Carbon Outreach Blog

14 Recommendations for Using Twitter Hashtags for Ethical Business & Non-profits

2011-09-15T12:13:00.001-04:00

Hashtags are very important component to categorizing tweets. There are several reasons you want to use hashtags within your stream, including to publicize and increase participation around an event, determine how many tweeted about a certain thing during your campaign, get involved in conversations and tweet-ups or to be more easily found on Twitter.

Definition: The # symbol (placed before a word such as #socialmedia), called a Hashtag, is used to mark keywords or topics in a Tweet. It was created organically by Twitter users as a way to categorize messages. Determining how you want to use this feature (more information found within your social media strategy) will determine how successful your campaign will be, so make sure to plan how and why.

14 recommendations for using hashtags for ethical business and non-profits:

1. For offline events. Participate in other others’ event streams particular to your industry. Whether your focus is recycling or corporate philanthropy, ensure your company representatives are participating online. Twitter is an ideal place to represent.

2. Recommend others. To recommend others with the #EcoMonday or #FollowFriday (also #ff). Alternatively, if you are adventurous, create your own recommendation hashtag.

3. Use popular hashtags. To enable users to find out about your tweets, you can use #green #socent #susty and others. Find out about how popular tweets are by searching http://hashtags.org.

4. Create your own. Then make your hashtag popular. Publicize it; especially if you’re trying to gather a Twitter stream for a particular campaign or event, put it on promotional material such as posters, name badges or otherwise.

5. Be topic-relevant. Use hashtags only on tweets relevant to the topic. Not a good idea to falsely advertise, so don't add a hasthag to a non-relevant topic.

6. Not too many. Don’t #spam with #hashtags. Don’t over-tag a single tweet. Twitter best practices say you should keep your hashtags to under 3 #hashtags per tweet.

7. On your website. Have a specific campaign or chat happening using a particular Hashtag? Make sure to include a Twitter widget that publicizes it to get even more interactions.

8. Categorize blog posts. Looking to promote your blog posts? When tweeting about your post, ensure it has popular hasthags to be found easily by those searching.

9. Join conversations. If you are going to be tweeting about a trending topic (that might be off-topic within your organization) make sure you add your voice to the conversation just in case readers would like to follow you.

For example: If you’re a sustainability expert interested in the royal wedding in the UK, add a #royalwedding and #green hashtag to ask about how sustainable are royal weddings?

10. Create conversations. Like #agchat, #journchat or #csrchat, creating a topic-focused conversation around your industry makes your business or not-for-profit a leader. Make sure you publicize and promote your event so there's interaction, and always get the biggest industry players on Twitter to join in.

11. For categorization. Add hashtags to your tweets so others will be able to find your tweets.

Sample tweet: Are you a social entrepreneur? Check out @Ashoka's definition http://bit.ly/lChjN5 #socent via @ericagrigg

12. For funnies. Or not. The over-the-top hashtags that last forever can be annoying. As written about in the New Yorker, long hashtags can be hilarious at times, but they get old quick.

13. Quantify! Make sure to determine how many people are using the hashtags you've created. You can determine where the peaks and ebbs are on your http://hashtags.org graph.

14. Promote & Publicize. Again, once you've determined how many hashtags, it's also important to determine the quality of conversations. Importantly, you can ReTweet others additions, but you can also publish a blog post on what happened. Even better--get another organization in the space to recommend and write about what happened during your Twitter conversation.

Sample tweet: Just got done with a rib eye sandwich this #MeatlessMonday #JustKidding

Contributor: Erica Grigg is Partner and Director of Marketing and Digital Marketing at Carbon Outreach. Erica has trained hundreds of social enterprises, not-for-profits and corporate social responsibility executives on social media tools including Twitter. Erica recently co-authored, "Facebook for Social Enterprise" in June 2011. Erica speaks internationally on responsible business and marketing issues, and blogs for Treehugger.

Top 21 Recommendations for Social Enterprises on Twitter

2011-06-06T17:25:00.003-04:00

Twitter is one of the most popular social networks internationally with 200 million active users. Social enterprises have effectively used this online marketing tool to garner the attention of millions of consumers, media and competitors—likely some of the reasons you are reading this blog post.

In the middle of finishing our Twitter for Social Enterprise book, we have reviewed many interesting topics around Twitter, including using Twitter for personal and business brand development. Over the next month, we'll offer numerous tips and top recommendations from that book.

The first in a series of tips for June, below are recommendations for responsible businesses and not-for-profits leveraging the power of Twitter:

1. Listen carefully. Determine who are influencers in your industry based on leaders of businesses you’ve likely heard of (for example @greenbiz @wwf @greenpeace). Find out more on green twitter users to follow via http://mashable.com/twitter-environmentalists.

2. Follow competitors. On that note, when you are looking for movers and shakers in your industry, whether that's not-for-profit management or environmentally-friendly cleaning products, determine who your competitors are. Online and offline, knowing about their mistakes and successes is important.

3. Find influencers. Follow those individuals and business accounts, who are likely influencers in your industry. For a start, add yourself and find other influencers on Twibes.

Questions to ask when reviewing profiles of influencers: How many followers do they have? How many lists do they appear on? How many tweets have they written? Have you seen them retweeted (RT) by others you know and trust?

4. Get busy. Update constantly; around 1 or 2 times daily is a good number for regular updates. Don’t worry, you can schedule tweets via the Hootsuite client (see ‘Clients’ section below).

5. Use a client. Use a Twitter client on your desktop or mobile to streamline your interface with your work for easy access. Twitter clients include HootSuite, Seesmic or Tweetdeck. For more Twitter clients, see this Tech Radar blog post on February 2011.

6. Tweet events. Create Twitter streams for your events. To categorize tweets during your event, make sure to claim a hashtag stream.

Tip: Don’t ignore the Twitter stream throughout the program, rather, have one employee managing the stream to ensure conversation, and answer any questions or feedback about the event when it happens. Make sure to watch out for negative feedback and address that feedback when it happens.

Sample tweet: Great point! RT @honeyberk Always make sure you have a strategy in place when encouraging employees to engage on #Twitter or FB #sm4socent

7. Stay active offline. Sending a company representative to Tweet at events is beneficial for both the company and employee. Checking-in on Foursquare, Facebook Places or Gowalla is also very beneficial for company speakers or otherwise. Doing something special outside the office? Check-in!

