Social Marketing 101

Everybody's talking about Facebook and Twitter, and you want to get in on the action.. But your agency has no marketing department and only a few spare dollars to spend on this type of campaign.

Never fear.. Two California organizations, one with federal funding behind it, are here to help. "In an effort to increase primary prevention to prevent STD transmission and unintended pregnancies, the California Family Health Council (CFHC) Infertility Prevention Project and the California STD/HIV Prevention Training Center (CA PTC) have teamed up to create a web-based Youth Social Marketing Toolkit (YSMT). The toolkit provides an overview of how agencies with limited financial resources can develop a social marketing campaign that reaches out to youth and young adults."

Answering such questions as: "What is social marketing?" and "What do you want to say?" with case studies and samples, the Toolkit aims to bring the idea and promise of social marketing in line with efforts on the ground.

The writers of this toolkit are careful not to sell social marketing as the cure for all ills. You still need to follow the core concepts of successful marketing even in the new media environment. "Social marketing is not always a success. If the attitudes and behavior changes you are encouraging are still not perceived as beneficial, acceptable and attainable by the priority population, it may not be worthwhile to develop a social marketing campaign at this time. In this situation, it is better to introduce a behavior change recommendation by developing connections with community and agreeing on a unified goal before planning a social marketing campaign."

For more information: Youth Social Marketing Toolkit