If you think marketing purely benefits a brand, then you’re slightly missing an unpopular fact. That social media, and eventually marketing, plays a good role in strengthening social capital of a community. With SMS marketing penetrating deeply into communities with its highest open rate and response rate, you can fulfill your CSR goals and serve your community.
Social capital is measured through the relationship people share with each other in a community and the ease with which they access facilities and resources. Let’s help you understand how you can help develop good social capital with text marketing.
What is Social Capital?
Social capital is described as the network and relationship developed between individuals of a society that establishes and nurtures social trust. Social capital is considered to strengthen the communities. And a lack thereof causes a rise in unrest and violation of social norms.
Strong social capital means good relationships between people, creating a sense of belongingness and virtues like caring, honesty, tolerance, and information sharing. There are 3 types of social capital:
- Bonding Capital
It’s the social capital associated with homogeneous groups of people. Usually defined as the relationship we share with friends and family and is the strongest relationship. - Bridging Capital
It’s the social capital associated with heterogeneous groups of people. Usually defined as the relationship we share with friends of friends and hence, is not as strong as the bonding capital. - Linking Capital
It’s the social capital associated with groups of people unknown to each other. For instance, the relationship between a citizen and government officials or leaders in the political parties.
How to Build Social Capital with SMS Marketing?
- Access to Information and Resources
One of the primary requirements that helps develop social contact is information accessibility. And having mobiles penetrated deep into the social circuits, even in small towns and countryside, resources that share knowledge are now easily accessible.
Mobile technology has been known to connect people from its inception. Thus, it’s a relational technology. Whether your users own a smartphone or not, they can still connect and engage with your brands through the ubiquitous SMS. Since poverty and income level of a region influences the use of a phone, having a simple phone is sufficient to access information.
According to a Cogitatio Press report, only 15% of Rwanda’s population owns a smartphone. That means 85% of the population can primarily use SMSes to update their knowledge.
If you’re considering SMS marketing in your campaigns, you’re doing a favor to society. By sharing know-how and tips & tricks on topics related to your business via SMSes, you can make data available to your users smoothly and at speed. - Economic Growth
Researches have shown that mobile technology plays the role of socially reinforcing technology. That means it helps people grow economically. And economic growth is governed by an individual’s social capital, which means a person’s economic strata directly influences people’s financial growth.
As a brand involved in text marketing strategy, you can uplift the socioeconomic influence on people belonging to poor communities. By sharing regular job opportunities from your industry and resources to bag a job, you can help people increase their social capital on the financial front. - Social Opportunities
Social opportunity refers to various facilities people enjoy and have access based on their network and social capital. These opportunities include healthcare, social security, education, etc. Social opportunities directly affect the environment people live in and their day-to-day life.
For instance, access to schooling in a community means better education and more job opportunities in the future. Likewise, a sense of security means living a life with lesser tensions and more positivity. These opportunities result from a person’s social network and the community they interact with.
If you’re using mobile marketing with SMS and MMS in your business, you can make your users aware of their basic rights. For instance, firms associated with the education industry and online education portals can update their users about the latest policies and programs. They can share registration forms for higher education and updates about the process and fee waivers.
Even financial institutes can spread the word about education loans they provide, policies, and related information to the concerned users.
Why SMS for Social Capital?
The primary reason for using SMS to strengthen social capital involves spreading ideas and information. And with 98% hits, SMS is the most viable solution for socially conscious brands to bring opportunities and resources closer to people.
Build Social Capital with Textmunication
An article on social capital published in the International Journal of Electronic Finance states that SMS is most fruitful in bonding and then bridging social capital. This is good news for brands like yours that interact with users via SMS.
If you’re concerned about social capital growth, SMS can be your route to contribute toward it. Reach out to the Textmunication team for using one of the best SMS marketing software in the industry.