The branch has embraced social media with open arms by maintaining accounts on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Flickr, and iTunes (featuring news in the form of podcasts and video podcasts). As of 1/15/10, the NAVY listed over 200 official social media sites . Additionally the NAVY sponsors their own social network for Moms on Ning. This allows those serving to connect and stay up-to-date, utilizing any of the available social media platforms. The NAVY’s CIO acknowledged that social media can be used to “build trust and collaboration, both within and outside the organization.”. On Twitter, there are several Navy-related accounts including: @NavyNews, @flynavy, and @PacificFleet (a comprehensive list is available on GovTwit, the Government Twitter directory). The NAVY Twitter accounts serve as a great source for military information (and a sense of everyday life), especially since, unlike the official traditional military media outlets, tweets are informal and written in “civilian-speak.” The NAVY is fully-aware of who its audience is, and tweets accordingly.

The NAVY has reached a niche market by providing parents (and relatives) the opportunity to unite with others in similar situations and get support through the social networking site NavyForMoms (NFM). As seen in other markets, the “mommy bloggers” are an influential group and the military branch tapped into an older version of this consumer. These moms don’t have infants – they have full-grown children. The NAVY specifically targeted mothers due to the impact of their opinion on those interested in joining the branch. They realized that if they could reassure Mom,  it could result in higher recruitment rates. The NAVY created a marketing campaign focused entirely on this target market and launched the NFM website as a social media test in March 2008.  There are currently 27,481 enthusiastic NAVY family members (predominately mothers) who are very proud and supportive of their sailors, and are advocates of the NAVY.  The NFM site concisely states their goals:

“NAVYForMoms.com was created for the mothers (and loved ones) of those who are currently serving or considering serving in the U.S. Navy. The site gives members a place to discuss issues with others who share common concerns. Here, content is member-driven. Questions are asked and answered. Moms share with fellow moms their fears, dreams and personal experiences. The ultimate goal is to provide an environment of understanding, comfort and belonging to all involved.”

Discussions include how to best handle emotions when a sailor leaves home for the first time, advice on attending a sailor’s PIR (’Pass in Review’ aka boot camp graduation), and brainstorming ways to support those who serve when they are away from home, including “Adopting-A-Sailor” during the holidays. Members share and respond to each other through personal blog postings, forums, photos, videos and local events. They customize their experience by writing posts and comments, configuring the look and feel of their avatar and profile and by choosing groups to be involved with. I am a member of NFM, and I belong to the “Proud NAVY siblings” group. It was through this network that I learned about the NAVY tradition called “blue candle lightings,” which is done when a sailor can’t make it home for the holidays – a candle is lit in their honor. I was upset that my brother couldn’t make it home that year, but I felt a sense of connection when I set-up his blue light, knowing that I wasn’t the only family member in the U.S. going through those emotions on Christmas Day. I was one of thousands that day, and since my family doesn’t live close a naval base, I don’t have a chance to physically interact with other military families. Social media has allowed for people similar to me to connect on a virtual naval base, when support is otherwise unavailable.

The NAVY integrated NFM into their overall PR and marketing communications strategy for the branch. OOH environmental ads were created through “Blue lightings” of historic landmarks (a nod to blue candle lightings) and by completely transforming the look of subway stations and sporting venues. Print ads and 30-second spots promoted the site by introducing actual active members, including Karen Gallagher, a proud NAVY mom (Yes, she is a real person who lives in NH, and her sons are NUKES, just like my brother. She is a rather nice lady.). The efforts did not go unrecognized by the community as NavyForMoms campaign won Silver in the AMA’s 2009 Effie Awards in the Government, Institutional and Recruitment category.

We've come quite a long way, haven't we?

The U.S. NAVY has made it a priority to utilize social media. By doing so, they have created a virtual version of the tight-knit military community that has previously only existed for our sailors and their familes on physical bases and naval yards. In other words, NFMs is a great example of how to utilize the power of social media.

Where are you Jumping?

Thanks to social media, we are now able to connect to the world in ways we never thought possible. Whether you are writing on your friend’s wall on Facebook, texting or tweeting, there is always a way to communicate and most of us don’t think twice before doing so. However, did you ever consider that you may not be communicating with the right person or that what you are tweeting may be used against you at work next week? Unless you have experienced the dangers of social media firsthand, these thoughts have probably never crossed your mind.

