Where do social marketers get their inspiration?
In an attempt to share how social innovation and social marketing intersect with a colleague of mine, the colleague responded something along the lines of: “I don’t get why it matters. Social innovation sounds like everything we’re already doing in social marketing.”
Exactly. Social innovation touches on everything we’re doing in the social marketing field and vice versa. It matters.
The momentum is building. Case in point: The most popular SocialButterfly post from 2012 is actually SB’s category of posts on social innovation. Social marketers, meet social innovation. Social innovations, meet social marketing. You’re welcome. Both of you offer a world of inspiration to the other.
A Word on Defining Social Innovation
Definitions for social innovation are broad and often changing given no universally accepted definition exists (something we social marketers can relate to). A good guide is the Stanford Social Innovation Review’s updated definition of social innovation. They share:
Our complete definition of social innovation: A novel solution to a social problem that is more effective, efficient, sustainable, or just than existing solutions and for which the value created accrues primarily to society as a whole rather than private individuals. A social innovation can be a product, production process, or technology (much like innovation in general), but it can also be a principle, an idea, a piece of legislation, a social movement, an intervention, or some combination of them. Indeed, many of the best recognized social innovations, such as micro-finance, are combinations of a number of these elements.
Canada’s Centre for Social Innovation shares that simply, social innovation “is an idea that works for the public good.” Their fuller definition includes references to creating benefit to both “people and planet”, being “systems-changing”, sustainable and changing perceptions, behaviors and structures. Sound familiar? How do you define social innovation? The video above shares how some leading minds defined back in 2011.
Top Posts of 2012
Rather than share SocialButterfly’s top posts, I’ve curated some of the top posts relevant to both the art and science behind social change, touching on both social marketing and social innovation:
- The Most Dynamic Social Innovation Initiatives of 2012, Forbes
- 10 of the Year’s Best Designs for Social Good, Fast Company’s Co.Exist
- The Best of Social Marketing in 2012, On Social Marketing and Social Change
- The Top 10 Social Capital Blog Posts of the Year, Social Capital Inc.
- The Year in Social Media Research, Nieman Journalism Lab
- The 10 Best mHealth Papers of 2012, On Social Marketing and Social Change
- Social Media for Social Good’s Favorite Things of 2012, Armchair Advocates
- Best Cause Marketing Campaigns of 2012, Selfish Giving
Social marketers, you are social innovators! Social innovators, you will benefit from wearing a social marketing hat. Showing how social marketing and social innovation connect, SocialButterfly Mike Newton-Ward wrote a chapter on social marketing as part of a three-book series on social entrepreneurship that was published in late 2012, titled Social Entrepreneurship: How Businesses Can Transform Society.
We need to listen to one another. The world needs us to listen.
Inspired for 2013
Exploring the world of social innovation is where this SocialButterfly and social marketer finds her inspiration for 2013. This encompasses social design, social capital, social entrepreneurship, social value, social business and B corporations, the built environment movement, impact investing, philanthro-capitalism, studying innovation models and more.
Based on how you readers enjoy posts tagged with social innovation, it looks like I’m not alone.
What are your thoughts on social marketing and social innovation?
]]>
U.S. Life Expectancy Rises, Health Disparities Increase
Last week, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) shared its review of Healthy People 2010. The report shared that as a Nation, we had met or were moving toward meeting, 71% of the disease prevention and health promotion objectives we set in 2000.
Despite this, the data also underscored the need for improvement in a number of critical areas, including health disparities and obesity rates. These two issues, as well as other key indicators of health, are top priorities of Healthy People 2020 (disclaimer: client).
“…Addressing health disparities continues to be our greatest challenge,” said Dr. Edward Sondik, Ph.D., director of the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS). “…All Americans should be concerned that disparities among people from socially, economically or environmentally disadvantaged backgrounds have generally remained unchanged.”
*****
Examining a 40-Year Spread in Life Expectancy Abroad
The October issue of the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Bulletin is packed full of information on social determinants of health–including examples of work in progress and insights gained from around the world.
“Yes, there is a greater than 40-year spread in life expectancy among countries and dramatic social gradients in health within countries,” said Michael Marmot of University College London in his editorial. “But the evidence suggests that we can make great progress towards closing the health gap by improving, as the [World Health Organization’s Commission on Social Determinants of Health] put it, the conditions in which people are born, grow, live, work and age.”
The bulletin includes another editorial that highlights potential solutions to improving the social determinants of health, as well as a number of research articles and relevant news.
*****
An Agenda for Fighting Disparities
What are the Occupy Wall Street protests all about? Author Geoff Livingston describes its as a “groundswell of economic injustice.” Playing a role behind the scenes in economic and social injustice are social determinants of health and health disparities. Perhaps it’s time to bring them to the forefront.
The October issue of Health Affairs presents an agenda on fighting disparities. In it, Dr. Howard Koh, Assistant Secretary for HHS, discusses a key part of this agenda, HHS’ National Action Plan to Reduce Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities. Analysis and commentary on how health reform may impact health disparities is also provided. What might be most surprising is that one research study included in the issue, shares that only 59% of Americans are even aware that health disparities exist!
*****
No Black-White Health Gap in Canada Says Study
Meanwhile, our friends in Canada may be one step ahead. According to a recent study and as reported in BET, “blacks are equally healthy as their white counterparts.” BET went on to say:
“Thomas A. LaVeist, a co-author of the study and director of the Hopkins Center for Health Disparities Solutions in Baltimore says that he believes America’s history of treating Blacks as second-class citizens plays a large role in the Black-white health disparity that exists in the U.S.”
As a heads up, LaVeist also cautions taking the results at their surface as the the results could have significant limitations because the survey included just 729 Blacks, compared with more than 280,000 whites reported BET.
*****
Health is About More Than Healthcare
LaVeist also published another study about how place–and not necessarily race–contributes to health disparities. The study, based on a neighborhood in Baltimore composed equally of whites and blacks, found that within the integrated community, health disparities all but disappear. This suggests that as a Nation, we’ve been looking for answers on how to improve health the wrong way. Instead, we should be looking at what’s going on in certain communities that what’s going on within certain populations. As quoted in the Atlantic:
“Solutions to health disparities are likely to be found in broader societal policy and policy that is not necessarily what we would think of as health policy,” LaVeist says. “It’s housing policy, zoning policy, it’s policy that shapes the characteristics of communities.”
*****
flickr credit: woodleywonderworks
]]>