Social Marketing Plan for Decreasing Cyberbullying

This article discusses the issue of cyberbullying and how to reduce it using social media. It includes a literature review on cyberbullying, warning signs, and a social marketing plan to decrease cyberbullying. The plan includes segmentation, targeting, positioning, branding, stakeholder analysis, formulation of offer, implementation, and monitoring and evaluation. The article also mentions relevant theories and references.

Running Head: SOCIAL MARKETING 0
[Company name]
Social Marketing
Cyberbullying
(student name)
9-20-2018

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Part 1: Literature
Review on Social Issue
(Cyberbullying)

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Cyberbullying
This essay would discuss the issue of cyberbullying. It will also discuss how to reduce this issue,
using social media. In today’s world, where social media platforms, internet access, mobile
devices are used much. Due to this, a new form of bullying has emerged. Cyberbullying includes
posting, sending, or sharing a false, harmful, and negative comment about someone on social
sites. It includes posting private or personal information that can cause humiliation or
embarrassment to someone, this could be to an extent of criminal behaviour or unlawful. (Parker,
2016).
A major concern in this regard, is that Most of the information conversed electronically is public
and permanent, if not removed or reported. A negative online character, together with those who
bully, can affect admissions in university, or job employment, or further areas of life. Another
concern is that it is persistent since 24 hours communication is possible on digital devices, I
could make more difficult for children to find relief who are victims of cyberbullying. Moreover,
parents or teachers cannot find if cyberbullying is taking place, it becomes difficult to recognize
and support children. Moreover, cyberbullying can be growing the likelihood of anxiety,
relentless, and depression. Along with additional risk issues, bullying could raise the risk of
suicide-related actions (Pallodino, 2015).

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For Literature, analysis, justification of the knowledge gap and future , Work Illustrations of
different cyberbullying tactics based on real-life instances are Lies and false accusations, Nude
photo sharing, False identity profile, sometimes referred to as a “Sock puppet”, Bullied for being
economically challenged, Bullied for being gay, Encouraging self-harm or suicide, Doxing Over
Online Gaming, Jealousy bullying. Warning Signs a Youngster is Cyberbullying Others or is
Being Cyberbullied includes, first, visible change in the timing of device use, as well as texting.
Second, a child is trying to hide decides or screens when other people are close and avoid
discussing their act on devices (Vedder, 2014). Third, if emotional responses like anger, laughter
and upset are exhibited to happening on the device. Fourth, if starting new social media accounts
or shutting any account. Fifth, if he or she tries to avoid social situations that they use to enjoy.
Fifth, if a child becomes depressed, and is not interested in activities and people anymore could
be the sign of bullying (Savage, 2015).
Parents or teachers can take some actions if they think the child is tangled in cyberbullying. First,
notice – the signs discussed above, can be recognized. Second, talk – discuss with them about the
happening, and how it started, and people who are involved in it. Third, document – make a
record of where and what is happening. Harmful post screenshots can be taken if possible. As per

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laws, the repeated behaviour is bullying, so documentation can be helpful. Forth, report – clear
policies and reporting process are theirs at schools and most of the social media platforms. If
noticed, it can be reported in schools, one can report on social media about offensive content
(Holt, 2015). One can support the victims by posting a positive comment through public
intervention. When a child is being bullied and mentors or peers notice this, they can intervene
publicly to influence the positive situation and divert negative content. This could shift the
conversation further towards positivity and lead to reach out help to the child (Kim, 2016).
One of the theories relevant to strategize social marketing plan to reduce the issue of
cyberbullying is “Social Cognitive Theory,” propounded by Albert Bandura. This theory is
mainly applied in the field of communication, education, and psychology that holds acquisition
of an individual’s knowledge that can be used for observing others within experiences, social
interactions, and media influence. According to this theory, the observed behaviour can be
influenced by three determinants interaction, that is personal, behavioural and environmental.
With relevance to cyberbullying personal factor will be making the learner (victim, and other
stakeholders involved) believe in their ability to complete a behaviour correctly. The behavioural
factor will determine the response received after they perform a particular behaviour, and thirdly
the environmental factor explains the influence of environmental setting for a successful
campaign in a change in behaviour, that is the material and support provided to the victim and
other stakeholders to improve self- efficacy. The visible change in individual behaviour can be
the base for evaluation. This theory can be applied for an effective social marketing plan for this
issue (Bandura, 2014).

