Category: Web 2.0/Social Media

By Posted on Posted in Green Marketing, Web 2.0/Social Media Tagged with , ,

Guest post by Daniel Cawrey

What are some of the green trends making their way through the web?

It seems like almost everyone today is trying to leverage social media in order to captivate audiences that may be interested in their product, service or information. This can also be used to for green organizations to help them with their marketing efforts as well, and it surely has a much softer impact than some traditional marketing methods. Sure, the web and social media as a whole requires energy to run itself, but at least it’s not as wasteful as some of the other alternatives to get people’s attention such as direct marketing.

But how does the social media sphere reflect on the green movement as a whole? Let’s take a look at some social media sites as well as an initiative by one organization that take the environment into account as their complete focus.

UNEP

The United Nations Environment Programme has the @UNEPandYou Twitter account that has over 22,000 followers. It is an insightful stream of Tweets that discusses climate change, tree planting campaigns and sustainable tourism information.

A great resource to get timely eco-friendly information.

In 2009, UNEP celebrated World Environment day by planting a tree for every follower that it gained during the campaign. They ended up planting 10,000 trees. As you can see, the organization has embraced a number of social media sites, and is a great example of a strategy for others to follow and be successful with.

Quora

One of the best ways to follow some of the most interesting developments and green initiatives is to follow “Green” or “Green Technology” on Quora. IF you haven’t used Quora, reserve yourself some time because it can be a bit addicting.

Quora is like a mash-up between Twitter, Facebook and Yahoo Answers. Many people use it to learn about interesting things that they are curious about. Although some information can be redundant, you can really learn some great answers that come from experts such as “What is an environmentally friendly way to remove outdoors ice without using salt?” or “How much oil is used to produce a calorie of food in the developed world?”

Greenwala

Everyone knows about Facebook, but the problem with being the most popular social networking site is that it is really too broad to cover people’s interests. That’s where Greenwala comes in. It’s a place for people to learn about and share their particular causes. Information is available about all sorts of green topics, all in one place.

You can connect with Greenwala via your Facebook account.

Users can set up communities, share articles and sign petitions. In Quora-like form, the site has even started a question and answer section as well. Some popular groups include “What Can I Turn This Into” recycling group, and the “Green Technology, Architecture & Innovation” group.

Daniel Cawrey is a freelance writer. In addition to running his own blog about Google Chrome and Chrome OS, he also writes on consumer topics such as credit cards.

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By Posted on Posted in Business Ethics, Customer Service as Marketing, Marketing Techniques and Philosophies, Shel's Personal Life, Web 2.0/Social Media Tagged with , , ,

I just had a very unpleasant experience buying a ticket on Delta Airlines’ website. And since, in writing and speaking about creating green, ethical, and expectation-surpassing business success, I often address customer service issues, I’m going to transform this crappy experience into a no-charge customer service consultation to Delta. I get a blog post; they get free advice. Deal?

1. Thou shalt prepopulate your required telephone “country code” field with the United States country code, especially if the passenger has a U.S. address. Most Americans have no idea what our country code is, and if they do know, they’ll type a 1. +001? You’ve got to be kidding.

2. When thee kickest back my form for not having the country code properly, thou shalt remember my preference on whether I want travel insurance, and not subsequently kick it back out because YOU unchecked my preference.

3. Thou shalt load pages in a reasonable time. If I can read one to three e-mails every time I wait for my page to update over my broadband connection, you have a service delivery problem. And when the session requires 20 or so pages because of all those ridiculous kickbacks for the country code or the insurance, you have a frustrated customer spending half an hour of forever-gone time and computer eye fatigue in order to complete a transaction that should have taken under ten minutes.

4. Thou shalt not tell me my session has timed out while waiting for YOUR page to load, and then not really mean it, causing confusion. Fortunately, I’ve seen this before and just hit the back button several times until I got to a screen that remembered I was actually still logged in. I’d have been pretty annoyed if I had to log out and relog in.

5. Thou shalt not try to route me from Orlando to Fort Lauderdale via New York. It would be faster to drive! If you have to send me in the wrong direction, how about someplace a whole lot closer?