The Dangers Of The Public Domain:

Are photos ever put up of you on Facebook that represent you in a way that may get you fired from your job or in trouble at school? Did you ever update your twitter status and write something that was not necessarily PG-13? You may not think twice before posing for a picture or updating your status, but this could backfire. When something is posted online, it is permanent and open to the public eye. Even on certain applications, your privacy settings may limit who can see your profile, but your friends profile may not be limited and what if they display a negative photo of you? There isn’t much you can do about that. Larry Johnson of the Kansas City Chiefs recently experienced the dangers of the public domain firsthand when he decided to use twitter to tweet some comments that were not necessarily “politically correct”. Once his tweets were out there, they drew more attention than Johnson had intended , which has resulted in his release from the team. In today’s world we need to be extra careful when doing something that could land us as victim of the dangers of social media.

Chiefly a Twitter Problem

Identity theft:

Social media platforms have made many of us more vulnerable to identify theft. By providing too much information on sites such as Facebook and My Space, many of us are making it simple for criminals to create false identities and access our bank accounts. Have you ever received a message on Facebook asking you to verify your Bank of America account number and password? I have certainly received messages similar to this. Although I do not fall for these counterfeit messages, a user new to the world of social media may not think twice before giving out their information. With the increase in identity theft now a days, users of any type of social media networking sites need to be extra cautious with what information they provide to the public.

Who are you really connecting with?

Are you sure Twitter user Soccer452 is really your best friend Suzie? What if it is somebody pretending to be Suzie? Celebrities have so many users trying to impersonate them on twitter that they are now given verified accounts to help the twitter community decipher the authentic accounts from the phony ones. What about on Facebook? I don’t think twice before accepting a Facebook user who has requested to be my friend. However, there have been incidents where Facebook users have been impersonated. Take for example, the tale of Facebook user Bryan Rutberg. In January ’09, an unknown user got in his account and updated Bryan’s status to say “Bryan NEEDS HELP URGENTLY!!!” The unknown user then sent one of Rutberg’s Facebook friends a direct message saying that Rutberg was robbed at gunpoint in London and needed money in order to return to the United States. Rutberg’s friend wired him over one thousand dollars thinking he was helping him out. Meanwhile, Rutberg was safe at home during this whole incident and the money was never to be seen again. Impersonating people on social media platforms is becoming more and more common these days. Although the warning signs may not be clear, we need to always be on our toes when trying to connect with our friends.

Social media has changed most of our lives for the better. It helps us maintain relationships with family and friends, promote our brands and products, and communicate more clearly across borders. However, we need to make sure to be very careful when using any form of social media and watch out for the danger signs. For brands, the ramifications are multiplied. With more people and resources on the line, it’s crucially important that brands know what they are doing when enacting a social strategy. With the typical faceless brand, people often lose sight that a brand is really just one face for an entire community of people and treat brands even less respectfully online. Vigilance and foresight are the only winning strategies.

The two biggest pieces of advice that can be given to any user of social media to protect yourself, whether you’re an individual or a representative of a brand, are the following: Make sure to be careful of what information you put out there else it may come back to haunt you later, and do your diligence when connecting with others. Getting your safety squared away first allows you the freedom to reap the multitude of benefits of the social sphere.

In the last few years, the physical and virtual worlds have been coming together in new and interesting ways. Virtual information can be overlaid on top of physical, real-time information, creating a mixed reality. “Augmented reality” (AR) is the broad term used to describe this blending. Some older examples are simpler in nature. For example, AR has been used in sports broadcasting, such as the comet-like tail of a hockey puck for NHL games, or the yellow first down line in football games.

AR in smart phones has the ability to utilize features that already exist on the phones including a camera, built-in GPS, solid-state compass, accelerometer (measures acceleration/shaking), and decent computing power. The technology of the phone can be used with downloaded apps to find the nearest public transit stop (London and NYC, among other major cities have apps that accomplish this), see restaurants near you (with reviews from Yelp!), or even find a pint of your favorite beer.