8. Enable donations. Provide the opportunity for potential donors to contribute. Whether followers will be directed toward your Facebook page, website, blog or otherwise, if you’re considering a fundraising campaign, don’t forget Twitter. Take success stories of Twestival or Twit Change for example.

Sample tweet: Have you checked out our donation tool on Facebook? http://bit.ly/sampletweet

9. Connect to your blog. Connect your blog to your Twitter accounts. Create a Twitter widget if possible. This can include either a ‘Follow Us’ button, your latest tweets or a hashtag stream for an upcoming event/ advertising campaign.

10. Connect from your blog. Link your blog to your Twitter account. Tweet each blog post, also syndicate the blog to magnify your reach, for instance on TreeHugger, Triple Pundit or other green media outlet.

Sample tweet: Our latest @Treehugger article: Dare to be a Social Enterprise! http://fb.on/235b2 #socent #greenbiz

11. Connect from your website. Make sure you have Twitter (Facebook, YouTube or other social networks) buttons on your website.

12. Put it on sale. Create specific sales for your social media followers. While you don’t want to constantly sell yourself, Twitter can be an efficient way to promote sales. You can also create a Sales Coupon on places like Twtqpon.

Sample tweet: Visit today for your 20% off Twitter coupon http://bit.ly/greendeal.

13. Have a tweet-up. Meet your fellow Twitter users together at a bar near your headquarters or throughout the country for an even bigger launch party or other event (like for example, having a series of Tweet-up’s alongside a Tweet-up at SXSW).

Sample tweet: 3 cities join #GreenTweetUp tonight to celebrate our eco project launch http://bit.ly/greentweetup #csr #green

14. Hold a chat. Have a sponsored Twitter chat like #agchat #csrchat. Learn who are influencers in your industry, learn from your participants and use those chats like a focus group.

Tip: Make sure you monitor these conversations well and have personal conversations with numerous influencers before moving forward. Having a great group interacting is pivotal for the success of a chat.

15. Check-in with strategy. Constantly check your social media strategy to make sure your objectives are being met—monthly and quarterly.

16. Track links. Use http://bit.ly or http://ow.ly to measure the success of each tweet. Then, you’ll be able to determine how successful each tweet was, which will help you determine ways to write tweets that will get more clicks.

17. Count Followers. Follow your Twitter follower numbers with applications like http://www.twittercounter.com.

18. Reply and @Mention. If your Followers or colleagues @reply you to recommend or try to connect, engage with them as soon as possible. Making a good impression and offline relationships is what social media is all about!

19. Create and Read Reports. Read monthly and quarterly social media reports from HootSuite or PeopleBrowsr. Make sure to review those who have tweeted about you most and which are your most popular links clicked.

20. Keep following. No need to follow every user who follows you, but follow users when they are interesting and pertinent to your industry.

21. Use hashtags. Make sure you use Hashtags to categorize your tweets and to be found easier.

Contributor: Erica Grigg is Partner and Director of Marketing and Digital Marketing at Carbon Outreach. Erica has trained hundreds of social enterprises, not-for-profits and corporate social responsibility executives on social media tools including Twitter. Erica recently co-authored, "Facebook for Social Enterprise" in June 2011. Erica speaks internationally on responsible business and marketing issues, and blogs for Treehugger.

Top 11 Community Management Tips for Not-for-Profits

2011-06-03T11:25:00.005-04:00

This article was also published on the NTEN Blog.

As Facebook reaches 600 million users in January 2011, social media continues to attract attention from not-for-profits internationally. We are glad to see NTEN’s continued focus on community management because at Carbon Outreach, we believe community management is fundamental to successful online marketing.

Whether you decide to in-source or outsource community management, we recommend discussing the following items with your community manager to make sure your not-for-profit is making the most out of your marketing and digital advertising.

1. Put your ear to the ground and listen. What are your competitors speaking about? Where is there room to become viewed as a thought-leader in your industry?

Tip: It truly is amazing what information Google and Bing.com holds. Don’t stop there; also check Twitter, Facebook and YouTube. Your not-for-profit should learn from the successes of others.

2. Do your homework. Are you new or seasoned at social media marketing? Even for social media gurus, the area is constantly changing. So keep up! Read Mashable.com and other social media news outlets.

Tip: We are in the process of writing a series of books on social media for social enterprise. Register for complimentary beta versions here http://carbonoutreach.com/books.

3. Tie together networks. Are you publicizing across networks and cross-promoting your networks? Doing this effectively ensures more active and connected users.

Tip(s): Always make sure your online communications materials (such as eNewsletters) can be shared via social media easily. Make sure to cross-post to multiple social networks if you are sending out communications about an important subject.

4. Empower visitors. How can you empower your community? When devising strategies to reach out or communicate with your community, how can you empower them? Successful community management is not just about driving up donations (though that’s important), but also driving conversation and behavior change.

Tip(s): Twitter campaigns are a great way to drive donations around a specific event or campaign. Like TwitChange or Twestival, community managers can encourage users to donate money and a tweet.

5. Define your target audience. Where does your target audience reside, how old are they? What are their interests? The more information you know, the more information you should provide your community manager, which will help him/her to connect not just with an audience but the right audience.

6. The more targeted the better. Who is your target audience for this particular campaign? Does this audience match our overall target audience of consumers and donors?

Tip: This is especially useful for targeted Facebook Ads. Within Facebook Ads, community managers can target by age, gender, interests and other information. In Facebook Ads, make sure to segment your target audience making each ad even more valuable.

7. Make time. Does your community manager have enough time to manage your community and/or specific campaign? Depending on the objectives of your campaign, community management can take hours daily. Being a community manager should not just be one of their many responsibilities, because to be an effective community manager it takes time and skill.

Tip: Make sure to estimate how long your community manager should take on tasks throughout the day. Do you really need a full-time community manager?

8. Plan for success. How do your social media objectives work to support your medium to long-term marketing objectives? Social media plans should support overall marketing plans.

9. Improve touch points. Learn where your customer or donor touch points are, and then improve them. Constantly improve your donor experience online through good design principles.

Tip: Possible touch points include website, eNewsletter, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube or Flickr. Remember your online presence should engage visitors and potential donors!

10. Expand touch points. How do customers currently learn about our products or services? How would you like to get heard about among your target audience?