6. Thou shalt not try to take 40,000 of my hard-earned miles for a measly domestic flight from New England to Florida. That should get me to Europe!

7. Thou dost earn my gratitude for a reasonable fare when I switched to cash, and thou didst receive my business as a result.

8. However, thou shalt NEVER raise the fare between the time I click the Purchase button and the time you process my credit card! That, if you had been a human and not a computer, would be called an illegal bait and switch. That is also a way to get customers really mad at you and badmouth you publicly over blogs and social networks. If it says $230 when I hit Purchase, you should honor that price and not tell me, oh, by the way, we raised the price while you were having trouble with our webform. (Your exact words were “Due to changing availability, the fare you selected is no longer available. Here’s the lowest fare for your flight(s).”) Yeah, it’s only ten bucks, but it’s absolutely inexcusable. It’s one thing to raise the price if I come back a day or even an hour later, but I had initiated the transaction at the offered price and you didn’t honor it. Your computers should simply not be allowed to do that (and airline sites in general should not be allowed to present ticket options that are no longer available).

9. Thou earnest back a few karma points for ease of seat selection. Thank you.

10. But thou losest them again for not telling me whether any of the flights serve meals, and if so, allowing me to state my dietary requirements. It would be easy enough to indicate meals, snacks, or no food, and if meals, to indicate needs.

OK, there you have my personal 10—not commandments but suggestions—that would improve your customers’ attitude toward you, deliver a much more positive experience, and create fans instead of reluctant buyers. If you want more, I recommend my award-winning eighth book, Guerrilla Marketing Goes Green. I’ll even give you (or anyone else who registers a purchase a the site) $2000 in extra bonuses for buying a $21.95 book. See, creating a good customer experience isn’t that hard.

In addition to his award-winning books, Shel Horowitz also writes the Green And Profitable (for business) and Green And Practical (for consumers) monthly columns.

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By Posted on Posted in Arts & Entertainment, Demographics/Psychographics, Frugality/Frugal Fun, People Helping People, Shel's Personal Life, Web 2.0/Social Media

flashmob:“a large group of people who assemble suddenly in a public place, perform an unusual act for a brief time, then disperse.” (Wikipedia)

For the year or so that I’ve been watching the occasional video of flashmobs gathering in public places to perform, I’ve wished I could be part of one. But I didn’t wish strongly enough to organize one.

All the videos I’ve been sent took places in major cities like Amsterdam and Philadelphia. I live in a very rural area whose biggest city (Springfield, MA) has a population of only 155,629. And yet, to make a flashmob, you only need a dozen or so people.

I think a lot of the allure of flashmobs is that for the most part, we live in a society where entertainment is provided, prepackaged. Until 1877 when Edison invented the phonograph, if you wanted to hear music, you gathered some friends with instruments and songbooks and made some. If you wanted a theater experience, you played charades. Public concerts outside of major cities were few and far between. Now, every tiny town has live music 20 or 30 nights a year, and many have music every weekend night all year long. We are, for the most part, deprived of the opportunity to not only make our own entertainment but perform it for others. The flashmob at the Holyoke Mall had one day’s notice, no rehearsal. Singers were to wear a solid color indicating their part (my alto wife wore green, other parts wore red or white)—and of course, many people who just happened to be there joined in the singing.

Thursday, I received an e-mail from the organizer of a local folk music sing-along: a flashmob would gather the following day to sing Handel’s Hallelujah Chorus at the food court of the largest shopping mall near us, the Holyoke Mall (halfway between our house and Springfield, in a town of 40,005). On a Friday night just before Christmas, it would certainly have an audience. Better still, it was organized by the local opera company; the singing would be worth hearing.

The next morning, my wife, D. Dina Friedman, who sings in a community chorus, got an e-mail about the event that went out to all the chorus members. This was looking better and better. And the timing was perfect; we could drop our son off for the final rehearsal of his school’s winter show, go sing, and be back at school in plenty of time to watch him perform.

The singing was magical. Sound coming from every corner of the large and crowded food court, and a few stunningly stellar voices rising above the crowd. It reminded me of the time more than 30 years ago that I happened to be out on a lawn at my college while the chorus was rehearsing for their upcoming tour, and they invited me to stand within their circle and be surrounded by beautiful sound.