Your Favorite Beer?.

AR has also been used with specific marketing purposes in mind. For their December 2009 issue, Esquire, used AR in an attempt to extend the shelf-life of a monthly magazine and provide added value. The magazine is used with a web cam and software that is downloaded from the magazine’s website. Throughout the issue there are different black and white square icon-like images. Each image uses an algorithm to trick the web cam into seeing (and projecting back) something other that what is actually on the magazine page. Consumers need to hold the magazine up to the camera for the experience to work. The square icons trigger different interactive scenes that are displayed on the computer monitor (which relates to the actual content on the magazine page). Some of the interactions change based on the direction in which the magazine is held, or even on the time of day, which also drives repeat visits. For more information, go to: http://www.esquire.com/the-side/augmented-reality

Pool-tron

A good (non-phone) example of augmented reality (and a possible source for up-and-coming pool sharks) was developed by the RCVLab at Queen’s University and can be found on YouTube (if you don’t want to wait, skip ahead to 2:14). Cameras are used to interpret the physical space and show the line up of possible shots (by using basic geometry), as well as the trajectory of the balls once they’ve been hit. By mixing the physical space with the information of the computer, a real-time augmented reality training tool is created.

In the future, augmented reality can provide marketers a new way to differentiate themselves from their competitors, and also find a way to better integrate the virtual and real worlds. How is your company planning to use this tool as a draw to spark conversation, attract consumers, and win business?

Running parallel to the coverage of social media has been analysis of the precipitous fall of the economy. Given the overlapping timing of these two sea-changing stories, I can’t help but think about the connection between them. Obviously both the global economic crisis and the ubiquity of social tools are complex phenomena with causes and effects too large to number on these pages, but at the same time, it’s clear that the faltering economy played no small part in the explosion of social media services.

In other words, social media probably wouldn’t have grown so quickly if marketers hadn’t been forced to trim their bloated advertising budgets. Without free or low-cost ways to reach customers and prospects, how else could they stay relevant in the face of slashed budgets?

As people who already use social media in our daily lives, this is old news. We know how these applications and platforms have helped to shape online communities, build brand awareness and cultivate sales. For those who don’t spend their free time reading tech blogs and plotting a way to attend SXSW, however, social media is suddenly showing up everywhere.

I wonder if social media has gotten increasing media play because in some ways, it is an antidote to the dread-inducing stories on the economy that have dominated the news for months. After all, each day we read how the global financial catastrophe grew out of a cascade of decisions that allowed for individual gain at the expense of the common good. That’s not exactly heartwarming news. Wouldn’t we rather hear about how Christopher Walken is using Twitter? (update: He’s not)

Social media, on the other hand, is predicated on the sharing of information between individuals and groups. People who evangelize social media tend to highlight how it fosters transparency, a refreshing contrast to the back-door dealings of large financial institutions on Wall Street.

What will happen to social media once the economy picks up steam? My hunch is that businesses will find new ways to monetize their social media tools and we will see even further competition among services. Social media isn’t going anywhere. In fact, just last week, Mashable posed the question, “Is social media an industry?” It seems like just yesterday we were trying to convince our colleagues that blogging was worth the investment of time and now we’re discussing how it contributes to our capitalist economy. Without a doubt, social media has taken a positive turn in ways that nobody predicted. I’ll keep my fingers crossed that our economy does the same.

What are your predictions for Social Media?

The history of Internet memes is as old as the Internet itself.  In fact, you could say that one of the major wonders of the Web is how it has scratched our human itch to share pointless twaddle with everyone we know. (As a disclaimer, I should point out that I mean, in no way, to ignore the Web as a revolutionizing and often positive force in our lives. I simply want to illuminate how it has also handed us a way to indulge our obsession with offbeat cultural phenomena.) To put it bluntly, we have never seen a cat in a onesie that we didn’t feel compelled to broadcast far and wide.