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Conclusion
To conclude the issue, the emerging issue of cyberbullying can be very harmful to the young
children on social media. This could lead to depression and even case of suicide if harassment is
not an observer and controlled (Levi, 2017).

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References
Holt, T., 2015. Cybercrime in progress: Theory and prevention of technology-enabled offenses..
London: Routledge.
Kim, S., 2016. A Cybercrime Prevention Program based on Simulation and Quiz Game:
Applying Item Response Theory for Effective Information Security Learning. International
Journal of Security and Its Applications, 10(5), pp. 165-180.
Levi, M., 2017. Cybercrime prevention.. Handbook of crime prevention and community safety,
pp. 454-469.
Pallodino, B., 2015. Cyberbullying: Conceptual, theoretical and methodological issues. In
Cyberbullying, pp. 15-25.
Parker, S., 2016. Content Mining Techniques for Detecting Cyberbullying in Social Media.
Virginia Journal of Science, 67(3), p. 1.
Savage, M., 2015. Cyberbullying: Review of an old problem gone viral. Journal of Adolescent
Health, 57(1), pp. 10-18.
Vedder, p., 2014. Relationship between peer victimization, cyberbullying, and suicide in children
and adolescents: a meta-analysis. JAMA pediatrics, 168(5), pp. 435-442.

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Part 2: Social
Marketing Plan
(Cyberbullying)

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Contents
Social marketing plan for decreasing cyberbullying.......................................................................8
Situation Analysis........................................................................................................................8
Segmentation and Targeting........................................................................................................8
Positioning and Branding............................................................................................................8
Stakeholder Analysis...................................................................................................................9
Key stakeholders......................................................................................................................9
Formulation of offer..................................................................................................................10
Product...................................................................................................................................10
Price.......................................................................................................................................10
Place.......................................................................................................................................10
Promotion..............................................................................................................................11
People and partnership...........................................................................................................11
Implementation..........................................................................................................................11
Monitoring and Evaluation........................................................................................................12
References......................................................................................................................................13

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Social marketing plan for decreasing cyberbullying
Social marketing theory’s main features include segmentation, target audience analysis, creating
awareness, and the desired outcome which will be explained through this social marketing plan
(businesstopia, 2018).
Situation Analysis
The issue of cyberbullying need to be market to aware stakeholders connected to this issue to
work upon in to protect victims and support them in order to reduce cyberbullying from the
society. Most commonly, cyberbullying occurs at SMS also known as text messages that are sent
through various devices. Email, social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and
Snapchat, and instant message through email provider services, devices, social media messaging,
and apps (Parker, 2016).
Segmentation and Targeting
The segmentation is done based on gender, and age. The target market is a youth in this social
issue. They could be male or female and would be using any social media. This would be the
base point of the contact of the market (Wolke, 2015).
Positioning and Branding
Since the victims are youth and are already in a depressed state due to cyberbullying, the
positioning of the campaign would be sensitive. They should not feel any more humiliating or
burdened. To deliver the message celebrities who are relatable are planned to reach to youth
through TV or documentary films. From there the public, parents, and teachers are also easily
approachable. Too much of identity or corporate brand is not required, only original and organic

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campaign would be driven by their teachers, celebrities, government, and normal people (Chen,
2017).
Stakeholder Analysis
Key stakeholders
Celebrities
The message driven by celebrities relatable to young people will encourage more among youth
and will influence positively. Therefore in running a campaign, key stakeholders are celebrities.
Teachers
Teachers are a direct link to children, who can easily observe a child and can make them
understand the key actions to be taken at the time of issue. They play an important role in getting
children out of this issue
Parents
Parents are someone, who can judge their children by a change in their behaviour, talk to them
regarding the issue and help them to resolve it. Moreover, parents can get their children out of
the condition of depression (Brewer, 2015).
Social media websites
In cyberbullying, a major role is played by social media websites. Twitter, Facebook, Instagram,
and Snapchat are the four mainly used social media platform among youth where the conduct of
cyberbullying is maximum. Moreover, for this issue, the social media itself has provided ways to
prevent cyberbullying (Byrne, 2018).

