SocialButterfly.

Beth Kanter, of the Beth’s Blog, who I featured last month as the second member of SocialButterfly’s Blogger Neighborhood, interviewed me for BlogHer. My first official ‘professional’ interview as the interview-ee!

1. Tell me a little about you.

I am a social marketing believer, blogger, researcher, practitioner and enthusiast. Social marketing for good - not to be confused with social media marketing. Currently, my day job is a graduate student at the University of Missouri’s School of Journalism where I will graduate this month. In June, I will start full-time at the social marketing firm I’ve been completing a fellowship at in Washington D.C., working on the client team representing the National Institute on Drug Abuse. As of this moment, I am defending my thesis, graduating and taking a moment to breath, =).

Academics and work aside, my passion is working with and on behalf of nonprofits. My family, myself and a small group of dedicated and committed individuals started a non-profit in Arkansas that benefits multiple sclerosis and works in partnership with the MS Society. In one year, with about eight people, no budget and two main events, we’ve raised over $275k.

2. Tell me about your thesis.

Just the word ‘thesis’ seems to make eyes glaze over, so I’ll try to keep this interesting. What influences you in the actions you take? the opinions or attitudes you hold? What shapes how you feel? Is it CNN broadcasting live, yahoo news feeds, a blog, your next door neighbor, or a guest lecturer? I’m supposing that it’s all the above and more. My research looks at the media landscape and the concept of influence and how this affects the public agenda….and within this mess and shades of gray, how and where the practice of social marketing fits in. I suggest social marketing offers us an opportunity to work collaboratively, erase divisions and provides a platform for those with similar motivations - doing good - to unite across industry fields, and thus, be more effective and successful.

3. You’re a digital native (I am guessing .. Millennial or whatever .. so, from your perspective in seeing various campaigns launched by nonprofits that use social media strategies, what are they doing right? What do they need to improve to appeal to folks like you?

Have some extra time but also want to engage the brain? Try Free Rice.

Play a simple word game and based on your success, rice will be donated to hungry children.

How It Works

A word appears and asks you to define it. Every definition you correctly identify donates 20 grains of rice. You’re intriguing the mind, using social media tools AND giving. Talk about collaborative innovation.

There are 55 different vocabulary levels, with customized options for your own vocabulary growth…the site says that most people don’t get beyond level 48. Will you be the one to reach level 55?!?

The words are also constantly evaluated on their difficulty level depending on how many people get the word right or wrong and new words are always being added.

Why

Free Rice also lists many reasons why its encourages the development of vocabulary as part of its mission in its FAQ section of its website. They include:

• Formulate your ideas better
• Write better papers, emails and business letters
• Speak more precisely and persuasively
• Comprehend more of what you read
• Read faster because you comprehend better
• Get better grades in high school, college and graduate school
• Score higher on tests like the SAT, GRE, LSAT and GMAT
• Perform better at job interviews and conferences
• Sell yourself, your services, and your products better
• Be more effective and successful at your job

Who Finances The Donation?

According to the site, the site’s advertisers are the ones who actually pay for the rice to be donated. And, the site itself does not run a profit. Thus, you play, advertisers pay to be listed on the site, that money funds the rice donation.

Distribution

The United Nations World Food Program (WFP) distributes the rice. The WFP works with over 1,000 organizations in over 75 countries, making it the world’s largest food aid agency. When possible, WFP buys the food through the local growers and economy.

Results

From its start on October 7, 2007 to April 27, 2008, the total number of rice grains donated = 29,724,130,370! For a break down of results, click here.

More

To learn more about hunger, visit Poverty.com, an interactive site that teaches about hunger and poverty, and even tracks how many hunger deaths occur per hour through a moving, interactive map…

Other Helpful Sites include:

Joe, on the social marketing list serv, posed a great scenario the other week and has allowed me to share its results in a blog post, as I think many others will find the information helpful.

Joe posed the question that asked for research that shows why providing people with information does not change behavior alone…aka: how do you show the value of investing in social marketing?

The listserv showed its wisdom, value and use by its overwhelming response. The responses full of resources, tips and ideas are summarized below, thanks to Joe’s help.

