Green Social Media Trends in Nonprofits and Online Communities
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.
