Social Marketing | krywosa.com

I’m getting used to fighting the idea that the Marketing Department at my non-profit organization is more than just freebies (see title). I know people are not used to having a MD here, so confusion is bound to run rampant. Its OK though, I know its my job to educate. With patience.

Also, I’m finding a lot of non-profits don’t seem to understand that tactics need a strategy. Its nice to have your logo on a t-shirt, but whats the ultimate response? Web traffic? Phone calls? An influx of clients?

Further, in social marketing – or basically, the marketing of non-profits – your mission should be more than traffic. What does traffic ultimately prove beyond awareness of your service? It doesnt prove that more students are going to college and graduating. It doesn’t prove that more people are donating to saving the whales. It doesn’t prove that more people are basing their political votes on their awareness of Darfur.

These things need to be made priority, not an afterthought.

I never wanted to be a marketer. As a child, I wanted to be a ballerina. A singer. A MTV video director. Never the ever hated marketer. Never.

Now, I find myself in that role. Having never considered the career of marketing, I also never knew about the hatred people have for marketing and those who are a part of it. As I encounter it in conversations at work, with new people I meet and fellow marketers, I realize this hatred comes from the fact that many so called ‘marketers’ are practicing (sales) marketing in a very traditional, boring and wasteful way. Obviously, people in this new media world of web 2.0 and prevalent viral marketing hate them. But they are not me and my fellow marketers.

You see, I am in a world of a clean version of marketing. Call it social marketing. Call it college access marketing. Basically any form of non-profit awareness, buzz building and behavior changes (for the common good!) is where my people fall in the marketing world. We don’t ‘sell’ – per se. We bring to light ideas that people already have within them. Barriers that they don’t know there are ways to overcome. We provide this insight and help find ways to go beyond what people have typecast themselves into believing is achievable for them. We do this in a variety of ways that reach people where they already are. We provide information in a way that people use, that is easy, and that is different.

But, isn’t that what marketing really is? Someone should tell those other guys.

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