Do you remember the dancing baby from Ally McBeal? Or the video of those guys dancing a choreographed number while on treadmills?
These snippets from popular culture, and countless other examples, passed quickly through college campuses and corporate offices because the Internet enabled such an efficient proliferation of information. These days, anyone with access to an email address, Facebook page, or social news website can alert her community to the latest “OMG moment” within seconds.
In the past, we’ve called these viral sensations “trends” or “fads.” Yet, in recent months, I’ve noticed how we’ve begun to use the word “meme” to describe patterns on the Internet. The word “meme” has become a meme in and of itself.
Just during the short tenure of the Obama administration, we’ve seen the Socialist meme and the Aretha’s hat meme. Lest you think the meme meme has been restricted to politics, just look at the Skittles meme, which found some traction in the Twitterverse.

In the 1970s, when laypeople were still twenty years away from beholding a conceptual understanding of the Internet, Richard Dawkins, an evolutionary biologist, coined the word “meme” to describe how units of culture self-replicate much like genes. Memes, he reasoned, were subject to selective pressures in the environment that could determine the meme’s ultimate survival. In Web terms, this amounts to how an idea can move from isolated incident to viral sensation in the blink of an eye.

In similar fashion, but in the opposite direction, the “meme of the meme” could simply ebb over time until we have found yet another new word to describe popular themes on the Internet. Until that time, however, it seems worthwhile to track the proliferation of “meme” as a potent example of viral media. While we can’t know exactly why “meme” has rather suddenly found a home in our lexicon, we can trace its winding path through the online sphere, at least until it goes the way of the Hampster Dance.

While Twitter’s ranking on the “shiny new toy” scale has waned recently, you should never worry that there isn’t always something new waiting in the wings to hold the attention of social media geeks around the world few more minutes.

Enter: The Shorty Awards - for the best producers of short (140 characters or less on Twitter) content in 2008.

While it has evolved and proven itself, Twitter is still a pretty immature technology. If Twitter is like high school, consider the Shorty Awards a loosely organized popularity contest, complete with class clowns attempting to stuff the ballot box.

The Shorty Awards are completely driven users tweeting their votes and nominations for their favorite users in a number of different categories (best brand, advertising, business education, etc) helping to organically spread the word about the contest and spur even more voting.

But the truth is that most viral content on the web is complete fluff – eye catching, but lacking in any sort of real value, and that is where the Shorty Awards come in. As long as you have your expectations in order, you won’t miss a thing. Just try replacing The New York Times or The Wall Street Journal by getting all your real news from Digg.com and you’ll see exactly what I mean. And no, I’m not calling the latest apple product news or tech toy “real news.”

After a quick look at the list of Shorty Award nominees and those that weren’t named (but clearly should have been) it is clear that this is really just a group of Twitter users who have become the best at pimping themselves out to their followers with no clear understanding why they were doing it in the first place. The contest may be one of the worst ways of actually measuring public opinion, but may do a pretty decent job at measuring someone’s ability to blindly market themselves for an award that they themselves don’t completely understand the value of.

Even Melanie Notkin, a finalist in the Shorty Awards “Brand” category for Savvy Aunty, points out that a far more influential twitter user on behalf of their brand, Zappos CEO Tony Shieh, wasn’t even a finalist and decided to gracefully bow out of competition.

Everyone wanted to win, but no one is quite sure why. There is no big prize at the end. No BusinessWeek cover story. You just know that someone else wants it, and on that premise alone, so do you. Thankfully not everyone was so heavily struck with a case of shiny new toy syndrome and were actually able to call the Shorty Awards by what they actually are.
@mvolpe: “I think the shorty awards are total crap. Just saying.”

The ultimate winner in the brand category @MarthaVan, who tweets on behalf of Action Wipes, noted that for her “The challenge for a small business such as mine is always getting national publicity. I entered the contest in hopes that the national news would pick up on the awards and thus bring awareness to all the winners.”

For Martha, the time investment in promoting herself and outreaching to her followers for votes was well worth the gamble that winning would actually provide some real business value and lead to additional sales or national visibility for her company. So far, that time hasn’t come.

So much of what is emerging in social media is new and needs to be experimented with, tested and measured to fully understand its ultimate value, so I’m not blaming the Shorty Awards for any of their missteps along the way. I actually give them credit for playing around in this new area, but the true danger comes in when people begin mistaking what they are actually measuring and replace a fun experiment with a new are of technology for something with legitimate value.

