Tag Archives: Social Marketing

How Your Childhood Olympic Dream Can Still Come True

Defining Greatness

When I was a kid, playdoh was great. Dancing around in a tutu making cookies was greater. And Lilia Podkopayeva was greatness. Podkopayeva, overlooked by many due to the gold medal win by the Magnificent Seven by the USA, was from Ukraine. And she won the individual Olympic all-around gold in women’s gymnastics at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics. She was my superstar.

As a child, I loved the Olympics, and still do. A hardcore competitive gymnast growing up, I attended the ’96 games (as an observer) where I saw Podkopayeva achieve what I thought was the unreachable and untouchable – greatness. In this case, that meant the gold. Seeing both Podkopayeva and the USA women’s team both capture gold medals, I hoped to follow in their footsteps.

Re-Defining Greatness

Like any girl after ’96, my dream for Olympic greatness quadrupled, and my love for the sport escalated. I cut out every single news clipping from women’s gymnastics coverage in Atlanta and plastered my room in posters, photos and news clippings. You could say it was a Mag Seven Heaven.

Overlooked by the Mag Seven by many, Podkopayeva was a combination of grace, style, elegance and talent. My favorite coach even nicknamed me “Mini-Lilia” because he thought we looked alike, and had similar talent: grace and style.

However, fast forward 12 years, and I will never receive an Olympic gold medal, but I still reach for my Olympic dream in the horizon – greatness. And so can you.

Infecting Greatness

Every four years, athletes converge together to compete for world titles, Olympic golds, world records and – greatness. But, each of us maintains the home court advantage. We can achieve greatness in our own communities, everyday. Though I’m no longer conditioning, flipping and twisting on the apparatus’, I like to think that I’m still developing my craft – all the while growing in grace and evolving my style.

For what is greatness? As a kid, a gold-medal gymnast defined greatness. For me today, people who live with conviction define greatness. People doing the work that no one else want do = greatness. The single mother working two jobs to give her child a better life, is greatness I only hope I can mimic. As we grow, how we define greatness evolves. Today, my ‘greatness’ role-model is my mom. It’s also my dad. Nedra Weinreich. Andre Blackman. Kivi Leroux Miller. Beth Kanter. Marc @ Osocio. Mike Newton-Ward. Stephen Dann. The Unsung Hero.

See, these are ordinary people, and they are infecting greatness everyday. I only hope that one day I can join their team, and we together, as a team, can achieve greatness. For greatness, just depends on how you define it.

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“There are countless ways of attaining greatness, but any road to reaching one’s maximum potential must be built on a bedrock of respect for the individual, a commitment to excellence, and a rejection of mediocrity.”

– Buck Rodgers, American Baseball Player 1938

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Health Promotion Policy is 20/20

As they say, ‘Hindsight is 20/20.’ However, social marketing thought leader extraordinaire and fellow social marketing blogger at On Social Marketing and Social Change, Craig Lefebvre, is hoping that the future of health policy will be ahead, rather than behind the curve. Lefebvre launched a new blog series titled ‘Healthy People 2020,’ and invites you to participate. Lefebvre writes:

If you haven’t heard, the process of developing the nation’s health objectives for the next decade has started – and you and your readers could become part of the conversation. Healthy People 2020 is the next update of the objectives that have guided our country’s health promotion and disease prevention efforts for the past 25+ years.

As part of my work with ODPHP, I am hosting a series of guest blogs on how people envision the interactions of health communication, social marketing, and health information technology – including social media – in improving the Nation’s health in the next decade.. The first topic is Information Rx for Healthy People in 2020 by Joshua Seidman from the Center for Information Therapy.

Due to the limited resources to take HP 2020 to a greater level of participation, Lefebvre hopes to garner participation through the use of social media to help spread the word and generate the conversation. For more information and to see the latest post in the series contributed by Cynthia Solomon titled Personal Health Records for All, and add in your thoughts.

Lefebrve said he welcomes inquiries, post contributions, and cross-post opportunities. Lefebrve’s blog is where talking about health and inspiring people to get involved in national health promotion and disease prevention policy meet.