Individual attribution to comments have been erased to protect the person’s privacy. Also, these comments are made by individuals and do not reflect the attitudes of the entire social marketing list serv or the author of this blog. But, it should provide some great food for thought and perhaps offer some ideas for effective social marketing. In no particular order…

Comments

1. Some people think information alone changes behaviors. Ask them this: Do most people in America know thateating less and being more active will lead to weight loss? Knowing that, we should all be thin, right, because we all know this

I have spent the last eight years using emotion to influence health related behaviors. Check out one project at this website that shows how emotions could be used to change health-related behaviors: www.touchingheartstouchingminds.com

All marketing research says that emotions drive behaviors, not logic and fact alone. There are hundreds of books you could suggest, but here’s a simple one: Marketing Straight to the Heart by Barry Fieg

2. I don’t know of any one definitive study, but the example I often use is smoking. Numerous studies show that ‘everyone’ or at least the vast majority know that smoking is harmful, so giving people the facts just
isn’t enough.

3. I’m sure you could find information to this effect on the WHO site under health promotion. I believe also that Green & Kreuter discuss this with the PRECEDE-PROCEED model.

4. I would recommend you take a look at the ways that Safe Routes to School has opted to address the challenge of getting more kids to be active by walking or biking to school. The most broad and brief description of our issue is that involves changing behaviors to combat childhood obesity and also teach safety. Together with bicycle advocacy in general we’ve found that it’s not just education, but also encouragement, enforcement and engineering. Programs that don’t have a good balance of the 4 e’s don’t seem to be effective. I’d be happy to give you more information if you find it appropriate.

5. To that I would add the same thought around drinking and driving. Not only do people know it’s bad and potentially very harmful, it is even against the law, yet people continue to engage in the behavior.

6. How about these:

Tobacco. For a decade we let people know that tobacco kills one out of three people. It wasn’t until we began increasing taxes (price), decreasing access for minors (place), making people smoke outside (ambiance), and providing quit lines (products) that we saw significant decrease (about 50% decrease since 1964).

Seatbelts. Letting people know that “we love you so buckle up” only got about half of us to do it. It took primary seatbelt laws, increased fines, more comfortable seatbelts, “ding ding ding” sounds as reminders.

Recycling. Look at the low rates of recycling before we began providing containers (products) and streetside pickup (place) and in come communities fines for putting recyclables into garbage cans (price).

Organ Donation: We would not have the numbers of organ donors (although still not what we need) if we didn’t have sign up when getting/renewing our drivers license (Place).

Voting: Oregon has the highest voting rates in the country because they have the (only) vote-by-mail (place).

7. Here are a couple of other sources from the public health field:
http://www.collegedrinkingprevention.gov/NIAAACollegeMaterials/TaskForce/CallToAction_02.aspx#CallToAction_02_d

This one talks about ineffective strategies related to college students and alcohol.

You could also check: http://www.thecommunityguide.org/index.html I believe that they probably have some statements in their reviews about the ineffectiveness of straight education efforts.

8. Ok, here’s the grand daddy: What customers Think by Gerald Zaltman of Harvard School of Business. A painful book to read, but it is loaded with tons of research studies documenting that feelings are more important than facts. Don’t buy the book–it’s not one you’ll love to read. It’s in almost every library. Other (less painful) options: The Marketing Power of Emotion by John and Nicholas O’Shaughnessy by Oxford press. Body of Truth: Leveraging what consumers can’t or won’t say by Dan Hill. Who am I: The 16 Basic desires that motivate our actions and define our personalities by Steven Reiss of Ohio State. I’ve attached an article by him for a quick start.

9. I find it also helps to provide an example of when communication alone does work so they can see the difference in the factors that influence behavior. The example I like is SIDS. When we communicated that all you need to do is put your child to sleep on his back, the behavior change was readily adopted. But how hard is it to do that behavior. It doesn’t require any special equipment or special/skilled knowledge or special kind of person to do the action. Unless there is a cultural taboo against sleeping on one’s back, then this was easy to get people to do with communication alone. Not to mention that the potential outcome was highly prized and the opposite behavior could lead to catastrophic outcomes. So it was east to cut through the clutter, be heard, and be motivated — all pretty much with just communication. Then I show them Nancy Lee’s examples and point out why communication alone didn’t change behavior initially.