11. Give props. Don’t forget to thank your community, partners, sponsors and donors. On Twitter @mention, on Facebook @mention. These are your most important fans!

Contributor: Erica Grigg is Partner and Director of Marketing and Digital Marketing at Carbon Outreach. Erica has trained hundreds of social enterprises, not-for-profits and corporate social responsibility executives on social media tools including Twitter. Erica recently co-authored, "Facebook for Social Enterprise" in June 2011. Erica speaks internationally on responsible business and marketing issues, and blogs for Treehugger.

Top 13 Facebook Apps for Social Enterprise

2011-06-01T12:23:00.001-04:00

Wondering what we mean by social enterprise? We are speaking specifically about green business, not-for-profits and corporate philanthropy programs.

Almost sealed and settled, we are at the tail end of launching our, "Facebook for Social Enterprise" book #fb4socent. With over 150 pages of tips, tricks and top recommendations, both beginner to advanced user will learn effective ways to create personal and business brand development, especially focused on community management and campaigns that garner media, customer and donor support.

Be one of the first 250 to receive your complimentary copy today! Visit the Carbon Outreach website to register for your copy. Otherwise, our book will launch on Amazon kindle on May 16. In New York City? RSVP to our launch party on May 16.

Without ado, below are applications recommendations for either or both individual and business pages.

1. [Individual profile] Branch Out. This is a LinkedIn-style social networking application to help you discover business opportunities through friends. There, you’ll be connected with 3 million+ job listings.

2. [Individual profile & business page] Causes. According to Facebook, “Causes empowers anyone with a good idea or passion for change to impact the world. Using our platform, individuals mobilize their network of friends to grow lasting social and political movements.” Since starting this application, it has raised over $30 million for 25,000 not-for-profits internationally.

3. [Individual profile & business page] Poll. Similar to the “question” feature, this application enables individual users and pages to create and share polls. Currently, there are over 2.3 million users of this application.

4. [Individual profile & business page] Twibbon. When creating your campaign to raise awareness, change legislation or educate, Twibbon is a great way to expand your reach virally. This means you can upload a small logo onto your Facebook profile picture, as well as create a small logo for participants to upload in their Facebook profile picture. Some successful Twibbons include “No to Prop 8” and, “Pray for Japan” currently garnering around 50K uploads each.

5. [Business page] Constant Contact Labs. This application helps Facebook users interested in your business or organization to join your Constant Contact contact lists.

6. [Individual profile] Marketplace. Facebook Marketplace lets you sell, give away, buy, rent, ask, or search for anything you want. You can also support charities by selling for a cause. Marketplace makes it easy to see what your friends have posted and what is available in your area.

7. [Individual profile] Networked Blogs. Import your blog feed to your profile or public page - Promote your blog on Facebook and to discover new blogs. NetworkedBlogs is a community of bloggers and blog lovers. Join the fun, add your blog, and connect with others who read and write about subjects you like.

8. [Individual profile] Slideshare. Upload your presentations, documents, PDFs, add mp3 audio to make webinars or embed Youtube videos into them. You can also import your SlideShare.net presentations into Facebook.

9. [Business page] Video. Facebook Video allows you to publish your personal videos on Facebook and send video messages to your friends.

10. [Individual profile & business page] Petitions. When you add the “Petitions” application, you can create and sign petitions on issues you feel passionate about.

11. [Business page] Eventbrite. Are you organizing an event through Eventbrite? This application gives you all the online tools you need to bring people together for an event and sell tickets especially within Eventbrite.

12. [Business Page] Twitter. Use the Twitter for Facebook app to: find and follow your Facebook friends who tweet, post your tweets to your Facebook profile or Facebook page, encourage your Facebook friends to follow you on Twitter.

13. [Individual profile] StumbleUpon. Explore the web like never before, flipping from page to page across more than 500 topics like you would go through your favorite magazine. Get recommendations tailored to your unique preferences so you only see what you want and less of what you don't. You'll only see content already filtered by like-minded users who share your passions and interests.

Contributors:

Contributor: Erica Grigg is Partner and Director of Marketing and Digital Marketing at Carbon Outreach. Erica has trained hundreds of social enterprises, not-for-profits and corporate social responsibility executives on social media tools including Twitter. Erica recently co-authored, "Facebook for Social Enterprise" in June 2011. Erica speaks internationally on responsible business and marketing issues, and blogs for Treehugger. Follow Erica on Twitter @ericagrigg or LinkedIn.

Tim Watson is Chief Technology Officer at Carbon Outreach. Prior, he spent over a decade with Microsoft, AdCenter and MSN and specializes in online advertising. Tim also co-authors the, "Facebook for Social Enterprise" book. Tim writes frequently on SEO, online advertising and not-for-profit technology on the Carbon Outreach blog. Connect professionally with Tim through LinkedIn, follow @sociallytim or e-mail tim@carbonoutreach.com.

Aliza Burns is Marketing Analyst at Carbon Outreach. Prior, she worked with several prominent not-for-profits after graduating from George Washington University in 2009. Find out more on LinkedIn or follow @alizaburns.

Get Hand-Selected Green Events with Green Around the City

2011-05-31T14:56:00.006-04:00

It's Tuesday morning. You're sitting at your desk, scratching your head and looking at your calendar. Are you considering what to do with your week? How about this: make it memorable and change the world! We can help you make it look easy and stylish.

Green Around the City launches in June 2011 in London and New York City and planning to expand to over a dozen cities by 2012. Green Around the City has numerous types of green events, including corporate social responsibility, green building and even green festivals.

From parties to networking events, Green Around the City covers your back. Get in-the-know about the latest, greatest green events.

On Facebook, Twitter and eNewsletters, you get the freshest, most interesting and valuable green events across your city. Want to move forward the green economy and have fun while doing it? Here's all our information below. Follow, Fan and soon--subscribe to our eNewsletter.

@FindGreenEvents, Green Around the City HQ

Follow @FindGreenLDN for green events across London

@FindGreenLDN for sizzlingly good, green events in London!

On Facebook!

Visit Green Around the City NYC on Facebook. Get in the know!

Fan Green Around the City London to find out the best green events. You'll be glad you did!

