Public Education

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WasteAdvantage
The Advantage in the Waste Industry

Recycled Conversations: Changing Behavior in the Solid Waste Industry

| Dennis Guy |

tHere Is a lot be learned and a lot to be gaIned by IncorporatIng socIal medIa

into our communication strategies.

Half tHe money I spend on advertIsIng Is wasted; tHe trouble Is I dont know wHIcH Half. William Lever or John Wanamaker? Im not sure. Sources attribute this quote to both men. Most often, it is attributed to John Wanamaker, who is considered the forefather of modern advertising. It doesnt really matter who said it first. It was the message itself that caught my attention. The first time I read it I chuckled. Its kind of funny. It offers up a small dose of humility for me, considering what

I do with my days. Then I furrowed my brow. And finally, turning around to see that no one was looking, a slight nod of my head in agreement. Do we really know which advertising dollar is more effective than another? Does it matter? Maybe it does. Id like to think that if I could figure out which ones are more effective Id spend more of them and stop spending on the ones that arent. But how can we be sure were spending advertising dollars effectively? Now more than ever, its important to take the aforementioned quote and give it thought because were 1) inundated with messages left, right and center, at a pace that even the best of us can barely keep up to, and 2) if were wasting half of our efforts (money and resources) then we need to realign our communication strategies with our recycling goals. Let me clarify what we are selling in the solid waste industry. Traditional advertisings purpose is to sell products but were not selling a product. Were not even selling a service, really. Were selling the invisible: behavior change. (Thanks to Harry Beckwith for Selling the Invisible.) You wont find waste diversion on shelves at your local supermarket. You cant find new and improved recycling potion at the drug store. Behavior change comes from within. In order to spend advertising dollars effectively, we have to reach beyond traditional media to get within. The way its always been done no longer works effectively with communication strategies when it comes to educating the public.

One-Way Communication
Traditional and mass media provide examples of one-way communication: print advertising such as newspaper, magazines, direct mail, radio, television, billboards, bus shelters and most Web sites. These tactics are developed and released to consumers without any dialogue. Recently described as interruption marketing, mass media interrupts what we are doing in order to get your attention.

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We open the newspaper to read the news. We turn on the radio to hear music. We click on a channel to watch Seinfeld reruns. The target audience for interruption marketing is made up of those who dont know our programs exist, or they do know, but arent paying attention to us. These are the people were trying to get on board. The challenge is getting them to pay attention. So we spend more money on advertisingmore advertisements, more frequency, more interruption. However, more interruption is still interruption. If people arent paying attention to us to begin with, whos to say that they will if we increase the amount? Interruption marketing tactics are common amongst municipal communication strategies; theyre visible, even tangible in most cases. On the surface, they make it look like were doing something. Developing strategic advertisements is not as easy as it looks. The challenge is accepting interruption marketing for what its worth and making use of it accordingly. Each of us in our own communities must determine through research the most effective media outlet(s) to use for the purpose of grabbing attention. In my community, residents continue to rank direct mail as the preferred method of receiving information about recycling. Keep in mind media boundaries how far outside of our audience do they reach when selecting where to advertise.

We are witnessing the exponential growth of social media WasteAdvantage

The Advantage in the Waste Industry

a bold, new frontier for solid waste communication professionals.

Two-Way Communication
In contrast to the mass media of one-way communication, two-way communication is like a conversation. Dialogue rather than monologue. Where traditional advertising interrupts, conversations give permission. By asking a question one person, in essence, gives another person permission to respond. This is not: I dont care about recycling, Im trying to read the newspaper, or I dont care about composting, Im trying to listen to the radio, or I dont have time to sort, Im watching reruns of Seinfeld. No, permission marketing is I have a question about recycling. I give you permission to talk to me and tell me the answer (Godin). Permission marketing assumes a different target audience than interruption marketing. Were accustomed to sorting our audience into demographic categories, putting them into a box that expects them to be like everyone else in that box. But were not all the same, even within our little boxes. We have differences. What I know