10. The challenge in finding research is this is one of those “it depends” issues. In some cases, such as when there is a severe threat and an easy-to-perform action, information IS enough to change the behavior of many — two examples I recall are putting babies on their back to sleep to avoid Sudden Infant Death Syndrome and not giving children aspirin to avoid Reye’s Syndrome.

However, in many other cases, information alone isn’t. Mike Rothschild’s “Carrots, Sticks and Promises” article may either be what you need or point you to it — especially the discussion of the Motive, Opportunity, Ability framework (e.g., for info alone to work, one must have the motivation, opportunity and ability to make the change). You can find it here: http://www.social-marketing.org/papers/carrotarticle.pdf

This is old, but the proceedings from a USDA-sponsored evaluation conference meet the “easy, understandable language” criterion and may help you; a focus of the conference was the situations in which nutrition education “works” and some of the speakers make the points you are probably
trying to find documented: http://www.nal.usda.gov/foodstamp/FOODSTAMPREPORTS/FSP-37.PDF Isobel
Contento’s session should reference a published lit review that draws some of the same conclusions. It’s been a long time since I’ve looked at this document, but some of the discussion was around the many situations in which the Knowledge-attitude-behavior paradigm just doesn’t work, and the need to also address the environment in which the behavior is taking place.

11. The example I use when presenting is to ask people to raise their hands if they know that eating right and getting regular exercise are important for good health (almost all hands go up). Then I ask how many people in the room actually do eat right and get enough exercise (half or so will raise their hands).

12. I think CSAP’s (SAMHSA’s Center for the Application of Prevention Technology) environmental approach to alcohol abuse, misuse and underage drinking prevention may offer support for your argument. There is little doubt that a comprehensive approach to substance abuse prevention is the most effective means to see positive results. CSAP basically suggests besides information dissemination and education, policy change and alternatives are necessary for success. http://www.captus.org/Western/resources/bp/step6/bpcsap.cfm Another organization, PIRE, (Pacific Institute for Research Evaluation) provides more than adequate data to support the necessary inclusion of policy change to reduce DUI’s and underage drinking. You can find that data on their site. http://www.pire.org/index.asp I’ve believed that the three legged stool metaphor is appropriate for alcohol misuse prevention. Information dissemination, alternatives and policy change are the legs that support behavioral change. Many would argue that addressing individual factors included in the universal, school, family and peer environments also need to be addressed and I would have a difficult time arguing with that. The bottom line is comprehensive approaches are best. I hope this helps.

13. You might want to look at the accessible work of Larry Green, who developed the PRECEDE-PROCEED models for (health) behavior change. His web site http://www.lgreen.net/precede.htm notes that there some 960 published studies that apply this model and he includes a link to a bibliography. There is also the body of work by Martin Fishbein at UPenn. His two key contributions to behavior change research: the Theory of Reasoned Action and Expectancy-Value Theory might bolster your (correct) assertion that it takes more than information to change behavior. You need to understand the larger context of how people perceive and value the information, and how attitude plays a major role. Wikipedia has accessible explanations of this scientifically rigorous work. Hope this helps. Web sites of other government agencies, such as the National Cancer Institute, may help. They have huge programs studying how to optimize communication (they don’t refer to it as social marketing, but that’s what it is) in order to produce behavior change. NCI’s Pink Book (aka Making Health Communication Programs Work) is a concrete example of what another gov’t agency is doing in this arena.

14. While in my graduate program in public health we learned that effective programs must include components of Knowledge Attitude and behavior change. Please check out the following resource on tools for Behavior Change Communication: http://www.infoforhealth.org/inforeports/BCCtools/2.shtml Under the section labeled “Understand Audience and other Potential Participants..” Collect in depth information about the audience: What are their knowledge attitudes and beliefs about health? To further support your argument you can also refer to the basic rules of evaluation… Establishing program objectives and deciding the particular evidence (such as the specific knowledge, attitudes, or behavior) that will demonstrate that the objectives have been met. A key to successful evaluation is a set of clear, measurable, and realistic program objectives. If objectives are unrealistically optimistic or are not measurable, the program may not be able to demonstrate that it has been successful even if it has done a good job. http://www.evaluationwiki.org/index.php/Evaluation_Definition I hope this is of help to you.