Okay, maybe that’s a bit old for some of us. How about RSS feeds for news sites? Who needs to check CNN.com when you can just grab the RSS feed and be alerted about new stories?

One of the nice things about RSS is that it automatically brings news to me. New post on your blog? I don’t have to remember to check every day. RSS tells me when there’s something new.

Similar to this, we’ve seen the emergence of auto-tweeting in the last year. For those of you who don’t know, services like Twitterfeed allow twitterers to auto-tweet any RSS feed. Mostly, that takes the form of, for example, “New blog post: Day 46 of the Mayonnaise Diet http://nondescriptURL.com.”

As well, services like Tweetlater and SocialToo allow twitterers to automatically direct message or @ reply new followers. Sometimes, that takes the form of, “Just wanted to say hi and thanks for following. Looking forward to tweeting with you.”

These are great tools when used politely, but too many people have gotten lazy with these things and are obnoxiously taking advantage of them.

The problem that many of us have is the blatant, over-the-top advertising that is done. Personally, I think Twitterfeed is really useful. I like knowing when my tweeple post something new. I won’t always read their stuff, but at least, I have the option. The problem comes when you auto-tweet things like, “If I suggested you read one thing today, it’d be this http://URLshorteningservice.com.” To me, that sounds like you found something interesting, and you’re not just shamelessly promoting yourself.

Have a new blog post? Think it’s spectacular? Set your auto-tweet to begin with something like, “My new blog post,” not, “Let me mislead you just to increase my pageviews.”

Now, a lot of so called Twitter experts will complain about auto-tweets for hellos. Truth be told, I think they’re great. I simply cannot send a personal hello to everyone that follows me within a short time of them doing so. Sometimes, I’m too busy. Other times, I’m just not on Twitter. So, what do I do? I auto-direct message a polite hello and then follow up later with a personal hello to anyone that has responded.

This has two benefits. One, it’s simple for me to welcome people, and two, it cuts down the number of people I have to say hi to because there are so many twitterers that follow just to see if you will follow back, but they have no genuine interest in you. So, I figure that, if they message me back with a hello, I should take the time to check out their profiles, maybe their blogs too, and then tweet them a genuine greeting.

The followers that I ignore are the ones that direct message me something like, “Your the coolest person ever! So, I’m giving you access to my new top-secret post on making money the easy way http://ShameShameShame.com.” Notice the confusion between your and you’re, as well as the person just assuming I’m interested in that sort of post, and saying I’m the coolest person ever when s/he likely has never met, or even heard about, me? That’s just poor and annoying salesmanship there.

Chris Brogan would say, “I offered to shake your hand, and you stuck your tongue down my throat. Yuck.” Wait until you’ve built a relationship with me before you assume I’m even interested in your moneymaking tips. If I am, you’ll get lots of pageviews from me instead of just an immediate unfollow due to the uncouth hello you just sent.

What does this all mean? Automation services are great when used correctly. When they’re used incorrectly, they burn bridges that you’ve barely begun to build. Go ahead and auto direct message me a hello and maybe even your URL. Go ahead and auto-tweet your new blog post. Just don’t make any assumptions about what your new followers are interested in, and definitely, do not mislead them. This way, you can join the ranks of Twitter for Smart People and not Twitter for the Socially Inept.

I have absolutely no doubt that my children (hypothetical in this case…I don’t have kids yet) will learn that Barrack Obama was “the internet President.” Like Kennedy was with television, Obama is with the web. The internet is the defining communications medium of our time, and the skill with which President Obama has embraced it absolutely dwarfs that of any other politician I am aware of.

I have developed a fascination with our new Commander-in-Chief’s use of the digital realm. Last week, I wrote about the White House website rollover, and since then I have been closely following new White House presences online. One of my favorite finds is the White House YouTube channel, where the masses can have instance access to President Obama’s weekly video address, and a slew of other content like Vice President Biden’s new video. For anyone who’s interested, the TubeMogul blog has some cool demographic stats on the White House channel.

Evidently the Obama Administration isn’t stopping its video distribution strategy with just YouTube. Social Media Playground pointed out that the White House also has a channel on Vimeo. Now the White House just needs to get a Twitter account and they’ll be running on all Web 2.0 cylinders. (Note: the twitter account @thewhitehouse is not official.)

