less.

The early days of modern marketing were predominantly about advertising. These were the glory days of Madison Avenue, when perception was everything.

Perception has been replaced by choice, and informational content is an essential component that helps consumers make better choices.

To make your brand attractive today you have to answer questions and solve problems. This is the role of your content marketing.

However you position it, your content marketing should be designed to create value.

Value in this economy is attractive. It can indeed create excitement, but in a very different way than that used by traditional marketers.

So, your content marketing challenge is simple. Learn what your ideal customers value most, then educate them on how the products and services that your brand offers can fulfill, satisfy, achieve, accomplish, and otherwise meet their needs and wants.

Consumers now have a voice that largely determines the value of a brand. In fact, whether you realize it or not, they own your brand.

If the goal of content marketing is attraction, then the next logical step is engagement which is what social networking does well.

This is something that many marketers do not understand. They expect to go straight from attraction to a sale. While that may occasionally be possible, it is unlikely much like progressing to marriage after a first date.

Use your social media channels to engage your prospects to develop relationships and build trust. Thats what leads to new business.

This is a process.

You know your sales process. Its often an intuitive process that has enabled you to grow a successful business.

So that everyone on your team knows how it works, you have to write out the steps and train your team to work together on delivering it.

Having a great sales process gives your prospects the confidence that your team will take them to where they want to go.

That confidence starts with your team. When they are confident, that gets transferred to your prospects.

The result is new business.

Attraction, Engagement, and Conversion = the formula for your success with social media marketing.

What do you think?

Simple once you understand it, right?

About the Author:Jeff Korhan, MBA, is theauthor ofBuilt-In Social: Essential Social Marketing Practices for Every Small Business(Wiley 2013)

He helps mainstream businesses adapt their traditional growth practices to a digital world. Connect with Jeff onLinkedIn,Twitter,Facebook, andGoogle+.

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Social Marketing is a Process - Jeff Korhan

What does social marketing mean? – Definitions.net

Social marketing

Social marketing is the systematic application of marketing, along with other concepts and techniques, to achieve specific behavioral goals for a social good. Social marketing can be applied to promote merit goods, or to make a society avoid demerit goods and thus promote society's well being as a whole. Examples of social marketing include the use of campaigns to encourage people use seat belts, follow speed limits, or not to smoke in public. Although "social marketing" is sometimes seen only as using standard commercial marketing practices to achieve non-commercial goals, this is an oversimplification. The primary aim of social marketing is "social good", while in "commercial marketing" the aim is primarily "financial". This does not mean that commercial marketers can not contribute to achievement of social good. Increasingly, social marketing is being described as having "two parents"a "social parent", including social science and social policy approaches, and a "marketing parent", including commercial and public sector marketing approaches.

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What does social marketing mean? - Definitions.net