Still with us?? =)

15. Check out the US Forest Service’s research station. An excellent contact there is Pat Winter, PhD, a USFS employee who conducts research that may relate to your mission as well. At least, you can show that federal agencies understand the value of social marketing and are active in defining how it can be used to meet their goals.

16. I hope this helps. This article tells of a specific program that helps in drinking and driving in a Texas City. I have not analyzed the methods, but sounds very interesting. Also the Dept of Texas funds a drinking and driving program for young adults. The program is run by an Sherry Matthews Advocacy Agency in Austin, if you need more info let me know. The website is: http://whosdrivingtonight.com/

17. You can try searching this reference-see below for a brief summary (Redman, Spencer and Sanson-Fisher, 1990) though it’s a bit outdated, it might give you a bit of a start. This was taken from page 10 of The Health Communication Unit’s resource booklet on communication campaigns.
http://www.thcu.ca/infoandresources/publications/OHCMasterWorkbookv3.2.mar26.07.pd

When applied on their own-without complementary strategies such as community mobilization-the ability of some health communication campaigns to effect change is limited. In particular, a large body of evidence suggests that health communication campaigns relying exclusively on media appeals are not a sufficient means of changing attitudes and behaviour. In some contrast to the meta analysis found on this page, recent review of 24 published evaluations of health promotion programs revealed that media alone interventions had little impact on behaviour (Redman, Spencer and Sanson-Fisher, 1990).

18. Of course, the answer is (as it always seems to be when you look closely), “it depends.” On the behavior in question, that is. A very good scientific discussion of the if/thens is provided in Leslie Snyder’s meta-analysis. The reference is: Snyder LB. J Nutr Educ Behav. Health communication campaigns and their impact on behavior. 2007 Mar-Apr;39(2 Suppl):S32-40.

19. I think this might help you out a bit…(abstract) This paper proposes that stigma in relation to people with mental illness can be understood as a combination of problems of knowledge (ignorance), attitudes (prejudice) and behaviour (discrimination). From a literature review, a series of candidate interventions are identified which may be effective in reducing stigmatisiation and discrimination at the following levels: individuals with mental illness and their family members; the workplace; and local, national and international. The strongest evidence for effective interventions at present is for (i) direct social contact with people with mental illness at the individual level, and (ii) social marketing at the population level. http://www.ijmhs.com/content/2/1/3

20. This is an issue I deal with all the time and there’s tons of research to the contrary. Most behaviour change theories use some variant of the motivation, opportunity, ability model where knowledge is just one aspect of ability. If there’s no opportunity to behave or motivation to behave knowledge alone won’t work. Here’s one reference: Keller, Kevin Lane. “Memory Retrieval Factors and Advertising Effectiveness.” In Advertising Exposure, Memory and Choice, edited by Andrew A. Mitchell. New Jersey; Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc., 1993. If you’d like more please let me know. In an ideal world I’d suggest doing a KAPB survey and asking the same questions of those who already do what you want and those who don’t.
Ask a bunch of knowledge questions as well as other motivation, opportunity and ability questions. If the knowledge levels of those who behave and those who don’t behave are the same it’s clearly not the key thing driving behaviour and sadly this data is often necessary to finally convince people not to focus on knowledge.

21. Perhaps the point is not so much providing evidence to this person(there is lots of that), but acknowledging that they do have a point and then showing them evidence that while info alone can bring about change, enhancing the info/facilitating/etc etc can bring about greater change & faster. The fact is that many people do change their behavior on the basis of information alone. The Sloan-Kettering report on cancer & tobacco tar in 1953 and the 1964 Surgeon-General’s report on smoking were both followed by declines in smoking rates without any campaigns or other measures. However smoking rates began (and continued) to decline significantly when advertising campaigns dramatized & personalized the information. (Of course not all behaviours are the same — nor are all people - and that is another point).

Hope this helps! =)

At this past week’s International Advertising Association’s World Congress in Washington D.C, the Ad Council and IAA revealed results from the Ad Council IAA Member Survey on Social Advertising Programs. For all social marketers out there, the results are on our side.

