making a difference with social marketing
by Nedra Kline Weinreich
by Nedra Kline Weinreich
About Nedra Weinreich
Nedra is a consultant, author and speaker who uses social marketing to promote health and social issues for nonprofits and public agencies at Weinreich Communications.
Email me
Books
Recent Bookmarked Links
I've been watching with interest the evolution of Social Actions, a relatively new service that helps you find things you can do right now for the causes you care about. The site aggregates "actionable opportunities" from 30 different social action-oriented sites like Change.org, Idealist.org, Kiva, DonorsChoose.org and others. With the proliferation of so many cause-related social networking sites, it's helpful to see everything in one place. The Social Actions Labs folks have also been putting together various web applications that help to spread the information farther, such as a widget to put on your website or blog that uses keywords to offer actions related to the topic of the webpage (see left sidebar) and a Twitter "Social Actions PSA feed" you can have post to your own Twitter account daily for your favorite cause.
So when fellow blogger Britt Bravo invited me, along with other nonprofit marketing bloggers, to help her help Social Actions to market and communicate its mission more effectively, I was happy to help. After looking over the website, here are some of my thoughts:
- The focus needs to be centered on taking action -- that's what the mission is all about. But a look at the home page pulls me in many different directions. If I am a person wondering what I can do about my favorite cause, it should be obvious at a glance how to find that information. It took way too long for me to notice that the small search box at the top left that says "Find an action" is where I should start. The home page should be focused on the search box, with it being as easy to find as the box on Google's search page.
- Nowhere do I see anything about the specific issues I care about -- just a lot about the features of Social Actions. The key to good marketing is looking at your product and communications from the viewpoint of your audience; answer their question "What's in it for me?" They have made a good start, with using the words "you" and "your" in a couple of places, and providing a menu of options as "I would like to..." Show examples of featured issues and related actions. Let me see what your application does for me, rather than just talking about it.
- The home page is also missing the heart and emotion of why people come in the first place. They are passionate about getting involved, in making a difference. They don't necessarily care about "increasing the scope and impact of the citizen sector." They want to save a life, rescue the planet, help someone out of poverty... and they want to do it in 5 minutes or less. Emphasize the impact they can have, the ease of participating, and the range of choices they can use to find an action that's just right for them.
- Even when I select the link that says "I would like to...Find ways to take action," I am confronted with four text-based choices that are still not entirely clear for the person who is just looking for how to help stray cats. The language under the option "Find an action by location, cause or keyword" is far too techie for regular people: "Our mashup aggregates actionable opportunities from 19 social action platforms." How about just "Find an action you can take for your favorite cause"? (And the number of social action platforms listed ranges anywhere from 19 to 30, depending on the page!)
- Help your users continue to use and spread the word about Social Actions once they have been impressed by the range of action options for their cause. On every search results page, offer an easy-to-find RSS feed so that people can learn about the latest action related to their issue immediately. Offer the code to add a widget to their blog, Facebook profile, or MySpace page with actions on the cause for which they just searched. Add a link that says "Got Twitter?" with instructions on how to use the Social Actions Twitterfeed. Hand it to them rather than making them search your site for these tools.
- And finally, focus on your mission and whom you are serving. Some of the options on the home page let you look at the nonprofit jobs and internships board, hire a nonprofit consultant, and help foundations develop a micro-philanthropy strategy. Social Actions seems to have a split personality, unsure whether it is serving the individual activist or the nonprofit sector. These two missions can coexist, but not on the same web page. There should be a separate site or section of the existing website for nonprofit professionals or it gets too confusing. Each group has very different communication needs.
Technorati Tags: Social Actions, nonprofit, marketing, website
Subscribe to RSS Feed Search All Content
Lijit Search
Recent Posts
Too Much Information?Come Dialogue on New Media Today!
Guest Post - Through the Eyes of a Marketer: Servi...
Climbing the ServiceNation Summit
Hurricane Force Social Media
China's PR Olympics
Engagement and Deliverance at the CDC, Part 2
Engagement and Deliverance at the CDC, Part 1
Remembering Tony Schwartz
Please Pardon Our Dust
Most Popular Posts
Marketing to IntrovertsThe CDC's Second Life
Jack in the Box Hits a "High" Point with its Marketing
Can Movies Change Our Minds?