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Bulletin: Updates in the Social Marketing Field

Word is – developments are on the move…

  • According to Craig Lefebrve’s recent blog post, we should expect to hear more about a social marketing association at the CDC’s 2nd Annual National Conference in August and also at the World Social Marketing Conference in late September. This. is. very. exciting. =) Comments, ideas, suggestions, feedback, (you get the picture)…are encouraged on the social marketing wiki.
  • The NSMC in the U.K. has announced that it’s developed the 1st set of occupational standards to apply to the social marketing field. These will also be formerly introduced during the World Social Marketing Conference in September.
  • As of Friday, July 18th, Prof. Alan Andreasen announced that there are currently 1,758 subscribers to the social marketing listserv.
  • The summer 2008 issue of the Social Marketing Quarterly has been released with some amazing content including a cover story about “Talking with Your Teen About Drugs,” as well articles about an integrated model for social marketers, survey results regarding international social marketing trainings, commentary from Stephan Dann, Nancy Lee, Michael Rothschild and Alan Andreasen regarding the new adopted definition of marketing by the AMA, and an in-depth look at the issue of flu vaccination.
  • For those in Washington D.C., there is a new exhibit being shown at the National Academy of Sciences titled “An Iconography of Contagion,” which is displaying public health posters since WWII.
  • Emerson College recently announced a new tenured-track faculty position in health communication and social marketing, starting for the 2009-2010 school year. Job description posted here.

Stay tuned for the next edition of The Bulletin!

photo credit: jceddys
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The Bookshelf: 15 Essential Social Marketing Feeds

Going off of Ogilvy PR’s “Essential 15 Pack” of RSS feeds to follow, I’ve developed the “Essential 15 Feeds for Social Marketers.” To follow the feed, just click on the name and the link. Enjoy!

Blogs

  1. Spare Change, authored by social marketing expert Nedra Weinreich (Link corrected*)
  2. On Social Marketing and Social Change, authored by social marketing thought leader Craig Lefebrve
  3. Public Sector Marketing 2.0, authored by Canada’s up and coming social marketing and social media marketing professional Mike Kujawski
  4. Osocio, the number one spot for all things social advertising and social change relataed
  5. Beth’s Blog, authored by nonprofit tech guru Beth Kanter
  6. Health Marketing Musings, authored by CDC’s National Center for Health Marketing Director Jay Bernhardt
  7. Have Fun * Do Good authored by Britt Bravo, informing you on all nonprofit related news items
  8. Ogilvy’s 360 Digital Influence Blog covers social marketing topics occasionally.
  9. Social Marketing Blog, a newly discovered blog just started this month by a man named Jack. So far, there is only one post, but if the rest of his posts are anything like his first, then the social marketing field is in good shape. Welcome Jack!
  10. Getting Attention blog, authored by Nancy E. Schwartz offers insights and tips on nonprofits communications and programs.
  11. Subject to Change, authored by Vanessa Mason, a young and up-and-coming social marketer currently doing AIDS relief work in Mozambique.
  12. Socialbutterfly, authored by yours truly, and highlights the movement of social marketing as well as related social media stories.
  13. What Do You Stand For? authored by Cone Communications Inc. Though this blog is linked to a cause marketing firm, the blog covers a range of social marketing related topics, offering fresh insights and useful resources.
  14. Getting to the Point, authored by Katya Andresen, talks about all-things nonprofit marketing and what she deems in her book – ‘Robin Hood Marketing.’
  15. Pulse and Signal, authored by Andre Blackman, who writes about the intersection between health and technology. DavidRothman.net is another one stop shop for all you need to know regarding the health 2.0 developments.
  16. YOU. That’s right. Your blog, whether current or in the works, can become the essential blog. In the arena of social marketing, we NEED more voices to galvanize the field further. If anyone would like to start a social marketing blog, please feel free to contact me with any questions, brainstorming or for support at socialbutterfly4change@gmail.com. The more of us the better. =)

Note: There are many, many more helpful blogs out there that I currently subscribe to, and I wish I could have named them all. Many of the 15 essential also cross boundaries with others fields beyond social marketing, mainly because, there aren’t that many social marketing based voices within the blogosphere.

For more ideas about which blogs to follow, I suggest you check out my links page, the ChangeBloggers wiki, the NonProfit Blog Exchange and the Kivi Leroux Miller’s Carnival for Non-Profit Consultants.

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Are you ready to par-tay with Jonny and the gang?

