On Social Marketing and Social Change

Je suis un omnivore

I was recently looking at two new reports from the Pew Internet and American Life Project - Mobile Access to Data and Information and Teens and Social Media when I came across a questionnaire to sort yourself into their typology of information and communication technology users. My results:

Omnivores make up 8% of the American public.

Basic Description
Members of this group use their extensive suite of technology tools to do an enormous range of things online, on the go, and with their cell phones. Omnivores are highly engaged with video online and digital content. Between blogging, maintaining their Web pages, remixing digital content, or posting their creations to their websites, they are creative participants in cyberspace.

Defining Characteristics
You might see them watching video on an iPod. They might talk about their video games or their participation in virtual worlds the way their parents talked about their favorite TV episode a generation ago. Much of this chatter will take place via instant messages, texting on a cell phone, or on personal blogs. Omnivores are particularly active in dealing with video content. Most have video or digital cameras, and most have tried watching TV on a non-television device, such as a laptop or a cell phone.

Omnivores embrace all this connectivity, feeling confident in how they manage information and their many devices. This puts information technology at the center of how they express themselves, do their jobs, and connect to their friends.

Who They Are
They are young, ethnically diverse, and mostly male (70%). The median age is 28; just more than half of them are under age 30, versus one in five in the general population. Over half are white (64%) and 11% are black (compared to 12% in the general population). English-speaking Hispanics make up 18% of this group. Perhaps unsurprisingly, many (42% versus the 13% average) of Omnivores are students.

Curious about where do you fit?

PSP-One Online Social Marketing Conference

Be sure to check-in at the first online conference for social marketers being sponsored by USAID: Social Marketing for Health in the Developing World: What Have We Accomplished and What Does The Future Hold?

The third day of sessions opened today with the Panel 3 presentations: What's New in Social Marketing for Health?

Rochelle Rainey, Environmental Health Technical Advisor, USAID Global Health Bureau. Water, please! Lessons Learned from Social Marketing of Point-of-Use Drinking Water Treatment Products.

Steve Honeyman, Country Representative, PSI/Nepal. One Size Doesn't Fit All: Why Different Implementation Models are Needed for Different Social Marketing Health Interventions.

Claudia Velasquez, Senior Program Officer for Research and M&E, Institute for Reproductive Health, Georgetown University. Expanding Choice and Increasing Access Through Social Marketing: Offering the Standards Days Methods in Ecuador, Benin and Democratic Republic of Congo.

Robert Porter, Senior Technical Advisor & Margot Fahnestock, Project and Research Manager, Constella Futures. Reassessing HIV Risk in Sub-Saharan Africa: Have We Been Targeting the Right Populations?

James Shelton, Science Advisor, Bureau for Global Health, United States Agency for International Development. Depo-Provera in Uniject: Perfect for Social Marketing.

You will also continue to have access to:

• Panel 1: Presentations on Public Private Partnerships: What Have We Learned?
• Panel 2: Where is the "B" in Behavior Change Communication?
• The Expert Exchange Forum
• Discussion Rooms
• The Exhibit Hall
• Resource Center and the polls.

Registration continues to be free. View and listen to the presentations, contribute your ideas and look up and engage with over 900 of your colleagues on some of the leading issues in the field.

What is a Social Marketing Plan?

At PSI, we have have been developing a set of guidelines to develop marketing plans. One of these we propose is: A social marketing plan is a translation document that distills...

1. Understanding of the epidemiology of the disease
2. The context in which the intervention is being planned
3. Organizational strengths and competencies
4. Partners' capabilities
5. Behavioral determinants
6. And audience insights

...into strategies and tactics that lead to positive impacts in health
behaviors among priority audiences.