I suppose the real question here is what all this social media will amount to. We already know that the Obama Campaign all but revolutionized use of the internet for campaign fund raising, but it is far too early to know whether the Obama Administration can that tech savvy to revolutionize governing. It seems to me that in a democracy “of the people, by the people, and for the people” any system whereby there is a more immediate connection between the electorate and elected officials is a positive thing. Will President Obama’s White House 2.0 be that conduit of the democratic promise? In this question each and every one of us has a say. We, as citizens, must choose to use these new information channels for them to amount to anything. If President Obama is leading the charge towards a more connected democracy, success will only be reached if we follow.

In a very short time, social networking has been redefined beyond its initial scope of just being a way to keep in touch with family and friends. For one thing, legitimate news organizations are now keeping an eye on online social networks as they’ve become an alternative source for news. Some social networks are even consistently “outscooping” traditional media outlets when it comes to the latest news. The viral success of social networks speaks to the fact that social networking has become mainstream and that it’s no longer the domain of the geeks and the teenagers. It’s Ironic really, since a few years ago social networking was considered just another online fad.

One quick look at the recent social networking map and you’ll find sites that target different demographics, from sites like LinkedIn that focuses more on business networking to sites like Eons for the Baby Boomers. Recently we’ve seen the rise of small, niche-driven social networking sites that cater to such topics as pet ownership and cake baking. As for the bigger social networking sites like MySpace and Facebook, there are interest groups that you can join to talk about your common interests. It’s interesting that, after building up to monstrous sizes, social networks are scaling down and focusing. Due to this fact, there is really something out there for everyone.

What’s really remarkable, however, is that these online social network connections are now moving offline, with people meeting their online ‘friends’ in the “real world.” With the prevalence of Tweetups (for Twitter-based friends) and sites like Meetup.com, we’re in the midst of watching the online world prove that it is an effective way to mobilize people who share interests to gather offline.

Let’s take me, for instance. I’m a big Star Wars fan, so when the prequel trilogy rolled in, I was interested to meet individuals who shared the same kind of passion that I have for Star Wars. To make a long story short, what started out as a small Yahoo! Group of Filipino Star Wars fans that I helped begin turned into the Philippines’ biggest, internationally-recognized, George Lucas-approved Star Wars fan group. We see from my example that online-based groups can and have gained real world clout (and yes, we do wear costumes to many real world events). With local, user-generated groups gaining international clout and credibility, it’s really not surprising to find companies now using what was once a “kid’s tool” as their new medium to spread the word about their products and/or services, or even to recruit more people into their fold.

The benefit isn’t only to the companies themselves, but also the employees of the companies. Due to social networks like LinkedIn, today’s business executives can now network online, and even use LinkedIn to check the background of their new contacts. In a way, LinkedIn, and its European counterpart, Xing, is becoming the business card of the internet.

Artists (particularly musicians) have also benefited significantly through the use of social networking since they now have a medium to let their work be heard, and hopefully, attract the attention of record executives. As a matter of fact, some music industry insiders are even calling this shift of focus “industry changing.” Gone are the days of playing in clubs, hoping to be seen by record executives, or shopping around for a record deal by giving away demo tapes. After all, why go through all that hassle when you can just create a profile on a social networking site like MySpace, upload some of your songs, promote your MySpace page at events, and let people stream your music from it? It’s faster and definitely more cost-effective for up-and-coming but still-penniless artists.

The biggest surprise to me is that non-profit groups have turned to social networking to raise awareness, and funds for their causes. If philanthropy gathers people behind different causes, then social networking is really the logical next step in the advancement of those causes. That way, it becomes a definite win-win situation for not only the non-profit organization and the donor, but of course, the beneficiaries.

Even with these examples of social networks affecting people in real ways, many critics of social network marketing base their argument on the ephemeral qualities of social networks and the fact that these social sites don’t “do anything”. Might this be an example of the old guard protecting its turf from the new wave? Those same critics will soon need new arguments.

