FSU Center Partners with FSU College of Business to Strengthen Approaches to Connecting with Social Work Audiences

The Stoops Center for Communities, Families, and Children (Stoops CFC Center) at the FSU College of Social Work recently partnered with the FSU Herbert Wertheim College of Business to provide a specialized training focused on marketing strategy and buyer psychology for center staff.

Led by Dr. Keith Ferguson, an associate lecturer in the Dr. Persis E. Rockwood School of Marketing, the training explored how individuals and organizations decide to engage with professional trainings, certifications and community programs, and how mission-driven organizations can more effectively communicate the value of their work.

For many social workers, marketing is not something formally taught during professional training. Yet throughout their careers, social workers often find themselves responsible for communicating and promoting services. Whether operating a private practice, recruiting participants for grant-funded initiatives, expanding community programs, or promoting professional training, social workers need to communicate effectively to engage and reach the communities they serve.

Recognizing this gap, the Stoops CFC Center sought to leverage expertise across Florida State University to strengthen its outreach and engagement. The collaboration with the Herbert Wertheim College of Business offered an opportunity to connect marketing strategy with mission-driven work in the social services field.

During the interactive training, staff participated in exercises designed to apply marketing concepts directly to their work, including examining audience motivations, refining messaging, and identifying new ways to communicate the impact of programs serving communities across Florida and beyond.

The session also explored how people make decisions to enroll in professional training, the role of motivation and perceived value in those decisions, and how organizations can move beyond purely informational outreach toward more value-driven engagement strategies.

“Marketing is really about understanding what motivates people and clearly communicating the value of what you offer,” said Ferguson. “Organizations like the Stoops Center are doing incredibly important work, and the challenge is making sure the people who need these trainings understand how they can benefit from them.”

The partnership will continue beyond the training. Dr. Ferguson has committed to working with his Summer B marketing course to begin developing a marketing plan for the Stoops CFC Center, providing students with hands-on experience while helping the Center explore new strategies to expand its reach and generate sustainable revenue streams. Through this collaboration, the Center is also exploring opportunities to host a marketing intern from the College of Business to further support outreach and visibility efforts.

The experience highlights the value of leveraging FSU's broad range of expertise and interdisciplinary collaboration across campus to create innovative solutions to complex challenges. “Keith took the time to truly understand our programs and tailor the training to our work,” said Savannah Collier, Assistant Director of the Stoops CFC Center. “For many of us coming from a social work background, marketing is not something we were formally trained in, yet it plays a critical role in how we reach the communities and professionals we serve.”