What amazed me the most, though, was not the event, but the aftermath. By the time we returned home after Rafael’s show, when I went to post something on Twitter, I found links to at least two different videos, including this very high quality one posted on the Springfield newspaper’s site.

I sent the link around, and got a couple of “wish I was there” or “how did you find out?” responses. And then last night, I went to a different performance, more than 40 miles away from the shopping mall at a retreat center in a really remote area (it happens to be the most beautiful house I know, one I love to visit for this annual storytelling concert)—and at intermission, I heard people talking about the flashmob and wishing they had known ahead.

In other words, even without a big-city backdrop, this flashmob had an impact well beyond the borders of the food court. E-mail made the event possible; social media gave it permanent life. “And I say to myself/What a wonderful world.”

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By Posted on Posted in Abundance and Prosperity, Customer Service as Marketing, Marketing Techniques and Philosophies, Web 2.0/Social Media Tagged with , , , ,

Why have I been mostly absent from my own blog lately? Because I’ve been working long hours on behalf of a client who had some pressing and time-consuming needs—including hands-on media training, helping him hire a PR assistant, and getting out a rush press release with a very short window of opportunity.

How did I get that client? A referral from a client whose book I produced a couple of years ago. That original single project has now turned into work for four different clients, putting a significant amount of money into my bank account.

It’s hard to beat a direct referral from a delighted client, unless perhaps with a direct referral from a well-respected industry guru (and I get plenty of those, too, including one earlier this week). In both cases, they come to you pre-sold, and if you don’t mess things up, they want to work with you.

Plus, since they came through referral, they often are happy to refer others. Your marketing cost: zero.

Of my seven most recent major clients, three were referrals, one I met at a networking event, one found one of my websites, and one remembered me because I wrote an article about her years ago. I’m not sure how the sixth found me, will have to check.

To get referrals: do the best job you can, and encourage your thrilled clients to tell others about you. If you’re in an Internet social media community together, and the client expresses delight privately, ask that client to share this feeling with the community (that’s when you start getting referrals from industry leaders).

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By Posted on Posted in privacy, Transparency vs. Secrecy, Web 2.0/Social Media Tagged with ,

Seth Godin blogged something that I’ve long said. We live in a world where privacy is not a given. If you have a credit card, your life is an open book (one example among many). What Seth pointed out is that the lack of privacy isn’t what bothers us—it’s the ability of companies to take the information and draw conclusions about our lives and how to market to us. He gives a fascinating example. I won’t spoil the surprise; go visit.

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By Posted on Posted in Marketing Techniques and Philosophies, Uncategorized, Web 2.0/Social Media Tagged with , , , , ,

My latest article, 10 Ways to Make Your Message Resonate with Green Consumers, was published today on GreenBiz.com (Joel Makower’s very well-regarded enviro site).

For anyone into Green marketing, I recommend this. (Of course, my book, Guerrilla Marketing Goes Green, goes into far more detail.)

Creating original articles is one among several marketing and visibility strategies I’ve been using regularly for many years. In the last several months, I’ve posted quite a bit of original content (articles and guest blogs) on major environmental and PR sites—part of a strategy to become a go-to person for commentary on Green business. This doesn’t count making comments on others’ blogs or being interviewed frequently not only by bloggers, but by traditional media as well. If you’re trying to get known in your own industry, these strategies can get you there, and they cost nothing but time. Here are a few places of the places where you can see my articles:

Triple Pundit:
Coffee Activist Dean’s Beans Brews the Perfect Blend for Change

GreenMarketing.tv
Why Green Consumers Make the BEST Customers

Fast Company
At least 77 articles, 2008–2010.

Bulldog Reporter (a trade journal for PR)
Green Consciousness Creates Fresh — Often Unexpected — Opportunities for Savvy PR Professionals (I can’t get this link to load so am not including it here)

Now, the next goal, is finding markets that will pay for content. That’s harder, but not impossible. When I was actively freelancing, I got paid for as many as 87 articles in a single year. The publications I was writing for back then didn’t pay much, but they didn’t pay. It wasn’t a living, but it was part of one.

