Josh Mason: The New Normal In Marketing

Finding new ways to market a business in our ever-changing world can sometimes be a challenge. With so much of daily life being directed by social media, it makes sense that marketing through social media is the right direction for marketers. 
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What is more impressive is that Josh is bringing a new normal to marketing into the world of nonprofits. It is difficult enough to market a product or service your target audience may be interested in. It is a whole new ballgame to successfully market, asking for support from a nonprofit. Josh Mason is successfully achieving this. 
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In this week’s Rediscover Marketing, we take you on the journey of new marketing with Josh Mason as your guide and how he successfully uses social media to do so.

Who is Josh Mason?

Having grown up in Oklahoma, this mainlander found himself in Hawaii for college, where he earned his bachelor’s degree in psychology and music. While in Hawaii, he stumbled upon the Grassroot Institute of Hawaii, where he became Communications Director. 
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Josh left the islands and earned his MBA from the Acton School of Business. He is now Director of Marketing at the Grassroot Institute of Hawaii, implementing creative marketing strategies bringing to light policy issues in Hawaii. 
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The Grassroot Institute of Hawaii is a nonprofit policy research organization that seeks to educate people about the values of individual liberty, economic freedom, and accountable government.
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The Grassroots Institute of Hawaii publishes research and commentary, accurately affecting the islands. Through events and conferences, and seminars, the institute informs Hawaii’s policymakers, news media and the general public about critical public policy issues.” In the spirit of “E hana kākou” (Let’s work together), it strives to bring Hawaii’s people together to work for a better economy, better governance, and a better society.”

The changing face of marketing

The pandemic has changed how many of us approach our marketing plan and the strategies we use. For Josh and the Grassroots Institute, while it has not impacted their revenue, it has influenced the direction in which talks of policy. Josh said they wanted to discuss different policy areas, but much of the focus has been on the pandemic. The pandemic is what has shifted the focus for many.
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While traditional media marketing is still currently used when developing a marketing plan, the marketing department within organizations is beginning to use digital marketing to reach their target audiences. As Director of Marketing for the institute, Josh already sees the positive impact on reaching his audience. 
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Traditionally, the institute would purchase a quarter-page ad that would run for one day and spend about $4,000 Josh shared. In doing that, the organization never knew the impact that ad had. Using social media is not only cheaper but the impact can be easily tracked. 

Shifting focus

Josh and the institute have already found that shifting the focus of their marketing strategy has shown promise. By using social media, Josh shares that by taking advertising into their own hands using social media platforms, they can see the click they receive.  “For every 5 cents, I got a click,” Josh says. 
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Facebook groups

One way Josh would like to shift the focus of the institute’s marketing strategies would be to include a Facebook group into the organization’s marketing plan. Josh hopes that with a Facebook group, the institute can generate a large following of people who are supporters of the mission of the Grassroots Institute. Developing this following will not only broaden the organization’s message but generate volunteers to help the institute. 

Tik Tok

Tik Tok has shown a lot of promise Josh shares. Josh and his team had only been using Tik Tok for about a month, and at that time had already generated 1 million views.  Using Tik Tok has shown that even a small nonprofit organization like Grassroots Institute can generate much-needed attention to their cause. 

Organic content

Providing organic content specific to the social media platform you are using is essential. Josh explained that when adding content to a platform such as Facebook, he uses the article as a caption to the image rather than posting a photo with a link to an article. He has found doing it this way produced infinitely better results. 

Josh also suggested splitting the article into as many as three posts to draw more attention to your organization. Josh shared a quote from his friend Crystal Bonham from the Texas Public Policy Foundation “Facebook loves Facebook,” essentially meaning that Facebook loves content that is organic to Facebook. This is true for many social media platforms. 

Ultimate goals

Every marketing director has dreams about what they would do if the sky were the limit. For Josh, he says he would love to have an ad at the beginning of all YouTube videos when a Hawaiian resident watched. Having the ad that connected to the grassroots Institute would be perfect. “That would be my dream,” Josh said.