Contributor: Erica Grigg is Partner and Director of Marketing and Digital Marketing at Carbon Outreach. Erica has trained hundreds of social enterprises, not-for-profits and corporate social responsibility executives on social media tools including Twitter. Erica recently co-authored, "Facebook for Social Enterprise" in June 2011. Erica speaks internationally on responsible business and marketing issues, and blogs for Treehugger.

Facebook for Social Enterprise launch: Get yours free!

2011-05-24T20:02:00.001-04:00


Carbon Outreach Graph representing Facebook as the 3rd largest populated 'country' internationally

Social media tools have captured the attention of numerous green businesses, not-for-profits and corporate philanthropy programs since acquiring over 350 million users in 2009.

Prominent not-for-profits such as the World Wildlife Foundation, Sierra Club or Red Cross International continue to influence social media campaigns today. On the other hand, green businesses like Seventh Generation, Terra Cycle and Timberland have effectively used social media to garner the eyes of customers, media and competitors.

After obtaining over 600 million active users in January 2011, Facebook continues to attract the attention of social enterprises wisely choosing to invest in social media. In February 2011, Facebook continues to grow steadily as the third most populated 'country' internationally, see the graph above.

We’re excited to see more not-for-profits and social enterprises than ever investing in their online presence. Many have seen great successes in acquiring donors, media attention and an enhanced brand online. For example, the Facebook Causes Application alone has raised $30 million for 500,000 member-created causes since 2007.

In May 2011, Carbon Outreach has come out with a book particularly around using Facebook for Social Enterprise. Whether you are considering using Facebook for personal or business brand development, Carbon Outreach has recommendations and tools for unsurpassed community management, as well as targeted campaigns.

Full of 17 case studies such as the World Food Programme, (RED), Timberland, Patagonia, 350.org and California State Parks, and many others, this book reviews ways to make sure executives and community managers are making the most of your social media effort. We also address top recommendations for features such as Facebook Pages, Advertisements, Questions, Groups and numerous others.

We are delighted to offer a complimentary online copy of our upcoming book to Carbon Outreach blog readers. To register, visit here and don’t forget to ‘Like’ Carbon Outreach on Facebook.

Contributor: Erica Grigg is Chief Marketer at Carbon Outreach. Erica has trained hundreds of social enterprises, including top not-for-profits, green business and corporate philanthropy executives about social media. Erica speaks on cause-based marketing and social media internationally. Learn more and connect professionally at http://linkedin.com/in/ericagrigg or follow Erica on Twitter @ericagrigg.

WeFeedBack Helps Solve Global Food Crisis

2011-05-19T00:36:00.003-04:00

The following is an article we published in Treehugger earlier this week.

Did you know over 1 billion people will be persistently hungry in 2011? For our already overpopulated world, food prices continue to rise due to a variety of reasons, including the raising cost of petroleum. This leaves even more people hungry.

Lots of action has been taken internationally to combat this coming food crisis. In April, the World Bank held the Open Forum about that "pressing issue - raising and volatile food prices." However, nothing seemed to get accomplished besides a very active social media conversation.

Now the questions remain. Which business or not-for-profit will help solve this life or death problem? What are social enterprises doing today to help feed that 'Bottom Billion'? Will communities wait while government stalls?

The short answer is that social enterprises internationally are starting to provide answers, especially around energy and agriculture. One such country is India, a country that knows about hunger; over 40% of children are malnourished according to the World Bank. Recently, the Sankalp Forum was held in Mumbai, India to celebrate social entrepreneurs in four key areas including food and clean energy.

Reading about the winners was inspiring, but I also realized the United Nations case study I was reviewing was part of solving the global food crisis--through social media! In response to our looming global food crisis, the United Nations is taking to the internet like never before, including creating the WeFeedBack social network.

WeFeedBack is simple and resounding idea. Join the social network, Estimate the food you will eat tonight, and donate that amount to feed someone else. Instead of waiting on political action, they are mobilizing to try to feed those who need it most. The site has fed nearly 200,000 so far since starting early April 2011.

Wonder how they did it? Social networking; the organization has been effectively reaching out through Facebook and Twitter, especially using the World Food Programme as a platform. This is the second in a series of successes for the World Food Programme, including their Free Rice Word Game that has helped feed 4.2 million.

That's why this Monday, I'm going to donate my dinner to someone who needs it more, and I suggest that you do, too.

Contributor: Erica Grigg is Partner and Director of Marketing and Digital Marketing at Carbon Outreach. Erica has trained hundreds of social enterprises, not-for-profits and corporate social responsibility executives on social media tools including Twitter. Erica recently co-authored, "Facebook for Social Enterprise" in June 2011. Erica speaks internationally on responsible business and marketing issues, and blogs for Treehugger.

11 Ways to Make Your Social Enterprise Facebook Group a Success

2011-05-04T19:03:00.005-04:00

During our many conversations with social enterprises internationally, we've encountered many questions along the way; for instance, how should I use Facebook for personal development? How can my organization leverage the power of our users to win over more donors?

We hope to answer these and numerous other questions in our thoughtful book on, "Facebook for Social Enterprise," to launch May 16 in New York City; RSVP via Facebook today! You can also get a complimentary copy of our book! Be one of the first 250 by reserving your copy today!

There are many reasons your organization could consider using Facebook groups. Numerous green businesses are using Facebook groups successfully including HUB NYC and Go Green Expo, and numerous collaboratives and co-operatives use Facebook groups, including the Green Design or Ethical Fashion Forum. Facebook groups are increasing opportunity for social enterprise because they are more conversation-oriented.

If you have not considered using Facebook groups, or have questions about how to integrate your next Facebook campaign within your marketing strategy, give us a chat at +1 646.233.3265.

Without ado, below are the top 10 recommendations for using Facebook groups for green business or not-for-profit.

1. Depending on the content of your Group, make sure you enable participants to recommend others to join the group through inviting members. You can do this by making sure yours is an 'Open group'.

Note: There are three privacy settings for your group, including: secret, closed and open. If you’re creating a Facebook group for your business or organization, open groups are recommended.

2. Create a group name including the name of your company if your target message is around your company or not-for-profit. Go Green Expo did this effectively, also while fostering conversation within the American green community.

3. Invite contacts who would be interested in joining the conversation. Don't invite a member you would not think would enjoy the conversation, but if members are uninterested, they can leave the group easily.