Patrick Everett Tadeo is PandemicBlog’s eyes and ears in the Philippines and Asia. This is Patrick’s first post at PandemicBlog, subscribe to our feed to hear more from him.

On August 5th I wrote a post about the confusion surrounding the traditional meaning of the term “social marketing” and the varying ways that it is currently being used in many circles. The idea for the post came from Mike Kujawski’s post entitled, “The Difference Between Social Marketing and Social Media Marketing,” so here again I give him a proverbial shout out. (NOTE: for any who want to read a fantastic post on the traditional meaning of social marketing, check this out.)

The reactions to my post were astounding, not because of their number, but because of their quality. I feel honored to be a part of this discussion, and even though it appears that I have angered some people, I think the discussion is something that should be taking place.

There were many great points made in the comments, and I have spent a good bit of time on the blogs/sites of those who commented. So that you all don’t have to go back and filter through the comments, I will list some of those sites here:

• Craig Lefebvre – http://socialmarketing.blogs.com/
• Bill Smith – http://www.aed.org/
• Mike Kujawski – http://www.mikekujawski.ca/
• Jim Grizzell – http://www.healthedpartners.org/ceu/sm/
• Jim Mintz – http://www.publicsectormarketing.ca/
• John Davies – http://www.johndavies.com

I have decided to write this post as a follow-up because it really is just too long to be a comment on the last post. There were many great points made in the discussion of the previous post. and also I think my initial post could use some further clarification. I would like to clarify my point here, and continue the discussion with all involved.

My point in the last post was that the term “social marketing” is starting to be used by some to refer to marketing that uses social methods like social media, events, street teams, and even 24/7 customer assistance to achieve its goals. Meant only as examples, certainly not proof, the following two sites appear in the top 11 results for “social marketing” on Google:

• Social Marketing Journal
• Social Marketing by Michelle MacPhearson

Of course Google search results are not proof of taxonomic change, I merely point to these sites as examples that “social marketing” has (rightly or wrongly) started to be used to mean something other than what it has in the past.

The problem here is that the term “social marketing” already refers to something else…and it has been around for quite some time. As Craig Lefebvre notes in his comment:

When one of the most respected academic marketers-Phillip Kotler-decided that we needed to think about applying marketing concepts to social problems in the early 1970s, he coined the term [social marketing] to describe a BIG idea. Thirty years later social marketing is being used around the world to address major health and social issues.”

Before moving on, let me be crystal clear about one thing. I understand that the term “social marketing” has been in use for nearly four decades and I also understand and support the work that has been done in the field since that time. I am in no way indicting or minimizing the field of work which “social marketing” traditionally refers to. It is well established both academically and professionally, and I myself, have worked on social marketing efforts with non-profits in Boston. For any who thought I was saying that field of “marketing for social good” does not exist, I apologize. That is certainly not what I meant.

Clarification

Now we come to the areas of confusion where I either did not adequately make my point or my point was misunderstood. Let’s look at some of the comments:

Bill Smith:

Listen social marketing is a exactly what it used to be. I’m sorry we got there 40 years before you did – actually I’m not really all that sorry – but there’s books, a peer reviewed journal, an Institute and yes a Wikipedia definition. There are also thousands of caring men and women in countries all over the world who know that social marketing means using the technology of marketing to make a positive difference in the world. They are marketing condoms to prevent HIV in Africa, helping kids wash their hands to avoid diarrhea, promoting breastfeeding, fighting against the environmental footprint of bottled water and helping families in America deal with early on-set diabetes. They don’t deserve to be treated as though they never existed because you think social marketing “isn’t what it used to be”. And they sure don’t care about your linguistic games.“

Jim Mintz:

I have taught social marketing in the USA, Canada, Japan, Australia/New Zealand and through out Europe since the mid eighties. It is an established field of marketing study. Along comes web 2.0 and thinks it can steal the name of a legitimate field. Now that is chutzpa .. Oh yes after close to 40 years we in the field of social marketing should change our name. Fat chance that will happen.”