What: Jonny’s Par-tay, the live interactive online talk show
Who: Join special guests Andre Blackman, Qui Diaz, and Alexandra Rampy, with host Jonny Goldstein and super producer Scott Stead.
Where: jonnyspartay.com
When: Weds., July 16, Weds, 9-10PM

As Jonny himself wrote…

Commercial marketing is a powerful discipline that influences people (say, you) to behave a certain way (say, buy Count Chocula cereal). But what if the concepts and tools used by commercial marketers were used to effect positive social change–to get people to stop smoking, exercise regularly, or conserve energy? That’s social marketing. This week we have three afficionados of social marketing, Andre Blackman, Qui Diaz, and Alexandra Rampy, who are also deep into the world of social media. How does social marketing work, and how does social media fit into the marketing mix when we’re talking about marketing for good, not just for increased commercial success. Come to this very special Par-tay 4 Good this Wednesday!

This is my first LIVE webcast, so be sure to tune in for the great convo, interesting topics and the occasional nervous twitch as viewers can send LIVE questions for us to answer. See you then! 😉
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Social Marketing: Smokey Bear’s Makeover

Get your smokey on. This is the tagline for a new campaign sponsored by the Ad Council, USDA Forest Service and the National Association of State Foresters.

It’s also the tagline for the first social marketing campaign highlighted in my campaigns series. I chose this campaign not only because of its relevance and timeliness, but also because of some of the social media promotional components integrated with the campaign.

Meet Smokey Bear: Born in 1944, a time when firefighters were serving in the war effort. Thus, fire prevention became a key wartime issue. In 1944, 22 million acres of land were lost with 9 out of 10 forest fires were accidental. Most of Smokey’s campaigns focused on specific fire-prevention behaviors with the message, “Only you can prevent forest fires.”

Smokey Bear’s Make-Over: Today, Smokey Bear wants others to “Get Your Smokey On,” encouraging others to take on Smokey’s characteristics of encouraging others to practice fire safety behavior and to even intervene if necessary.

Background Research: According to the Ad Council, an average of 6.5 million acres of U.S. land was burned by wildfires every year for the past 10 years. Research also shows that many Americans believe lightning starts most wildfires. However, 88% of wildfires nationwide are started by humans. The principle causes are campfires left unattended, trash burning on windy days, careless discarding of smoking materials and BBQ coals and operating equipment without spark arrestors.

Objective: To encourage the target audience to sign the “Get Your Smokey On” Wildfire Pledge,” where signers pledge to “Be smart whenever I go outdoors.” The pledge also outlines 9 points of safety behaviors and beliefs that the reader agrees to follow.

Audience: The primary audience are adults aged 18-35 who are causal campers, hikers and bikers.

Campaign Components

  • Online
    • Interactive Website
    • An Online Pledge
    • Downloads: Print your own Smokey Bear mask
    • Educational Information
    • A Mash-up Map showing where wildfires are currently burning in the U.S.
    • A live tracker for how many acres have burned in the U.S. so far this year
    • Online Kid’s games
    • Campaign History
    • View the PSAs online
  • Commercials/PSAs

Evaluation: The Smokey Bear campaign has always been evaluated based by the reduction in the number of acres lost annually in fires and based upon the campaigns recognition. Smokey Bear is currently the most recognizable image in the U.S., after Santa Claus.

Creator: Made pro-bono by DraftFCB. In the close future, Smokey will also be featured in PSAs alongside Sleeping Beauty created in partnership with The Disney Company .

Social Marketing Rating: According to the social marketing wiki, this initiative meets the requirements for social marketing. However, on the wiki it is argued that it’s not very good social marketing stating that the online pledge mixes behavior and non-behavior objectives and is too long for readers to actually follow. It’s review goes on.

However, I think it’s a great awareness and promotional campaign. In terms of taking a complicated issue, research and statistics and communicating it, especially online. I think the campaign has two most powerful components:

  1. The mash-ups outlining statistics. This makes the issue real, alive, relevant…and local.
  2. The message that an individual can be empowered as an advocate.

What do you think? What’s your analysis?

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Social Marketing Blogger Neighbor Hailing All the Way from Argentina

Meet Vanessa Mason. She’s living purposefully, making a difference, doing what she believes in …and working in Mozambique!