Among the Key Findings, the following figures were given in support of social marketing:

• 57% of respondents felt their country should implement MORE social marketing campaigns than it currently has.
• 61% said their country NEEDS HELP developing social marketing campaigns.
• 90% of respondents expressed interest in sharing and learning MORE about research and creative materials for social marketing campaigns in other countries.

As I was in attendance during this conference, you can imagine how STOKED I was about this. I had to pinch myself. Here I was at the IAA World Congress, and did I hear right:  We are talking about social marketing. The real social marketing. Not social media. I could barely contain myself. Then, it happens again, and then again. And then I realize, the IAA is trying to educate and send a message to the ad community: invest in social marketing!

But where were we social marketers? our experts in the field? our voice? Absent. Here was a chance to share our passion, knowledge, excitement and message with the very industry that we can work with….and we weren’t there. So, here is my message for this post. Social marketing is great and wonderful. But we can’t stay in our bubble. We’ve reached out to the non-profit community, but all advertisers aren’t bad. There are big movers and shakers who want to do good and see the value in doing goog. We need to integrate ourselves with them….not be divisive.

********************************************************

These results were shared with the Advertising industry during the IAA presentation for the 1st Social Responsibility advertising awards. These awards were presented with cooperation between IAA and ACT Responsible. The Grand Prix winner was “Signature” for Amnesty International by TBWA/Paris. To see the rest of the recipients, go here.

(This was a web-based survey through Zoomerang among IAA members from December 13, 2007 to February 11, 2008. 204 completed surveys were received from member respondents in six continents. Respondents included respondents from advertisers, ad agencies, media outlets, research companies, trade associations and universities.)

Kivi Leroux Miller at Nonprofit Communications and host of the Carnival for Nonprofit Consultants asks us all a fun question this week: What are you looking forward to?

This is a fun question because it provides you the reader, the opportunity to get to know more about our fellow bloggers. Though I keep my name anonymous (for now), let me tell you what I’m looking forward to, and I invite you to share your upcoming celebrations, events, etc. as I love to hear what others are doing, exploring, pioneering and creating.

Personally, my answer is: What am I not looking forward to!

‘n Life

In May, I am graduating with my Master’s degree, with my research focus in social marketing. Some of you readers have participated in the study and wow, I can not say thank you enough. It’s been a grueling journey, but one I’ve enjoyed and loved every moment. Most exciting as a result of my studies, I am presenting my paper at the 1st World Social Marketing Conference in Brighton, England in September 2008. If you will be there, drop me a line, as the MOST exciting part of this opportunity is the chance to meet and learn from others who share this passion.

‘n the Blogosphere

SocialButterfly is currently being developed in my spare (and rare) free time, but it is one of my favorite things to do. I must thank everyone in the virtual world. Your guidance, motivation, perseverance, advice and community is something I greatly enjoy and appreciate. In the next couple months, I plan on moving SocialButterfly to its own domain and developing the blog a lot further so be on the lookout,

‘n Social Marketing

Rumblings are surfacing that a Social Marketing Association is in the works and may be tangible within the next year. This is exciting. Get ready. The branding of social marketing is reaching another level!

‘n NonProfit Arenas

I am really excited about all the growing number of businesses that are beginning to discover new ways for their organization or company to become socially conscious. Marketing ploy or not, it’s an increasing trend, and every little piece helps form the puzzle.

I’m most curious about how the field of social enterprise will continue to develop. David Brooks from the New York Times offers a great profile of a social entrepreneur. Most simply, Brooks defines a social entrepreneur as someone who does business….without the main objective of profit making, and goes on stating:

“We might as well take advantage of this explosion of social entrepreneurship. These are some of the smartest and most creative people in the country. Even if we don’t know how to reduce poverty, it’s probably worth investing in these people and letting them figure it out. “

And we can figure it out! The more I here about this rising area of entrepreneurship - the more excited I am about our fields and where they are headed. Be it business, nonprofits, NGOs, health communications, social change, social marketing, public service and more - we are gradually coming together and discovering how we interrelate and how that is seen in practice. Some examples of social enterprises are below:

• Ashoka.org is the front-runner in social enterprise education and implementation, claiming that everyone can be a change maker in his or her community.
• A Social Enterprise venture providing with jobs and personal development for the mentally ill and past drug abusers
• A social enterprise park initiative proposed for London’s Summer 2012 Olympics
• A local U.K. grocery remains open despite pressures to foreclose after launching social enterprise efforts
• White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives addresses international social enterprise initiatives, Rwanda

So cheers to the future, and really, what’s not love??