First, I would make clear that if people begin using the term “social marketing” to refer to marketing using social methods, it would certainly not “treat [thousands of caring men and women] as though they never existed” as Bill describes. The crucial work he describes in his comment would have the exact same benefit regardless of how people referred to it. Furthermore, I did not say that “social marketing isn’t what it used to be.” I was very careful to be clear that I was talking about the term, not the field of work. I said, “I’m not so sure social marketing means what it used to.” I fear that there is confusion entering this discussion because I am talking about nomenclature and labels while others are talking about the fields those labels apply to. If one renames a folder on their computer, they do not change, diminish, or otherwise affect the files contained in that folder. I reiterate that this is a taxonomy issue.

On that note, I want to discuss Jim’s statement that, “Along comes web 2.0 and thinks it can steal the name of a legitimate field.” That makes it sound like there is a person or group of people that are making the conscious choice to hijack a term. However, language change is an organic process, often with little or no active input. Sure there are people who make the mistake — they say “social” when they really mean “social media” — but there are also people for whom “social marketing” means something different. They are not making a mistake, nor did they actively and purposefully sit down and decide to steal a name from another field.

I have had numerous discussions with other marketers and representatives of companies who use the term “social marketing” as an umbrella term to refer to marketing using social methods, not simply as a shortened stand-in for “social media marketing.” If one uses the term that way in a group of five other people and everyone understands it to mean the same thing, are they all wrong? I cannot correct them and say that they mean “social media marketing” because that is not what they mean. They are speaking of a larger marketing ideology of which “social media marketing” is only a component (albeit a large and popular one). These people use the term (rightly or wrongly) to encompass the branch of their marketing plan that focuses on consumer interaction and conversation, both online and offline. These “social methods” can be anything from blogs and other social media, to sponsored events and street teams.

Lexicons change all the time, and there is always the interesting problem of when a new change stops being wrong and starts being the right use of the new meaning. No one is ever sure where to draw the line. “Fast” is now both an adjective and adverb. But a couple hundred years ago “Fastly” was the adverb form of the word. One would “run fastly” just as they would “walk slowly.” When did the change happen? It’s hard to say. Was it when 51% of the population stared using “fast” as an adverb that it finally became right?

While not perfectly analogous to our current taxonomical discussion, I feel that the “fastly” example presents an interesting way of viewing this discussion. For the purposes of this example, I am using the idea of a “traditional meaning” and a “new meaning.” If, let’s say, 10% of the population uses the term “social marketing” in its new meaning, we could likely all say that they are making a mistake. But what if it takes off and in a year 30% of the population uses the term “social marketing” in its new meaning. Are they all still wrong? What if 80% of the population used “social marketing” in its new meaning? Are they all wrong? Do they all need to be corrected? Or has the meaning of the term changed? Obviously we can’t measure word usage with this sort of accuracy, but lexicographical shift can happen in this way.

Conclusion

Please note that I am not advocating a change in meaning. I am not taking a side, nor am I actively trying to change the meaning of the term. I am commenting on an organic shift that I am observing which may or may not pan out. As M4CHANGE put it, “Ultimately, the marketplace will decide this debate.” I couldn’t agree more. It will sort it self out organically and there is very little we can do to affect the outcome. Perhaps a new term will be coined soon that encompasses the idea of “marketing using social methods.” Perhaps not. Perhaps (for better or worse) the masses will re-adopt the term “social marketing” under their new definition and it will take off like wildfire. Perhaps not.

I would also argue that those who have taken to using the term “social marketing” as an umbrella term for “marketing using social methods” are not thumbing their noses at the field traditionally referred to by that label. There is no malice nor disrespect.

Last but not least, I reiterate that not everyone who uses the term “social marketing” means “social media marketing.” There seems to be a belief that people are talking about one or the other. But, the term has taken on a new meaning (what I keep referring to as the umbrella meaning) and I see it used in many circles.

In conclusion, I say that as a marketer and a man with an interest in linguistics, I watch the current taxonomic and folksonomic environment with great interest. To my knowledge there has has never been a time before where the maelstrom of new terms was so chaotic and moved so fast. I do not have an answer, nor can I even come close to predicting the way it will shake out. I can only watch and opine.

Again, I thank all those who commented on the last post. I invite you all to subscribe to our RSS feed so that you can catch further updates. Perhaps we will even be able to secure a guest post on this topic from one of our commentors.