Currently, a small number of social marketing (true SM) bloggers exist. Two of the greats, Nedra Weinreich and Craig Lefebrve are both amazing, but I was thrilled to also learn about Vanessa’s passion and knowledge for public health and social marketing as well. Thus, I nominated her for this week’s Blogger Neighborhood, as she is new to the block, and we need her help!

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Blog/Site Name: Subject to Change

Blog Topics: social change, public health and observations about my experiences abroad

About the Author: After graduating from Yale University in 2006, Vanessa headed to DC, searching for a job that would allow her to be of service to disadvantaged populations. After working for a government contractor in health communication, she packed her bags and volunteered in Mozambique, assisting in a capacity building program for Mozambican NGOs working in HIV/AIDS. She currently lives in Argentina as a volunteer with a community health center that treats HIV patients.

Vanessa is passionate about public health, especially in developing countries, which is the perfect outlet to feed her love of travel and social change. Her blog features observations about social change through the prism of public health.

If you could live on any street, what would that street be named and why?

Sustainable Change Lane. The more I learn about social change, both through reading and my volunteering experiences abroad, the more I see the need to implement social change that can be sustained within the community without the continued intervention of outside funds and staff.

Who would be your dream real-life neighbor?

Dr. Paul Farmer. I just finished reading his book Pathologies of Power. I was amazed at the level of dedication that he has to helping the poorest of the poor have access to adequate health care. His organization, Partners in Health, does some amazing work all over the world.

If you customized your own license plate, what would it say and why?

TRY AGN. If you are working in social change, it is easy to get discouraged by the numerous obstacles. It is hard to see the faults in the world and know ways to correct them, yet still not be able to bring about change. I think that the license plate is encouragement that we need to keep trying because that is the only way that we will see any changes.

What would you gift to a new neighbor as the perfect welcoming gift?

I think plants are always good; they make white walls seem less sterile. Paper whites are good because they are easy to take care of and smell nice.

What’s your favorite blog post and why?

I think that it is a pair of them. The first, Meet Sylvia, was my attempt to talk about the wonderful people who I have met here and well as sharing my personal challenges with my work. The second post, Give Life 101 – Organ Donation, was inspired by my desire to make something positive out of the sad situation that I faced.

What’s one lesson you’ve learned from blogging?

I have been amazed at the possibility to make personal connections through blogging. It has been an unanticipated yet wonderful benefit.

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Past Blogger Neighbors Include:

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This continuous weekly series highlights different blogs and their respective bloggers in the blogosphere neighborhood. Following the great Mr. Rogers, who tells us to ‘Get to know your neighbor,’ this series introduces us to our blogger neighbors, making for a more unified, collaborative voice for the social sector. Like to nominate someone or be featured yourself? Contact me @ socialbutterfly4change@gmail.com.


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How One Non-Profit Re-defines the Art of Story-Telling

Eglantyne Jebb

Eglantyne Jebb

Have you ever heard of Eglantyne Jebb?

Yea, me either. Until my friend Marc over at Osocio emailed me about a new stunning campaign: Lessons in Leadership. Made by the non-profit organization Save the Children for our Australian friends, the campaign highlights the story of Eglantyne Jebb, her mission and her legacy citing:

“A women born over a century ago, that you’ve probably never heard of, and whose achievements you will never forget.”

In brief, Eglantyne Jebb wrote the book Cambridge, a Study in Social Questions in 1906 based on her research and experiences. The book was well before its times and reflects many modern social marketing themes. Jebb went on to found the International Save the Children Union in 1919 and became a leading proponent for children’s rights.

A major cornerstone of Jebb’s work was her insistence of a planned, research-based approach to social welfare, war relief efforts and primarily children’s rights. She drafted the main declarations necessary for the international community to put priority on children’s rights. Later, these declarations and the Children’s Charter Jebb drafted became known as the Declaration of the Rights of the Child and was adopted years later by the League of Nations.

This interactive story takes you on a journey through 12 lessons in leadership, while also sharing with you the story of Eglantyne and how one individual can make a difference. I could describe more of the story, but the video does a much better job. Enjoy!


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An Afternoon Conversation Calls Me Back

I’m starting another series. Apparently, I like series. But I think readers do to, because it helps you know what kind of content to predict. Or, so Seth Godin tells us.