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Victims
The victims, as discussed above are children using social media and are being bullied by others
in some of the other ways and are feeling humiliating (Hinduja, 2014).
Formulation of offer
Components of social marketing theories to formulate the plan are as follows:
Product
The product offered through this marketing plan is behaviour. To make the victim, youngsters
believe that they are safe, and will be out of the issue if they inform or report the crime. The
augment product include services, that are video or documentary films posted on social media
and is made viral all over the social media platforms which are most used by youngsters
including celebrities which are attractive to the children who are a victim and will be encouraged
to report about crime (Kowalski, 2015).
Price
Price for this augmented product considers many facets, which are generally emotional and price
to victims includes a threat to the health from the bullies, feel of humiliation publically, and feel
depressed. The price here is more linked to the value, which includes getting out of the problem
of cyberbullying and depression, and value for the price has been worthwhile.
Place
The place, as discussed before in this plan is placing the videos, images over social media pages
of partners like tutors and celebrities. In addition, news media will begin to cover after social
media to target social media pages of common public and create a social norm.

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Promotion
The promotions of this social marketing plan are done through viral strategy by placing boosters
over the news and Social Media. Since there involves no actual structure, this strategy is quite
risky.it is believed that celebrity power will help in pushing new norms at social media and have
a better chance of indulging public for similar campaigns. Moreover, different news media other
than social media is also saturated including printed source, and audio-video sources like T.V,
online, reporting video of celebrities and providing more exposure to the common public.
People and partnership
Key partners included in this social media marketing include celebrities, social workers, social
media platforms, and news media. As already touched upon, the celebrities videos are to be viral
at social media platforms and news media. Some social worker authorities are also working
against cyberbullying due to rise in this crime in today’s world.
Implementation
For the implementation of the social marketing plan to prevent cyberbullying, the videos are
shared on YouTube, Instagram pages, Facebook posts, and Tweets on Twitter. The people and
partners including celebrities are engaged in the implementation process. The celebrities are
involved in posting messages either through short video recording or on their official pages on
social media. The video will include the awareness for the victims who do not feel comfortable
speaking their issue forward to either their parents, teachers or any other reliable authority.
Moreover assuring them that they are not alone in the issue as they must fight back against
cyberbullying.

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Monitoring and Evaluation
The plan can be monitored by finding the increase or decrease of cyberbullying issues, or finding
if victim children are able to come up with their issues easily or not. Another way to evaluate is
the likes and views of videos, or messages viral at social media. Comments could be observed at
the social media platform.

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References
Brewer, G., 2015. Cyberbullying, self-esteem, empathy and loneliness. Computers in human
behaviour, Volume 48, pp. 255-260.
Byrne, E., 2018. Cyberbullying and social media: Information and interventions for school
nurses working with victims, students, and families. The Journal of School Nursing, 34(1), pp.
38-50.
Chen, L., 2017. Comparing cyberbullying perpetration on social media between primary and
secondary school students. Computers & Education, Volume 109, pp. 74-84.
Hinduja, S., 2014. Bullying beyond the schoolyard: Preventing and responding to
cyberbullying.. s.l.:Crowing Press.
Kowalski, R., 2015. Cyberbullying via social media. Journal of School Violence, 14(1), pp. 11-
29.
Parker, S., 2016. Content Mining Techniques for Detecting Cyberbullying in Social Media.
Virginia Journal of Science, 67(3), p. 1.
Wolke, D., 2015. Individual and Social Determinants of Bullying and Cyberbullying. In
Cyberbullying, pp. 26-53.