Written by Mike Newton-Ward
Byline – Mike Newton-Ward
Interested in connecting with your social marketing peers? Want a professional association to build your social marketing identity? Want to keep up with the latest practices in social marketing in North America? Then read on!
Social marketers from the US and Canada are in the process of organizing the Social Marketing Association of North America (SMANA), a professional membership organization, similar to regional associations in Europe and Australia and affiliated with the International Social Marketing Association, but serving the professional needs of social marketers in Canada, Central America, the Caribbean, and the United States.
The planners have conducted formative research and, as good social marketers, offer the following value-laden benefits to SMANA membership:
- We connect practitioners, academics, and students within the North American social marketing arena.
- Our efforts aim to build a stronger legacy and community of practice and to disseminate best practices across broad geographic and topical areas.
- We provide assurance that our social marketing efforts are scientifically rigorous and informed by practice to better position social marketing as a viable intervention framework.
- We facilitate opportunities for organizations, agencies, and other stakeholders to take advantage of our membership’s expertise in behavior change strategies.
- We advocate for the advancement and use of social marketing.
As a further benefit, SMANA plans to create a communication forum to enable members to exchange ideas. Additionally, joining SMANA gets you simultaneous membership in iSMA—so you don’t have to choose!
The planning group will announce the new organization at the USF Social Marketing Conference, June 17th–18th in Clearwater Beach, FL (http://thesocialmarketingconference.org/). There will also be a breakout session at the conference to answers questions and discuss how you can become a member and be involved.
The planning group includes: Jay Kassirer, Cullbridge Marketing and Communications, Ottawa; Kelley Dennings,American Forest Foundation; Abigail Fredenburg, Ketchum; Tony Panzera, Federal employee; Lea Pounds,University of Nebraska Medical Center College of Public Health; Eric Greene, Ohio Department of Health; Laura Sanagorski Warner, University of Florida; Brian Biroscak, Yale University; Dave Ward, Puget Sound Partnershipand Mike Newton-Ward, Independent Social Marketing Consultant.
Want to know more? Interested in volunteering? Send a message to: contactSMANA(at)gmail.com