The Dragonfly Effect: A Must-Read if You're Selling Good

Social marketing, behavior change communication, public service advertising, cause marketing—whatever the preferred terminology in your field, The Dragonfly Effect by Jennifer Aaker and Andy Smith is an essential read. As an avid reader and long-time practitioner of 'selling good,' I didn't expect to think so.

Subtitle Allergy

It was the book's subtitle that put me off: "Quick, Effective Ways to use Social Media to Drive Social Change." If, in contrast to selling bads like tobacco, or just plain selling, you too are selling good—promoting a change that benefits the people who are adopting the behaviors or society as a whole, rather than the organization doing the marketing—you've learned there is no such thing as quick and sustainably effective. And really, I asked myself, do we need yet one more book about social media?

Alternatives

Though I understand the current marketing value of that subtitle, after reading it I'd offer some more descriptive alternatives:

* Four Keys to Effectively Promoting Social Good
* How to Engage Others for Social Change
* Stories of Change

The Dragonfly Model

You'll note the term social media doesn't appear anywhere. Twenty years from now, when who knows what we will be using to connect with each other, our brains and human nature will not have changed as dramatically. Although the authors' examples each used social media in some way to communicate, the four research-based principles in The Dragonfly Effect struck me as classic integrated behavior change communication principles, which are independent of communication channel. Named for the only insect able to move in any direction when its four wings are working in concert, the book describes the four principles of Focus + GET as the Dragonfly Model:

The Dragonfly Effect relies on four distinct wings; when working together, they achieve remarkable results.

Focus. Identify a single concrete and measurable goal.
+
Grab attention. Make someone look. Cut through the noise of social media with something personal, unexpected, visceral, and visual.
Engage. Create a personal connection, accessing higher emotions through deep empathy, authenticity, and telling a story. Engaging is about empowering the audience to care enough to want to do something themselves.
Take Action. Enable and empower others to take action. To make action easy, you must prototype, deploy, and continuously tweak tools, templates, and programs designed to move audience members from being customers to becoming team members—in other words, furthering the cause and the change themselves.

Sound Counsel

There's nothing here a seasoned communicator can argue with. And there's much that would avoid The Common Pitfalls of Social Marketing and Behavior Change. The book's stories are detailed and inspiring examples that clearly illustrate the four principles. (It's obvious that Jennifer Aaker is an educator. Rather than experience a superficial introduction, you actually learn from this book. The companion blog is also a growing resource.) By now many have shared favorable reviews. The wisdom of not judging a book by its cover has been confirmed; despite my initial reservations, The Dragonfly Effect rises to the top of my book list for 2010. Highly recommended.

Resources
The Dragonfly Effect - book blog
Stanford Social Innovation Review