(ps: photo picked at random and happens to be listed on Foxhall Consulting Services‘ site who does consulting for social enterprises….see, the worlds are connecting already )

In an earlier post, I clarified how social marketing differentiates itself from social media marketing. Now, I am asking for your thoughts on how the term social marketing relates to the term social change marketing.

Social marketing, as we’ve discussed, has decades of theoretical history and practice. It is a term constantly evolving and defining itself. However, the field also faces a challenge: branding itself…especially since the onset of social media marketing.

Reading through social marketing texts and journals, the terms - social change, marketing for social change, and social change marketing are making increasing appearances, so I am curious on others’ thought about how the two terms relate.

A good summary of the two concepts, including how they relate to commercial marketing, is found in Dr. Stephen Dann’s slideshow titled:

“Social change marketing in the age of direct benefit marketing – where to from here?”

In this presentation, Dann asks the question: Where to from here? which provides information on how social marketing has grown and compares to commercial marketing and what this may mean for the future. Other signs of the concept of social change’s relationship to social marketing dates back to Prof. Alan Andreason’s book: Marketing Social Change. So, there is a history. On the web, Craig Lefebvre’s blog is titled On Social Marketing and Social Change, suggesting the relationship.

Thus, I am curious on your thoughts about the terms/concepts of social marketing versus social change marketing:

• Can social marketing be renamed social change marketing?
• Or, is social marketing one component of social change?
• Or, is social marketing one piece of social change marketing? What’s the difference? Is there a difference?

It may seem like a matter of scrabble to some, but these discussions really engage me, and I hope the enthusiasm sparks interest as I think the relationship between the two terms is continuing to develop and will becoming increasingly important as we work to brand social marketing. =)

Have you always felt like you spent more time cultivating your online relationships than your real ones?

With applications like: Twittr, Facebook, LinkedIn, del.icio.us, Flickr, your work email, your personal email, your blog, Huddle, MySpace, Listservs, newsletters, Google Analytics, Digg, BlogLines, RSSFeeds, Sitemeter, Technorati, ETC.!

Managing and connecting with people online takes a lot of time, and at times, remains fragmented and disjointed. So, here is what I suggest: Merging the Two Worlds.

***

Social marketing circles have largely debated the creation of a social marketing association, whether or not we should be under the American Marketing Association and whether the Social Marketing Institute should be revived. But while I research that history, I’m seeing the UK and Canada formulate public sector marketing associations, centers, programs, and institutes. At least in Massachusetts, they have a Massachusetts Social Marketing Association.

So, I’m beginning a petition. If you would like to see or join a “Social Marketing Association,” please join me in signing this ipetition. Reversing the Field of Dreams philosophy, if the people come, it will be built. =)

For more information about this issue, refer to Nedra Weinreich’s posting about her shared frustration.

Again, join us by signing the ipetition here. Feel free to pass along the petition.

For the Non-Profit Blog Exchange’s 8th Virtual Event, top bloggers in social marketing and non-profit communications are writing posts about each other’s blogs and posts. This is SocialButterfly’s inaugural debut in the Non-Profit Blog Exchange, so insightful feedback is always appreciated.

My blog in focus is Nancy E. Schwartz’ blog Getting Attention. Operating since May 2007, the blog acts ‘as a resource of ideas, tactics and tips for nonprofit communicators.’

Ms. Schwartz is founder of Nancy Schwartz & Company, a marketing and communications firm for non-profits and foundation clients. She also manages her blog Getting Attention and Getting Attention’s e-newsletter.

I had come across Ms. Schwartz’ blog previously when she participated in a round of the Carnival for Non Profit Consultants on Dec. 3, 2007. To be transparent, I am a fan of her blog and the information it provides. The site is easy to navigate, is practical, insightful and offers a variety of content on various topics within the social marketing and non-profit communications world.