Making Fear-Based Campaigns Work
An Open Letter to the New "Social Marketers"
Social Marketing vs. "Social Marketing" Smackdown
Strategic Social Marketing for Nonprofits
The Insider's Guide to Writing a Winning Proposal
Your Handy-Dandy Guide to Social Marketing Books
Five Resources for Social Marketers
So You Want to Be a Social Marketer
Creative Commons License
Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike
Archive
January 2006February 2006
March 2006
April 2006
May 2006
June 2006
July 2006
August 2006
September 2006
October 2006
November 2006
December 2006
January 2007
February 2007
March 2007
April 2007
May 2007
June 2007
July 2007
August 2007
September 2007
October 2007
November 2007
December 2007
January 2008
February 2008
March 2008
April 2008
May 2008
June 2008
August 2008
September 2008
October 2008
January 2009
May 2009
June 2009
July 2009
August 2009
October 2009
Blogs of Note
Activism Tools and IdeasAdlibbing: Inside PSAs
A. Fine Blog
The Agitator
Another Limited Rebellion
Be Fit with Biray
Beth's Blog
Build Buzz
Captology Notebook
Cause-Related Marketing
CK's Blog
Citizen Brand
Creative Think
Digital Influence Mapping Project
Diva Marketing
Do You Stand for Something?
The Elements of Persuasion
evange.LIST
Give and Take
Getting Attention
Have Fun - Do Good
Health Behavior Blog
HealthCareVox
Health Communication Research
Health Marketing Musings (CDC)
Hippocrates' Blog
How to Change the World
Ignite Blog
Influential Marketing
Katya's Nonprofit Marketing Blog
Made to Stick
Marketing 4 Change
Marketing for Good
Marketing for Nonprofits
Marketing in the Public Sector
Marketing Profs Daily Fix
New World Notes
Nonprofit Communications
Nonprofit PR
The Numbers Guy
On Social Marketing and Social Change
OPC Today
Osocio
The Painting Activist
Predictably Irrational
Presentation Zen
The PSI BCC Blog
Public Sector Marketing 2.0
Pulse and Signal
Sam Davidson
Secretary Mike Leavitt's Blog
Seth Godin's Blog
SocialButterfly
Social Marketing Panorama
Stephan Dahl
Stephen Dann
Subject to Change
The Viral Garden
virtualpolitik
We'll Know When We Get There
Ypulse
Recent Readers
This template was modified by Nedra Weinreich from an existing template generated via PsycHo,
modified and optimized by Blogger-O Templates and is Licensed.
------------------
Davis.
MLS
One of the biggest deterrants to people 'doing good' is that it takes too long, or is too difficult or involved, and with a time-constrained society, people don't want to make the investment. So, if you can make it as easy as possible, there's a greater likelihood for adoption, usage and refer-a-friend type viral activity to spread the word and keep social change moving forward.
In my mind, it's a simple, 3-step process:
1) Find the cause you support (part of the problem is research; Social Action can do the legwork to provide the users with a list of causes, grouped in categories, with which they can easily identify and select; not everyone has a specific cause that they champion; some want to do good but don't know what's out there)
2) Select the level/type of action you'd like to take (i.e. donation, join a group in your local area, start your own chapter, implement an enterprise program etc.)
3) Proceed with the action selected based on a detailed roadmap of next steps or links to which users can easily follow through (a reminder service, or progress check point system might be a nice extension of this, and create more of a sense of ownership/accomplishment as users complete related activities and feel good in doing their part)
I think Social Actions has elements of these steps but they are not navigable as such with the abundance of text and information on the site. I propose 'social change in 3 clicks' to maximize this offering and encourage participation.
Those are excellent points, and I will pass them on to the Social Actions folks. Thanks!
These comments are a bit 101 marketing. But are I think relevant......
The visitor is at the site for a specific service,product or need that the site is providing.
Success of the enterprise will be depend on the customer satisfaction of this need.
I suggest that it is this service or product that needs to be focused on.