Social Marketing

Network with and learn from fellow social marketers

Welcome

The Institute's Social Marketing Market Interest Group (MIG) is a group for all marketers who work or are interested in social marketing. The  group was officially inaugurated in January 2010 and has already grown to just under 1,000 members.

Who we are

Social marketing, in a nutshell, is deploying marketing techniques and tools to influence voluntary change in behaviour to the benefit of individuals and society. The discipline is guided by insight from the target audience. Its principles and techniques can be used by public, voluntary and commercial sector organisations to achieve behaviour goals.

Many social marketers work in or with social media - using websites such as Facebook and LinkedIn to communicate and engage with people. While Social Marketing is seen as a discipline within marketing, social media can provide tools to help achieve some of the objectives social marketers work towards.

Our members come from a wide range of backgrounds, including, charities, the NHS, local authorities, multinationals, SMEs, social marketing consultancies and the NSMC, with whom we have close links (see related websites).

What we do

Our purpose is:

• To bring together like-minded professionals for shared learning, peer support and to stimulate networking opportunities.
• To raise the profile, understanding and competence of social marketing.
• To encourage the application of its principles among the Institute’s members, other marketing practitioners and related professionals.

We aim to do this by:

• Establishing the Social Marketing MIG as an authority on social marketing practice for Institute members, other marketers and related professionals. 
• Promoting the exchange and sharing of knowledge amongst members by creating and fostering networking and learning opportunities.
• Providing and sharing examples of good practice.
• Delivering expert seminars which meet the interests and learning needs of members.
  Recruiting members from a variety of sectors.

Membership of the Group

We welcome members and associates from all disciplines and backgrounds, including social marketers who are not currently members of CIM.

Our activities

Events

In collaboration with the Institute's Essex branch, we are hosting a conference in Chelmsford, Essex this autumn. We are providing a speaker and the chair for the 'Good Marketing Conference' on 30 November (see related websites for more information).

We are also organising regional 'Meet and Greet' networking events, offering social marketers opportunities to meet with peers in an informal setting (see the bottom of this page to find the latest dates near you).

The MIG supported the CIM North West Centenary event in Lancashire this summer by hosting a social marketing workshop led by MIG member Charlotte Gleave.

Resources

In October 2010 we celebrated our inauguration with a launch event. Slides from the event are available to download (see related downloads). 

We also wrote a response to the Institute's Shape the Agenda paper, ‘Less smoke, more fire: the benefits and impacts of social marketing’. It summarises the views from some of the early MIG members and colleagues from the public and private sectors. The paper raised some important learning points and questions for social and commercial marketers (see related downloads).

For further information on joining the group, please contact our membership services team.