4. Provide an e-mail address for the administrator and now you have more opportunities to connect and have conversation with your participants. This was effectively used in the HUB NYC group below.

5. Create a conversation topic to start discussions. The conversation could be about a recent event your organization will speak at, recent or noteworthy news, recommendations from other businesses pages or groups, as well as industry-related content that keeps your community engaged.

6. @Mention individual users, as @mentioning business pages and other groups is not yet enabled. This can inform other users to join the group and promote conversations to other users; whether promoting conversation about a specific event, campaign or new product, this is a great place to cross-promote.

7. Create questions using the question feature and encourage friends and/or group members to answer by suggesting the question--make sure, though, that it's interesting and relevant to their situation. You can also let others create their own answers by selecting the 'add poll options', and 'allow any user to add options'. The Ethical Fashion Forum helped create an environment that fosters great conversations and posts by members.

8. Create your own content so you are not constantly sharing others’ content. The key to creating and sharing content is about 1) being interesting, 2) creative and 3) relevant within your industry .

Ideas for creating your own content includes blog posts, pictures of your companies’ representatives speaking, or videos to accompany your current campaigns or launches.

9. Get your Twitter community involved in promoting your conversations. Tweet about updates happening on your Facebook group, especially when interesting events or topics are promoted.

Side note: Currently, you cannot connect your updates directly to Twitter. However, you can recommend others join the group with the call to action for potential members to request to join.

10. Tell others to recommend their friends. Again, if you ask individuals to ask their friends, tell them if they want a favor from you, they should feel free to ask you. Being the friend who always asks for favors can be a precarious place to be.

11. Publicize offline. From your promotional material to e-mail signature, you should put links to your social networks (including Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and/or your blog) in as many places as possible to advertise your online presence. Ultimately, in the long term, more active users means more opportunities to win their donations or purchase dollars!

Contributor: Erica Grigg is Partner and Director of Marketing & Digital Marketing at Carbon Outreach. She is co-author of Facebook for Social Enterprise and writes frequently for media outlets such as Treehugger. Follow @EricaGrigg on Twitter or visit Erica Grigg on LinkedIn to connect professionally. She has spoken to hundreds around the world on using social media for green business and not-for-profit, and organizes and chairs the Marketing & PR for Social Enterprise Meetup.

Top 18 Ideas for Using Twitter for Social Enterprise

2011-04-25T15:26:00.026-04:00

As you may have heard, Carbon Outreach is very busy on our upcoming Social Media for Social Enterprise book series, starting with Twitter and Facebook for Social Enterprise. Don't worry, we share the love, including 250 complimentary copies to social enterprises internationally via each individual book page. We've also created the [below] QR code to make it simple to learn about our new ebooks series.

We are also having a launch networking event in New York City on May 16. To learn more about our events in New York City, join our Marketing & PR for Social Enterprise Meetup.

The following recommendations include some real and some fictional tweets to show examples. Without ado, below detail 18 top recommendations for making your twitter presence a success:

1. Start off with your social media strategy document. Over the next weeks, we will talk more about social media strategy, but some recommendations can be found on the Social Media Examiner or this popular SlideShare by Vanina Delobelle. Constantly check your Social Media Strategy to make sure your objectives are being met—monthly and quarterly.

2. Determine who are influencers in your industry based on leaders of businesses you’ve likely heard of (for example @greenbiz @triplepundit @treehugger. Find out more on green twitter users to follow via http://mashable.com/twitter-environmentalists or visit our top recommended twitter environmentalists). You can also follow and join Twibes groups or Twitter lists for great users.

3. Follow regularly. Namely of individuals and businesses/organizations that influence in your industry. Questions to ask when reviewing profiles of influencers: How many followers do they have? How many lists do they appear on? How many tweets have they written? Have you seen them retweeted (RT) by others you know and trust?

4. Use a Twitter client on your desktop or mobile to streamline your interface and easier access. Twitter clients include PeopleBrowsr, Seesmic, Tweetdeck and Tweetie among numerous others.

5. Create Twitter streams for your events. Don’t ignore the Twitter stream throughout the program, rather, have one employee managing the stream to ensure conversation, and answer any questions or feedback about the event when it happens. Make sure to watch out for negative feedback and address it when it happens.

Sample tweet: Great point! RT @honeyberk Always make sure you have a strategy in place when encouraging employees to engage on #Twitter or FB #sm4socent

6. Create specific sales for your social media followers. While you don’t want to constantly sell yourself, this is a great way to get out information about your sales. You can also create a Sales Coupon on http://twtqpon.com/. You can also create free trackable QR codes with a number of websites including using QReatebuzz, linking followers to your own website or microsite for social media specials.

Sample tweet: We're offering a complimentary copy of Facebook for Social Enterprise! Click this QR code to get your book today! http://bit.ly/hjGQHT #sm4socent

7. Update consistently; around 1 or 2 times (or more) daily is a good number for regular updates. Don’t worry, you can schedule tweets via Hootsuite and other twitter clients.

8. Taut about your fundraising efforts. Provide the opportunity for potential donors to contribute (financially & in retweets). Whether followers will be directed toward your Facebook page, website, blog or otherwise, if you’re considering a fundraising campaign, update your followers regularly via Twitter about your campaign (and measure your results: see below).

Sample tweet: Have you checked out our donation tool on Facebook? http://bit.ly/findoutnow #nonprofit

@Tweetsgiving Has made some great successes, See Beth Kanter's article on their fundraising efforts

9. Let LinkedIn know you're tweeting. Connect your LinkedIn company page to your Twitter account with the Twitter application to see your most recent tweets.

10. While your at it, encourage your company's LinkedIn users to add their company and/or individual Twitter accounts to their profiles. When adding Twitter accounts to personal profiles, individuals can choose to have their own instead of their company tweets appearing by editing "Which Twitter account would you like to share from?"

11. To automate or not to automate? There has been intense debate on whether or not you should automate your blog posts to feed into Twitter & Facebook or not. Depending on the amount of content, I'd recommend using automated feeds to direct your blog posts into Twitter & Facebook. This promotes your blog and also that you're connected.

Connect your blog to your Twitter accounts (and Facebook through NetworkedBlogs). Also, create a Twitter widget on your blog (this can include either a ‘Follow Us’ button) on your latest tweets or a hashtag stream for an upcoming event/ advertising campaign on your blog page.

