Social Marketing Panorama

Kicking Around Social Marketing, Social Media and Communication #1

In my December 21st post, I ranted about the how people seem to assume that a communication campaign is the answer to every societal problem.  I also ranted about how people confuse social marketing, communication and social media.  I felt much better!  (Other colleagues are feeling a similar pain, and seeking relief.  For a great discussion of what is wrong with “raising awareness,” and cures for that, see Alex Kesselborn’s blog post "Questions to Prevent Awareness Fever.")  In this post I want to go beyond feeling better.  I want to look at some of the reasons why behavior change practitioners default to a communication campaign, and why communication alone may not work.  In the coming posts I will talk about conditions when is communication effective, and about some reasons for the confusion in terms.  I have posted a PowerPoint presentation on Slideshare that you may want to look at, which explores the social marketing/communication/social media ball of confusion.

 

So, Why Do People Default to Communication?

1. The Audience Lacks Knowledge & Awareness.  I think there is a long standing idea that people do not do the “right” thing (i.e., the healthy thing or the thing we want them to do) because they do not know:  know they NEED to do something; know they CAN do something; know WHAT to do; know HOW to do it.  If we just tell them enough, they will do that thing (often called the “rationale” choice).  If they do not do it after all our good education, it must be due to a fault in them (e.g., “They are not motivated.”  “They don’t seem to care.”)

2. It Worked Before!  We or another program has used communication for health behavior change and it seemed to produce results.  So, we do it again.  (Problem:  do we have the data to show it was the communication? Or to show what about the communication contributed to change?)

3. Everyone Else is Doing It!  Everyone seems to be using communication for health (and other) behavior change.  It must work.  We will use it, too.  (Problem:  the communication component is often the most visible intervention.  However, we don’t know what else was done that might have influenced behavior change.)

4. It’s How I Trained.  In a discussion on the Georgetown Social Marketing List Serve (1/27/2010), Bill Smith, from the Academy of Educational Development noted, “What happens in practice is we default to the tool we were trained in.  If we were trained in H comm we wind up with messages; if we were trained in advocacy we wind up with policy reform.”

 

Communication Alone May Not Move the Needle on Behavior Change…

In both conversations with peers and in literature, we find frustration that even after people know what they are “supposed to do,” they don’t do it.  Problems persist:  initiating cigarette smoking; obesity; lack of recycling.  Even the well-executed, commercial “Got Milk?” campaign did not result in increased sales the first time around—though it did result in increased awareness (see graph).   

 

Recently, Leslie Snyder, director of the Center for Health Communication and Marketing at the University of Connecticut, conducted a meta-analysis of health communication campaigns.  She found that the campaigns resulted in about a 5 percent change in behavior, on average, among people exposed to them.  F-I-V-E %.  Aye, yie yie!

 

…Why not?!

1. Perhaps our approach was poorly planned or executed.  We not did deliver a large enough “dose” of communication to elicit a “response.”  We couldn’t afford to reach our audiences in a time and place when they were attending.  We didn’t conduct audience research nor pretesting

2. Maibach, Abroms and Marosits (2007) remind us that, from the point of view of the Ecological Model of Health, communication may only seek to affect one “field of influence”—the individual level.  And there may be other fields of influence (e.g. interpersonal, organizational, community, public policy) that we miss, which play a role in behavior.

3. There are determinants of behavior that communication alone cannot address.  I have cited before work by a consensus panel (Fishbein, Triandis et al., 2001) of leading health behavior theorist that the National Institutes of Mental Health convened.  They agreed that there are both external and internal determinants of behavior.  Look below at these and think about which determinants communication and messaging can address.  Even after our best practice communication efforts we may not get the behavior change we are looking for, because there are other determinants at play that we have not impacted.

External

• Policies
• Access
• Skills
• Actual Consequences
• Cultural Beliefs and Values

Internal

• Knowledge and Beliefs
• Attitudes
• Perceived Risk
• Perceived Consequences
• Self Efficacy

Even after our best efforts to communicate, the audience may still experience barriers to acting on the good information and awareness we have provided.

So, where can we turn to get the most out of communication strategies?  How can we deal with other barriers to acting?...Stay tuned!

(Sources: Photo-BillRhodes; Graph: Bill Smith)

 

On Blogging, and Maintenance of Behavior

Just when you thought it was safe to go on-line:  I am back and blogging!   Despite wonderful intentions, I have not blogged since July 29th.  I even missed the first anniversary of my entrée into the blogosphere, September 6th!  Despite a deep desire to blog—a longing, even, despite the belief that somebody besides myself likes to read these things, despite there being no lack of worthy material, I have not blogged!  Why?  This got me thinking about the determinants of behavior, and about how to maintain desired behaviors. (And talking here about something desired by me!)  What could I glean from theory and best practice to support my desired behavior of blogging regularly?

