Precisely What Does Social Marketing Actually Mean? - Marketing

When I first read the phrase 'social marketing' I automatically presumed it correlated to advertising of social media in some manner. In a way this is true and in one way it is not. It all will depend on the context in which the expression is used as it has two connotations. This wasn't always the situation because before 2006 the phrase had only one interpretation. Even though the meaning of words is not fixed and can change as time passes, in this instance it is simply that the phrase now has two meanings.

In both cases social marketing refers to advertising in a social context, however, prior to the invention of social media the phrase defined advertising for the greater societal good. It was advertising with a conscience, so to speak, and attempted to deliver a message to society that was to the benefit of people. Marketing and advertising have for ages been thought to be fairly persuasive arts, attempting to convince people to buy a service or product which the marketers and advertisers professed was for their benefit and that they wouldn't be able to live without. The goal here is advertising of a thing for the purposes of profit. Social marketing, on the other hand, is a type of advertising that doesn't try to sell folks things they do not actually need but instead to convey a message for the greater social good.

The initial concept of social marketing was to use marketing as a tool for social change. The health alert on cigarette and tobacco wrapping would be an example of the use of marketing as a social instrument. Messages like this advise people that smoking is harmful to their health and that pregnant and nursing women shouldn't light up, for instance. In this scenario, people are not urged to smoke; in truth, the message conveys precisely the reverse: that people shouldn't light up because tobacco use is a health hazard. The goal is to reach as many people as possible by way of a preferred medium. Social marketing may also be used to advise people about social concerns such as birth control, poverty, world hunger and child abuse, for example, where the aim is to raise the degree of social awareness of social problems and is often supported by a call to action. People are usually requested to donate funds or help in the eradication of social problems.

In recent years, however, the term also pertains to the use of social media tools like Twitter to improve the awareness of websites. Not only can a web-based marketer promote an internet site in a manner similar to that of viral advertising but furthermore acquire valuable feedback regarding that self-same website. This feedback can then be used to enhance the quality and effectiveness of said website. The main benefit of this type of site promotion is that it actually gets to a wide audience because social media is so well-liked. However, the phrase Social Media Marketing (SMO) is most likely a more self-explanatory, and therefore better, term to describe this technique of internet advertising than 'social marketing' as it distinguishes it from the last mentioned.

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