12. Syndicate and publicize. If you let others publish your blog posts, this can magnify your reach, for instance on green media outlets like Ecorazzi, Elephant Journal, etc.).

Sample tweet: Our Founder, Erica Grigg, recommends on @TreeHugger: "Dare to be a Social Enterprise!" http://fb.me/EvGC7HVJ

13. Let your website users know you're on Twitter. Connect your Twitter account to your website, along with your other social networks (Facebook, LinkedIn and YouTube, too!).

14. Have a tweet-up. Meet your fellow Twitter users together at a bar near your headquarters—throughout the country for an even bigger launch party or other event (like Triple Pundit did at their Sustainable Media Happy Hour at SXSW [on the top ten of social media gatherings in the world]).

15. Have a sponsored Twitter chat like #agchat #csrchat. Learn who are influencers in your industry, learn from your participants and use those chats like a focus group. Make sure you monitor these conversations well and have personal conversations with numerous influencers before moving forward. Having a great group interacting is pivotal for the success of a chat.

16. Connect your eNewsletter to Twitter. This is very straightforward when using Constant Contact for example.

17. Use http://bit.ly, Google's Goo.gl, or HootSuite's http://ow.ly to measure the success of each tweet. Then, you’ll be able to determine how successful each tweet was, which will help you determine ways to write tweets that will get more clicks. 3BL Media started a link sharing service in 2009, too, however cannot track click through rates, which is a shame.

18. Measure your success. See how many Twitter followers you have with applications like http://www.twittercounter.com. There are many ways to judge the success of your Twitter campaign, including Klout or HootSuite/ PeopleBrowsr social media analytics reports.

Contributors: Erica Grigg is Founder & Chief Marketer at Carbon Outreach. She's trained hundreds of social enterprises on social media, and co-authoring several books on Social Media for Social Enterprise launching May 2011 reserve your complimentary copy today. Find out more about Erica on her LinkedIn page and follow her @ericagrigg and @carbonoutreach on Twitter.

Tim Watson is CTO and co-Founder at Carbon Outreach. He's worked in the online advertising and technology space for 15 years. Find out more about Tim on his LinkedIn page or follow him on Twitter.

Dare to be a Social Enterprise

2011-04-19T11:24:00.011-04:00

This article was originally published on Treehugger yesterday.

Green business, triple bottom line business, social enterprise, non-profit, ethical company; green certified; B Corp or responsible business; are we talking about the same thing? And if so, we should dare to call ourselves, "Social Enterprise"!

Today, the idea of "social enterprise" is a buzzing phrase, especially the UK. There, the Social Enterprise Coalition counts social enterprises at 62,000+ and contributing around $32 billon+ (or £24 billion) to their economy, all while employing 800,000+ people. Social enterprises are starting to have a stronger voice with local government and among other bigger businesses over the UK.

In London, one key social enterprise foundation, UnLtd, holds a $150+ million (or £100 million) endowment for business development for only the most innovative and sharp social entrepreneurs.

The phrase, "Social Enterprise" started the early 70's with conversation in, "Sociology and Social Movements", which isn't online funny enough. The phrase was also made famous within a 1981 report on "A Management Tool for Co-operative Working" by Freer Spreckly.

The stories of social enterprises are the key to their success. In the process of trying to change the world, social enterprises have garnered not only success but admiration by their customers. Think about Seventh Generation or TOMS Shoes, for example.

After recently reading The Blue Sweater by Jacqueline Novogratz, I was moved by her path across South America and Africa researching real-life social enterprises. At the same time, I've also heard of start-up stories from other social entrepreneurs who started in the late 80's, like Christine Esposito, who is now President, Terracom Public Relations.

And the stories of social entrepreneurs are memorable.

In 2011, the Harvard Business Review is talking about, "rethinking capitalism". In opposition with purely money hungry business, social enterprises offer an alternative business model that focuses on helping community, being financially feasible, while also maintaining organizations' clearly stated social or environmental missions.

Social enterprise is getting more and more popular, with now around 90K+ hits on Google (compared to say, 100 million+ of 'Facebook login'). People are becoming curious about this topic, and Americans are tentatively moving away from donor-centric business models. Whether you're a for-profit or not-for-profit, understanding your cause-based company as a social enterprise.

And yet, I've asked several businesses (not named) that might label themselves as "social enterprises" which still call themselves non-profits or green businesses. I'm not against defining your organization strictly as a non-profit, it just seems quantifying our shared value through organizations like associations, clubs or groups, we could help re-dine business.

Social enterprise is already re-defining business and the development of corporate social responsibility, corporate philanthropy and socially responsible investing among many other industries. But if we all were labeled, "social enterprise", we could move quicker.

So let's just admit that we're the face of business change. Social enterprises throughout the USA are making great strides for re-defining the role of capitalism.

Let's dare to be social enterprises.

Erica Grigg is Founder & CMO of Carbon Outreach. Carbon Outreach is a marketing and digital advertising consultancy focused entirely on social enterprise, non-profits and corporate philanthropy programs. Erica organizes the Marketing & PR for Social Enterprise Meetup in New York City, and is running training seminars from April to July 2011. Find out more about their events at http://carbonoutreach.com/events and follow her at http://twitter.com/ericagrigg. Follow Carbon Outreach on Twitter at http://twitter.com/carbonoutreach. Erica blogs on the Carbon Outreach blog and speaks at numerous events across the United States to provide opportunities for social enterprise development.

15 Tips for Well-Publicized Facebook Events (Like the #ChicagoGMF)

2011-04-18T00:31:00.013-04:00

Over the next several weeks, we'll launch both a series of books and trainings in the New York City area. At Carbon Outreach, our mission is to develop social enterprise in NYC and beyond, so I would love to hear from you if you're wondering where to go next with your marketing or digital advertising campaign.

The below article includes several pictures from the Green Metropolis Fair. Our client, the Green Parents Network, put on this great event in conjunction with Mindful Metropolis, and the event used social media tools, including Facebook and Twitter very effectively. We wanted to define the ways--particularly for Facebook (used in conjunction with Twitter) to help make your next event as successful.

Without ado, below are 15 recommendations for making your next Facebook event a success:

1.    Have a clear way to RSVP if it isn’t via Facebook (i.e. through your website, Eventbrite or Brown Paper Tickets [the fair trade version of Eventbrite]).