I. The first place I thought of turning for guidance was Fostering Sustainable Behavior, by Doug McKenzie-Mohr and Bill Smith.  Their book offers a set of tools, grounded in social science, to support behavior change, such as:  1) commitment (written, made in a group setting); 2) prompts (noticeable, close to the desired action); 3) Norms (made visible, reinforced by personal contact); 4) Incentives (paired with the behavior, positive, non-monetary).  Hey, looks good!  How do they apply to this erstwhile blogger?  Commitment—well, I have written here, in front of you, my commitment to blog. Prompts—Let’s see, I put reminders on my calendar, post-its on the computer.  Norms—bloggers I admire and follow and want to emulate set a good role model.  They offer encouragement. Incentives—Publishing a blog post is its own incentive for me.  I respond well to high quality coffee and dark chocolate—but why wait till I finish, I’ll get a cup of java now!  The diagnosis:  I have in place a lot of these things.  Maybe my wife could dole out the chocolate to keep the incentive out of my reach till I finish.  Not much help here!

II. Next I turned to one of my favorite resources, a list of behavioral determinants from a consensus conference of leading behavioral theorists, sponsored by the National Institute of Mental Health.  Participants agreed that there are both external and internal determinants of behavior.  Let’s see:

External:  1) Access—I have access to a computer, a blogging solution, many sources of ideas; 2) Skills—I can easily create a post; 3) Actual consequences—okay, writing is a slow process for me, but when I publish I feel great, and I get good feedback!  4) Culture—among my professional peeps, blogging is held in high esteem.  And, I have a group of social media angels who are the “wind under my wings” (Craig, Nedra, Alex, Andre—you know who you are!)

Internal:  1) Knowledge—Got all sorts of pertinent knowledge!  2) Attitudes—Believe blogging is worthwhile.  3) Perceived consequences—I’ll be better known, readers will benefit, BUT I expect it to be a long, slow process to compose a post.  4) Intention—I intend to write as soon as I get home; tonight; as soon as I finish this project; before the month’s end.

The diagnosis:  Lots of determinants in place.  Might be an “intervention” around consequences, related to the writing, making it easier.  Still not much help…

III. Finally, I turned to the concept of exchange, which is at the heart of marketing:  the balance of barriers and benefits (or facilitators).  This seemed more hopeful! 

Barriers
Time—having enough time to write, with my competing demands (H1N1, Healthy People 20-something, building capacity for social media, family things)

Place—where is the appropriate place?  My day job? (But, I am blogging privately, not as part of work.)  At home?  (I do want to spend time with family, though!)

Fatigue—Home seems like a better place than work, but after my workday, then dinner, then clean-up…Please, can I just “veg” with something mindless?!

Slowness of writing—I write well, but it is painful, like giving birth!  Going from primary to secondary process thinking.  Getting the words just right.

Benefits/Facilitators
Enjoy being a part of the social marketing conversation!  I have something to add.

Like to see myself in print! (A corollary of a line from The Eagles, “It’s a certain kind of fool that likes to hear the sound of his own name.”)

I value the medium of blogging.

Positive feedback from readers.

Keeps me thinking, mentally fresh!

No lack of topics to comment on!

Blogging positions me, promotes me as a brand

The diagnosis:  THIS feels like I am getting somewhere!  These barriers and benefits “fit” for me, and feel like something I can get a handle on.  The benefits for me are very compelling, therefore I will focus on reducing the barriers!

My Personal Social Marketing Plan for Maintenance of Blogging

1. Time and place—Set aside a specific day and time to blog.  Possibly set a specific amount of time, during which to work.  Perhaps compose on a laptop, while the family is involved in “parallel play” in the living room.
2. Fatigue—Write during the day when I have more energy (during lunch or breaks away from the day job).  Or at home, write first, then do the dishes, so my best energy is applied to writing.
3. Writing—Perhaps write in more of a bulleted format.  Record myself talking out the post, then transcribe it.  Take a lesson from Twitter and write in bursts of 140 characters!  Don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good.  Have recurring “features” that are easy to put together.

And from you, dear reader:  send me suggestions of things that work for you that I can consider; comment on posts; and if you like my writing, let me know!  I will be giving you plenty of opportunities to do that in this next year!