–>This is post number 10 of the ten posts I committed to writing in the last third of August, as part of Michele Scism and Michelle Shaeffer’s #Blogboost Blog Challenge–and there are still several days left in the month. I may keep it going through the end of the month, or even beyond. It’s good discipline.

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By Posted on Posted in Demographics/Psychographics, Marketing Trends/News, Web 2.0/Social Media Tagged with , , , ,

I just read a “sleeper” article that may be one of the most important trend pieces of the year. If you have any interest in future trends in marketing, demographics, consumer culture, advertising, or where our society might be headed in a few years, go and read “Is Starbucks the Most Dangerous Competitor to Facebook?” by Jay Baer and Clinton Bonner. Appropriately enough, I found this article via a Tweet, from Olivier Blanchard, a/k/a @TheBrandBuilder.

The article posits that Starbucks is working to reposition itself as an in-store information portal, with all sorts of goodies available to those who go to the stores and log on to its network—and that ads on this network could become the premier place to reach certain consumers, as well as the favored online community that could displace Facebook in our affections…

I’m not sure it’s going to unfold exactly as they see it, but I suspect pieces of it will play out that way. That’s a future that leaves me with more than a little discomfort. It’s like a vertical and horizontal integration of the mind similar to, say, General Motors’ vertical and horizontal integration of the car market starting at least in the 1930s. I don’t like to see so much energy concentrated in one company, whether it’s GM, Google, or Starbucks.

Of course, competitors can arise. But it won’t be easy.

What do you think?

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By Posted on Posted in Web 2.0/Social Media Tagged with

I came across a real wasted opportunity today. A twitter profile with exactly two Tweets. One said “at work” (3 months ago) and the other, “bored” (21 months ago).

Three very uninteresting words in 21 months. And somehow, this person has managed to get 180 people following back. Not me, however. (Now, do you see why I think autofollow is pointless?).

Twitter is such a powerful tool! I’ve used it to connect and reach out, to learn about trends and issues, to amplify messages from people who are putting out great content, to build my network, to ask for advice and favors, to support people I wanted to do favors to, to give advice, to publicize events and products, to get speaking gigs and book sales, and simply to chat up with friends.

Of course, I’ve been doing social media for over a decade. I am very naturally comfortable in the Twittersphere after 15 years on e-mail discussion groups. My wife, novelist D. Dina Friedman, (@ddinafriedman) finds it a struggle, and limits her participation. But when she posts, she posts good stuff.

It’s possible my new follower is getting tons of value by lurking on over 900 Twitter feeds. But even if this person can’t think of anything to say, it would be only a couple of clicks to retweet messages that were especially compelling. Not to do so is leaving most of Twitter’s value on the table. In Twitter as in life, you gain much more value when you give as well as get.

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By Posted on Posted in Blog Tour, Marketing Techniques and Philosophies, Networking, People Helping People, Web 2.0/Social Media Tagged with , ,

I’ve just signed up for the Ultimate Blog Challenge (Twitter hashtag #blogboost), which means a commitment to add ten posts between now and the end of the month. Especially nuts because I’m speaking in Boston tomorrow and probably won’t even get on the computer. Fortunately, I happen to have one post already scheduled.

I’ll be honest. Despite the many benefits of participation (increased visibility, exposure to other people’s networks, and of course a nice boost in the search engines, etc.)—the main reason I’m doing this is because Michelle Shaeffer, a/k/a SmallBizMuse is one of the organizers (along with Michele Scism, who I hadn’t known before, but who seems to offer a lot of useful resources for solopreneurs). She’s been my Virtual Assistant for something like eleven years, and I’ve taken a sort of nachas (Yiddish word meaning pride in the accomplishments of one’s family) in watching her develop some marketing chops of her own, and a dedicated fan base, over the last year or two. She has 4989 followers on Twitter! All organically acquired, as far as I know; I only have 3395.

So my joining her blog challenge is as much a public thank-you for all she’s done for me these last 11 years as anything else. You, of course, will have different reasons for signing up.

Of course, when she’s rich and famous, I’ll probably have to go out and find a new Virtual Assistant. So it goes.

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