2.    Tweet about the event and note, “Facebook friends are especially encouraged to RSVP via Facebook".

3.    Invite friends that’d be interested in the event. It helps here for your contacts to be organized into personal groups on your profile (easily dividing the family members from business colleagues).

4.    Don’t be consumed in the number of people who’ve RSVPed, it’s really about the conversation the event creates. In defining metrics, how many mentioned your event on Twitter, how many RSVPed and how many conversations did your event start?

5.    Invite current Facebook page fans to attend.

6.    Publicize the Facebook page on the event website itself (for example, on Meetup.com, you can put this in the “Comments” section or on EventBrite, you can put this in the “Description” section).

7.    If you’d like, you can have participants have duplicate RSVPs. Depending on whether this is a large (500+) event or small (20+) seminar, you may be able to e-mail individuals about social media channels.

8.    Inform participants about your event hashtag (like #fsq4socent or #sm4socent, make the tags individual, rather than generic. The reason is because #green #chicago and other tags are often already used frequently, whereas this tag is talking about a specific event). When you categorize your hashtag, you’ll be able to quantify how many tweets happened AND people are more likely to RSVP and contribute.

#ChicagoGMF Hashtag stream during the Chicago Metropolis Fair, 16 April

9. Engage your participants to e-mail their friends or colleagues with a special offer if necessary. Ask them to share the event on their Facebook wall.

10. Once your participants have RSVPed, post up an @reply to mention the event to your Facebook Fans, as well as on your personal page. This cross-posts the event from your Facebook Page to the event page.

11. If you're partnering with other organizations, make sure to @reply them to CC their Facebook fans.

12. When you create status updates about the event, feel free to @reply to groups/pages that would be interested in learning about or RSVPing to the event.

13. Make sure your partners have publicized their Facebook fans RSVP to the event.

14. Create a video for your event, and include the official website to RSVP as well as the Facebook event URL (in customized bit.ly format makes things easier).

15. Bonus: Creating a microsite (rather than being at http://yoursite.com/event it's http://yourevent.com) for the event improves SEO and a better advertising experience increases the likelihood that you'll have more/bigger partners.

Contributor: Erica Grigg is Partner and Director of Digital Marketing at Carbon Outreach. She's trained hundreds of social entrepreneurs, CEOs, non-profit and corporate philanthropy leaders about how to use social media marketing tools. To learn more about Erica, follow her on Twitter @ericagrigg or connect with her on LinkedIn.

11 Rules for Social Enterprise Using Facebook Ads

2011-04-11T14:43:00.002-04:00

Last Saturday, we had a great time running the Social Media for Social Enterprise #sm4socent training for a host of engaged and highly participatory social enterprise leaders. We had lots of feedback and questions that we'll learn from and expand our ability to encourage within our next event in May on Foursquare for Social Enterprise #fsq4socent.

Many participants were very interested in Facebook, Twitter, Blogging and Video, so we wanted to answer some questions to those participants and others. We love social enterprise, and we want to see it grow. Therefore, we'll use the Carbon Outreach Blog to provide information and insights into Social Media, including Facebook, YouTube and Foursquare.

NOTE: We don't think hundreds of thousands need to "Fan" and interact with your page, but we'd certainly recommend engaging with your current followers and maintain that same level of engagement throughout your growth. We believe that social enterprise should utilize social media to create conversations with their customers, donors and/or partners.

Without ado, we'd like to offer 11 key recommendations for using Facebook advertising to increase fans & expand participation:

1. Create multiple Facebook ads that target fewer people. This refines who will click on and, "Like" your product or service.

2. Make sure your daily budget makes sense for your organization or business. There are two methods: pay per click (CPC) or pay per thousand impressions (CPM). Choose cost per click when you want more impressions (increasing awareness campaigns versus increasing sheer click-thru's).

3. Define your market! Inside and outside Facebook, defining your target market is especially important. Who are you selling your product to? Who do you aim to raise awareness to? Who wants to sign your petition? Who do you want as a partner/sponsor?

4. Test out multiple ads at the same time to see which works best.

5. Include eye-catching picture, says Facebook. The better the picture, the more likely your viewer will engage--either clicking on ad, RSVPing to the event or visiting your website.

5. Monitor your click through rate (CTR), if you see a decline, edit the creative (ie words next to picture)

6. Think long-term, how will more Facebook Fans equate to better marketing, improved brand imaging and/or more sales or partnership dollars?

7. Create ads catered to reach your target audience including interests, age, city/state and within language preferences.

8. When making your Facebook ad link to your Facebook Page, have the landing page provide information that encourages them to "Like", including an infographic or graphic

9. Measure initial conversions in Facebook Advertising as well as Facebook Page Insights

10. There are several ways for users to get involved. Create your Facebook ad to enable Ad viewers to RSVP to an event, "Like" your page, participate in a poll or visit your webpage

11. Make sure your Facebook Ad works in conjunction with other methods of outreach (for example paired up with Twitter, encouraging Followers to "Fan" on Facebook)

3 Great Social Media Campaigns Social Enterprise Should See (Pt 3 of 3)

2011-04-04T12:45:00.041-04:00

In the middle of writing our upcoming eBook around social media tools (releasing late April 2011), we've been reviewing numerous case studies that you might want to know about.

Are you attending our upcoming training in New York City on, Social Media for Social Enterprise on April 9? There, we'll chat with social entrepreneurs, CEOs, Presidents and CSR leaders, among others, on using social media for social good. To learn more about all the events Carbon Outreach is organizing in New York City click here.

If you're one of the above groups and curious about what's happening in social media and what's next--and are reading our blog--we want to offer YOU a discounted ticket by joining our Marketing & PR for Social Enterprisegroup on Meetup @ethicalprnyc on Twitter. There, we have monthly Panels/Talks around multiple issues facing non-profits, green business and corporate social responsibility campaigns.

Without ado, below are 3 case studies around social media that worked really well.

1. 350.org

350.org is an international campaign that's building a movement to unite the world around solutions to the climate crisis—the solutions that science and justice demand. Our mission is to inspire the world to rise to the challenge of the climate crisis—to create a new sense of urgency and of possibility for our planet.

