I learned something new recently about social marketing. It was actually sparked by a reader who left a comment on this Social Marketing Journal post. Just in case you missed it, here’s a snippet of his comment:
What you and your like-minded colleagues describe is not social marketing. Social marketing is a concept first explicated by Philip Kotler & Gerald Zaltman in 1971, to describe the application of commercial marketing principles to health, social and quality of life issues. (Cf. Kotler, P. and Zaltman, G. (1971) “Social marketing: An approach to planned social change. J of Marketing. Vol. 35, pp. 3-12.)
Thanks Craig for the correction.
I’ve confirmed Craig’s comments by doing a little research on this topic. This article from another blogger confirms his comments.
Nedra Weinreich is a social marketer. I and the other social bloggers mentioned in the blog post where Craig made his comment are social media marketers. It’s a slight nuance, but one worth mentioning. Social marketing has the aim at trying to improve society through people-centered marketing and is usually done in health care and other charitable or non-profit circles. Social media marketing is a strategy used by new media marketers to promote their businesses online and through digital media. I guess I should have called this blog Social Media Marketing Journal. Sorry folks!
I am so glad to see this posting today describing the differences between social media marketing and social marketing.
Happy to see that Craig showed you the social marketing light. Happy new year!