New Edition of ‘Hands-On Social Marketing’ is Here!

Back when I first started consulting in the mid-90s, I saw a big gap in the field of social marketing. There were some good books on social marketing out that explained the key concepts of the field (particularly Alan Andreasen’s Marketing Social Change book), but not much on how to actually DO social marketing. The closest to what I had in mind was the National Cancer Institute’s “Pink Bible” (as many of us in the field call it), which is filled with practical how-to advice on designing health communication programs, but it was not comprehensive enough. So, I decided to write it myself.I completed the final draft and sent it to the publisher days before my first child was born. The book itself was born in 1999, titled Hands-On Social Marketing: A Step-by-Step Guide. Over the years it was translated into several languages, used by practitioners in the US and around the world, and integrated as a textbook into college and graduate programs. The book held up pretty well for many years, because of its emphasis on the timeless concepts and process. But around 2005, something happened that made the book feel more and more out of date as the years went on. It was called social media. Over the past several years I’ve been working on and off on updating the book and identifying the changes in the field that needed to be included in a new edition.

I’m happy to say that the second edition of the book is now out! It’s been renamed Hands-On Social Marketing: A Step-by-Step Guide to Designing Change for Good, to make clear that the book is about social marketing, not social media marketing (though the book certainly touches on that topic as well). The book still explains key social marketing concepts and takes you through the steps of the social marketing process (now six rather than five – I’ve divided the “planning” step into “analysis” and “strategy development”). It still has extensive worksheets that help you apply the concepts in each chapter to your own program, and sidebars with how-tos and useful resources. But it has new chapters and emphasis on incorporating social media into your program, as well as using the design approach to create behavior change. While the first book had more of a focus on public health applications (my own background), the examples in the new book span the range of social, environmental and, yes, health topics to which social marketing can be applied.

For more information about the book, you can take a look at HandsOnSocialMarketing.com. The site includes a detailed table of contents and some sample chapters, as well as an online version of the social marketing resource list included in the book’s appendix. Soon the publisher will be providing me with pdf versions of the worksheets to post as well.

You can buy a copy of the book on Amazon.com. If you teach a course related to social marketing and would like a complimentary review copy, you can request it via the publisher, Sage Publications. If you’re interested in reviewing the book on your blog or for other publications, please let me know. I would be especially appreciative if, after you buy the book, you would post your review of it on Amazon – I’d love to know what you think of it and how you are using it. And if you like it, you can also join the fan page for the book on Facebook to find out about the latest developments.

Finally, on my YouTube debut, you can see me talking about the book on video (below). I’ve been encouraged to create a limited series of short videos on topics from the book, so I’m considering that. What do you think?