Social entrepreneurs need excellent communication skills to share their mission and impact. Joe Garbarczyk shares his advice for marketing on a budget.
Joe Garbarczyk
Social entrepreneurs need to share their mission with a wide audience, from their customers to employees and the communities they help. However, it's very easy for your message to get lost in the noise or be drowned out by the tidal wave of content created every day. But innovation is all around us and using the tools that we have at our disposal allows our message to reach and influence the largest number of people. Here are five simple ways for you to spread your company's social message.
1. Go global
It costs almost nothing to connect with somebody on the other side of the world, and you can do it in seconds. Find someone on another continent, timezone or country who is doing something similar to you and learn from them. Chances are they are not going to be your main competition, so use their advice to help give more credit to what you are doing and they'll most likely do the same for you. This is great exposure for both them and you and helps with SEO and traffic to your page. Great tools to use to do this are Skype, Twitter and email.
2. Be your own production studio
If content is king, it's important that you put out content that reinforces your values and mission statement and can be refreshed regularly. You don't need a high-cost production studio to do this. You already have a high definition camera in your pocket: it doubles as a mobile phone. Since you're the director and producer, you can put out content that best tells people about your mission, brand and work schedule. Make good use of your smartphone, iMovie and YouTube.
3. Create your own social network
If you work in a new or niche area, you might want to consider starting your own social network where people can discuss your product, mission and the industry. This network does not need to be as all-encompassing as Facebook.
It should, however, be a place where people can easily share ideas, comments, thoughts and photos. This platform will allow you to get some of the most vocal and influential people in your field talking to each other. Create a place where discussion can happen. You can use Ning to do this, or simply start a group on Facebook.
4. Use re-targeting paid media to help close the deal
All social enterprises should be doing a combination of paid and earned media. Buying media, even on a small budget, can be extremely effective and show great return on investment.
One of the most effective and cost efficient paid media channels is re-targeting. You can drive people to your site initially through great content on your blog, PR activities and search engine optimisation tactics, but re-targeting people who have visited your website can be the most profitable. Show them an ad after they have left your site and give them an incentive to purchase from you. Some great networks for this are Google Adwords and Perfect Audience.
5. Partner with a local or global organization
Finding a partner that can help spread your mission or who can benefit from what you're doing has never been easier. Find organisations Twitter or Facebook who have similar values and partner with them. Maybe they become a vendor, customer or someone who benefits directly from what you're doing. By putting a face and name to what you stand for – and having others support you for doing so – gives you a great story to sell. (
http://www.theguardian.com/social-enterprise-network/2013/oct/22/five-ways-spread-social-business-global)
Joe Garbarczyk is founder and executive editor of Destra Magazine
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