Today, I was fortunate enough to connect with one of SocialButterfly’s consistent readers at the Ad Council. I want to thank him through this blog as the conversation inspired me to start this new series: Social Marketing Classic Campaigns.

campaign

A month now into my ‘official’ new full-time role at work, I have slightly gotten a bit side-tracked in my enthusiasm for social media, that the true ‘social marketing’ aspect of my blog has been lacking. Thus, to complement the Social Media Highlight series I have, I’m starting this new one.

This afternoon’s conversation reminded me of what I think would be a DREAM job –> having the ability to brand social marketing, to further the field, to expand its practices and applications, to share its tool belt with those across industries and across nations, and to inspire more SocialButterflies…so to speak. =) But this can’t be accomplished alone, and we all play our part.

Thus, stay tuned as every other week I am going to showcase a classic social marketing campaign, and highlight movements in the field. Through this, I hope to elaborate on social marketing’s theory using real-world examples. As, I also realized this afternoon, that I’ve been focusing a lot on the promotional efforts of social marketing, which is a trend of the field and not just myself. Thus, I hope to highlight some really great campaigns.

It might be a small step towards the dream, but small steps can end up coving a large distance! If you have some ideas on some you’d like to see featured, feel free to post a note. Until then, social marketers unite!


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Social Media Highlight: Ning is Great, but waiting for Relevance

Next up in the Social Media Highlight Series, where I sign-up for a certain social media site/app/platform, use it for a couple of weeks and offer a reflection on my thoughts and experience, is the social network Ning.

Ning LogoAbout: Ning was co-founded by Netscape founder Marc Andressen and onetime Goldman Sachs banker Gina Binachini in 2004. It’s software enables anyone to create their own social network based around any idea, topic or mission. There are Ning groups about hobbies, gourmet food, geographic locations, causes and more. Interestingly, 50 Cent has his own Ning with over 100,000 members. Ning was recently estimated to be worth half a billion dollars with 237,000 current networks and growing at 1000 a day!

NingUse: Ning allows for any user to create his or her own social network. The service is free, and you don’t have to know how to code. Ning is currently all the buzz and is said to have a bright future as more and more capabilities are added onto to service. Currently, Ning can incorporate video, music, discussion forums, google maps, flickr, web badges, and ways to cross promote with Myspace and Facebook.

Demographics: Anyone and Everyone. NING features a diverse group of users that run the gamut in uses and interests. However, according to Quantcast, Ning is especially popular with African-Americans, who make up 75% of Ning’s users. With age, Ning is most popular among users 18-34, followed by users 35-49.

My Rating: 3 out of 5 wings

Rationale:

  • Good:
    • Ning has a lot of potential and is doing a great and innovative service that no one else really provides except for CrowdVine. However, Ning was first, and usually the first gets more brand recognition because it’s well, the first. However, I think CrowdVine has a great promotional strategy of separating it’s call to action for users around groups and events, whereas Ning’s call is primarily more individual based (e.g. “You can create your own network”).
    • Also, Ning is nice because you don’t have to be a developer to use it, there’s numerous groups, it is more niche and interest based than say Facebook of MySpace, and it’s growing.
    • And, if you purchase your Ning page, you don’t have to display ads and more security features can be added.
  • Bad:
    • Though its big and its growing, I didn’t find much on Ning that I thought was relevant to myself. Thus, for the everyday user, it could be too niche-focused. Perhaps I will become more interested when I attend a conference that has a Ning page. I did find the 29-Day Giving Page on Ning which I enjoy, so its not that bad.
    • You have to do some digging once on Ning to find something that grabs you, or, you have to be pointed to use Ning by a certain group.
    • And, when you do want to join, you have to go through a lot of steps.
    • You can join multiple social networks, but then, that’s can become a lot of managing different profiles and group communities.

Social Marketing and Ning:

  • Marketing4Change is one step ahead with their Ning, aka their own social networking site, dedicated to social marketing. You can join them here.
  • There are groups for library 2.0 and numerous groups for those involved in government and health communications.
  • My own ID is SocialButterfly. I like the idea behind Ning. I’m just waiting for when it becomes uber-relevant for something I need. Like, if we would want to create a “Social Marketing Network” and then get everyone to join, that would be awesome. I even saved the Ning name “Fly 4 Change,” just in case. However, not all of us social marketers are connected online…so, I figured it be me and a few of the trustees that I already stay in touch with through blogging, Twitters, email, facebook, etc.

What do you think? How would you rate Ning?


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