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As Seen In
recycled conversations: changing behavior in the solid waste Industry
about recycling is less or more than what you know about recycling. If were both males in the 25 to 34 demographic owning a home, it can be dangerous to assume that we are the same when it comes to recycling. Were not likely to be the same, so we shouldnt assume to be. Conversations (permission-based) facilitate a personal, customized interaction. No matter who you are, how old you are or where you come from, youll get an answer that is just for you. Any target audience is more likely to respond to this than a message in a newspaper ad that assumes what is known and unknown. A newspaper ad assumes everyone is looking for the same answer to the same question. a real personeven one wItHout dIrect experIencebrIngs more credIbIlIty to tHe conversatIon tHan a perfect marketIng message does. (balter) People who want to have, or are already having, a conversation about recycling are the target audience for permission marketing. They are already engaged and therefore more likely to seek out answers to their questions. Permission marketing proposes a different way of thinking about target audiences. For example, we normally focus on the non-recyclers by trying to get them on board but if theyre not listening, how are we going to do that? The new way of thinking about target audiences has more to do with letting other people market for us. Robert Cialdini discusses six universal principles in this book Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion. One of the principles, liking, concludes that we are more likely influenced by people who are like us than those who arent. If we are to take advantage of this then we need to be reaching out to those who want to know more about our programs, who give us permission to tell them more, rather than those who dont want to know. Because the ones who dont want to know will hear it from the ones who do want to know. A common way to facilitate two-way communication happening is through community events, whether at festivals, fairs, schools or (political) Ward meetings. As soon as were in the same room with someone asking us a question, we have their permission to respond. We have their permission to give them customized information about what they are asking. We have their permission to have a conversation. people are tHe message wHen people say word of moutH Is tHe most InfluentIal form of medIa on tHeIr decIsIon makIng. (mcconnell, Huba) Non-recyclers are more likely to listen to their friends/family/neighbors than they are to a marketing message written in corporate speak. They are more likely to listen to their big brother than they are the BIG BROTHER. This isnt a new concept. Word-of-mouth has been an effective marketing technique for longer than Ive been around. The key is to define target audience(s) that contain enthusiastic recyclers who have access to non-recyclers so that they can obtain their permission to conversations about recycling on our behalf. Keep this in mind: permission marketing isnt enough on its own. Even those of us who want to join a conversation need to know the conversation exists. Thats the role of effective interruption marketing. McKenzie-Mohr, author of Fostering Sustainable Behavior: A Guide to CommunityBased Social Marketing says, The emergence of community-based social marketing (CBSM) over the last several years can be traced The Advantage in the Waste understanding that to a growing Industry programs which rely heavily or exclusively on media advertising can be effective in creating public awareness and understanding of issues related to sustainability, but are limited in their ability to foster behavior change. Tools of CBSM are built on a solid understanding of the influence other people have on us, especially those we can relate to. CBSM also stresses the importance of being strategic about communicatinggetting to the essences of a behavior and the barriers affecting it in order to choose tools/tactics that are most likely to influence that behavior.

WasteAdvantage

Social Media
This is where social media is playing an increasingly important, and effective role. It allows us to provide specific answers to specific questions of specific individuals. Individuals, in turn, spread the answers amongst themselves. Its online word-of-mouth. That information can spread so far and wide in such short amount of timeit is like social media is word-of-mouth on steroids. We cannot ignore it. We are witnessing the exponential growth of social mediaa bold, new frontier for solid waste communication professionals. People say its for the younger generation but its for those of all ages and for people who recycle and for those who dont. Think about this: By 2010 Gen Y will outnumber Baby Boomers ... 96 percent of them have joined a social network (Qualman). 2010 is now. Right here, everywhere and now. Even if the perception about social media is truethat it is for young peoplethey wont be young forever. We constantly hear that we need to focus on younger audiences. Where should we go to find those audiences? Facebook, Twitter and MySpace. We need to go online to connect with these audiences. Think about this: The median age of a Twitter user is 31, which has remained stable over the past year. The median age for MySpace is now 26, down from 27 in May 2008, and the median age for LinkedIn is now 39, down from 40. Facebook, however, is graying a bit: the median age for this social network site is now 33, up from 26 in May 2008 (Pew Internet and Amercian Life Project). There is a lot be learned and a lot to be gained by incorporating social media into our communication strategies. We can turn my monologue into dialogue. We can use this article to start a conversation. We can start a conversation in a place where all of us can meet, anytime, anywhere. We should start a conversation online; I already have. | WA Dennis Guy is Project Manager of Community Outreach for the Waste Management Division Public Works Department for the City of Hamilton (ON). He can be reached at (905) 546-2424, ext. 2159, via e-mail at dguy@hamilton.ca or his blog spot can be found at http://recycledconversations.blogspot.com/.
Sources Harry Beckwith, Selling the Invisible. Grand Central Publishing, 1997 Seth Godin, Permission Marketing. Simon and Schuster, 1999 Dave Balter, Grapevine: Why Buzz Was a Fad But Word of Mouth Is Forever. Portfolio, 2008 Robert Cialdini, Influence: The Psychology of Influence. Harper Collins, 2007 Ben McConnell and Jackie Huba, Citizen Marketers: When People are the Message. Kaplan Publishing, 2006 Doug McKenzie-Mohr, Fostering Sustainable Behavior: An Introduction to Community-Based Social Marketing. New Society Publishers, 1999 Erik Qualman, Social Media Revolution. www.socialnomics.com, 2009 Pew Internet and American Life Project, Generations Online in 2009. www. pewinternet.org, 2009 2010 Waste Advantage Magazine, All Rights Reserved. Reprinted from Waste Advantage Magazine. Contents cannot be reprinted without permission from the publisher.

Social Marketing
Social marketing is designed to enable behavior change. Further, communitybased social marketing is designed to change behavior for a sustainable future. Doug
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