I’d like to respond to a specific post of Ms. Schwartz titled: Leverage Prez Hopefuls’ Understanding of Women to Increase Your Nonprofit Marketing Impact. Having just come from a seminar at the Sewall-Belmont House & Museum on Women in Politics, this topic is currently on my mind.

In her post, Ms. Schwartz analyzed the current political debate combined with a New York Times article about how gender influences politics to formulate some non-profit marketing insights on the female target.

Her insights are great and helpful. It’s the premises that catch my attention. Take the first premise: Women vote to protect their interests (men vote because they enjoy politics). However, I know lots of men who are concerned with protecting their interests and just as many women (such as those who gathered at the Women in Politics seminar tonight) who are passionate about politics.

Let’s look at another premise: Women network organically so they already have a network or two in place. One of tonight’s speakers, a Virginia state legislator veteran would also attest, that she learned how to fund raise and garner support from observing the ‘good old boys’ network.

Now don’t get me wrong, I agree and find Ms. Schwartz’ marketing insights on women helpful. I also admire how she took a very popular current event and made it relevant to us non-profiteers. I am just reflecting a lot on women, gender, politics and how they relate. My faithful readers will observe that I am big into concepts and terms and how they relate, ;). It’s the academic in me.

So, in closing, let me leave you with this New York Times article from Feb. 10, 2008 titled: When Women Rule. The author of this article poses the question: Can a woman leader be both liked and perceived as qualified and effective? According to this author and others, a woman leader can either be liked or perceived as competent…but not both. You can see how this ties into the article on female target marketing and women politics.

My thoughts on this were phrased well by Missouri Secretary of State Robin Carnahan tonight at the Sewall-Belmont seminar when Carnahan voiced, with enthusiasm and motivation (paraphrased from memory):

“Is running for a political office hard? Yes. Is it hard for anyone? Yes. Is it harder for women and minorities? Yes. Is it unfair? Yes. But let’s get to the ground running.”

Thus, using Ms. Schwartz’ demonstration of creating relevance from an important topic to us marketers and nonprofiteers….let’s hit the ground running with our social marketing and non-profit communication skills and talents all you fellow SocialButterflies!

…to change lives and the quality of life for all!

So, I’ll leave the political analysis to those more qualified, but I will point out a super cool social media event that also took place on Super Tuesday: Google Met Twitter.

Google teamed up with Twitter and Twittervision to show on Google maps, people’s comments through Twitter about the elections and Super Tuesday. and, it was live! Every few seconds the map would change and take you halfway across the world to a person’s comment in Malta, then to Australia, then to Southern California. This continued throughout the day. Then, as the night continued, reported live results too.

Talk about relevance!

This is what social media is all about…and can be about when used and optimized to full potential. Many social marketing clients may get nervous when venturing into new territory, and then again, nowadays, anyone can make a MySpace or a Facebook. But, taking the risks, venturing outside the box, adding to the tools in your belt, and you can come up with fun, interactive, attention-getting technology and marketing.

Wanted to share the tidbit.

Click here to check it out. Not sure how long Google and Twitter plan on keeping the application live however.

Was anyone else surprised to see this PSA advertisement in the middle of the $2.5 million dollar 30 second ad slots?

At work, rumor has it that the time was really donated for the PSA. How cool is this? Perhaps with other big events and future Superbowls we will start seeing this more and more. My question is though….how did they get this gem of an ad placement? Out of all the non-profits and PSA messages, how did Parents: The Anti-Drug sneak in there? Next year, let’s give them a ton of PSAs to choose from, maybe this will get them to do more of it!

Also, with all the Superbowl advertising water cooler talk, here’s another great tidbit and interactive resource provided by the New York Times: The Super Ad Bowl: Two Decades of Players.

It allows you to view a break down of which types of ads ran each year, what type of genre they used, who advertised, and an one-line synopsis of the advertisement.

Update: The First PSA in-game advertisement was supposedly a 15 second slot by CBS Cares, the NFL and United Way in 2007’s superbowl. Read more here.

Already, for 2008, we saw an increase. the 30-second Parents: The Anti-Drug ad, and Tom Brady’s United Way PSA advertisement as well. Keep the PSA times coming!