Communications objectives

In an interview with Clint O'Brien's, Care2's VP of Nonprofit Services with Phil Aroneanu, 350.org's Social Media Manager, Aroneanu stressed the importance for leaders in movements to listen and to provide infrastructure where people feel that they are part of something bigger than themselves. This may be why they partner with local leaders across the world, including inspiring "350 Messengers" like Archbishop Desmond Tutu, as well as No Impact Man Vandana Shiva, among numerous others.

Results

Numerous blogs and news outlets have covered 350.org's social media successes.
Phil Aroneanu, Social Media Manager, was awarded Care 2's Impact Prize last week. In 2010, 350.org increased the number of events organized from 5,626 to 7,189 according to one NYU Blogger
Their YouTube channel has had 1M+ views
Despite some problems with their Twitter account (every time I click through on a non-web API, I get some other user) 350.org has 28+K followers on Twitter.
350.org has 139K+ Fans on Facebook

2. Greenpeace

Since 1971, Greenpeace has acted as an environmental instigator--mother nature's PR advocate if you will. According to the Greenpeace International website, "We exist to expose environmental criminals, and to challenge government and corporations when they fail to live up to their mandate to safeguard our environment and our future."

How? Through promoting open, informed debate about society's environmental choices. We use research, lobbying, and quiet diplomacy to pursue our goals, as well as high-profile, non-violent conflict to raise the level and quality of public debate.

Communications objectives

Connect with loyal Greenpeace activists, potential new audiences.

Create an online space where potential new [and already loyal] audiences could engage online

Increase online fundraising opportunities

Results

On Facebook, Greenpeace International has 783K+ Fans
On Twitter, Greenpeace has 190K+ Followers
On their YouTube channel Greenpeace has receiving 13.8M+ total upload views
Greenpeace Executive Director says, "Social Media can Change the Planet" on CNN noting the success of their Kit Kat campaign

3. Seventh Generation

According to their website, the mission of Seventh Generation is, "to inspire a more conscious and sustainable world by being an authentic force for positive change." Within the past year things have taken a slight change at Seventh Generation since the termination of their Founder Jeffrey Hollander who led the company to successes so far.

Communications objectives

Engage with their target audiences across multiple online platforms
Provide places to resolve customer service issues
Become an industry leader in ethical, environmentally-friendly cleaning products
Drive up user-generated content
Educate consumers about environmentally-friendly cleaning products

Results

On Twitter, they have 26K+ followers
On Facebook, they have 172K+ fans
On YouTube, they have 526K+ total upload views
Their campaigns has "gone mainstream" Brandweek noted in Jan 2010, though as of recent, many have talked far more about what's next for Jeffrey Hollander as well as reasons for his departure.

4 Social Media Successes Non-profits Should See (Pt 2 of 3)

2011-04-01T12:08:00.001-04:00

In the middle of writing our upcoming eBook around social media tools (releasing circa April 2011), we've been reviewing numerous case studies that you might want to know about.

Are you attending our upcoming training in New York City on, "Social Media for Social Enterprise" on April 9? There, we'll chat with social entrepreneurs, CEOs, Presidents and CSR leaders, among others, how to use social media for social good. To learn more about all the events Carbon Outreach is organizing here.

If you're one of the above groups and curious about what's happening in social media and what's next--and are reading our blog--we want to offer YOU a discounted ticket by joining our Marketing & PR for Social Enterprise group on Meetup (@ethicalprnyc on Twitter). There, we have monthly Panels/Talks around multiple issues facing non-profits, green business and corporate social responsibility campaigns.

For you QR code ethusiasts, we've made it easy to get to our upcoming, "Social Media for Social Enterprise #sm4socent" training discounted tickets. Just scan the code in to your left.

Without ado, below are 4 case studies around social media that worked really well.

1. Truth Campaign

Run by the American Legacy Campaign is a non-profit with the aim to uncover facts about the tobacco industry. According to their website, "Legacy is dedicated to building a world where young people reject tobacco and anyone can quit."

Further, "The Foundation develops programs that address the health effects of tobacco use. We want to help all young people reject tobacco, and give everyone access to tobacco prevention and cessation services."

Communications objectives

Give survivors of tobacco a voice, successfully portraying videos across their website and YouTube channel
Legacy aimed at engaging youth, speaking in their language and "change the way they approach quitting"
Aiming to connect with vulnerable populations – youth, low-income Americans, the less educated, and racial, ethnic and cultural minorities
Social media is just one element, Legacy notes, "we work through grants, technical assistance and training, partnerships, youth activism, and counter-marketing and grassroots marketing campaigns"

Results

On YouTube, they've received 577K+ total upload views
On Twitter, they have only 400+ Followers
On Facebook, they have 93K+ Fans
The have super SEO: try typing "truth" on Google. Find their website with #1 ranking. This is way different from RED, who is really difficult to find on Google.

Challenges

The 'About Us' is fuzzy on the website. Is this a non-profit or company itself? From the consumer perspective, you have to visit their YouTube channel to learn it's organized by the American Legacy Foundation.
I was surprised to learn that American Legacy Foundation was actually established (funded) through the 1998 Master Settlement Agreement (MSA) between the tobacco industry, 46 state governments and five U.S. territories. See their homepage for more. Kinda ironic the tobacco industry has to pay for ads against itself.

2. United Nations World Food Programme

The World Food Programme is the world's largest humanitarian agency fighting hunger worldwide. According to their website, "In emergencies , we get food to where it is needed, saving the lives of victims of war, civil conflict and natural disasters. After the cause of an emergency has passed, we use food to help communities rebuild their shattered lives."

Communications objectives

Provide ways which social media users can use games and social networking to provide more meals for hungry people across the world
Ensure social networks either drive donations to WFP or themselves provide meals for the hungry
Partner with a variety of social media-friendly ventures like Zynga, makers of FrontierVille and Yo!Ville
to raise awareness of hunger across the world

Results

On Twitter, they have 103K+ Followers
On Facebook, they have 74K+ Fans
On their YouTube channel, they have 5.2M+ total upload views
Since 2007, the launch of their Free Rice Word Game has fed 4.2M+ for a day in countries like Bangladesh, Uganda and Cambodia
Another campaign spawning from this is WeFeedBack, which has fed 88K+ children, funded by the likes of PayPal

3. Create the Good

Create the Good is an organization that connects AARP members, friends and families with ways to make a difference. From the logo, it's clear this an AARP-driven campaign, according to it's website, the Create the Good Program is, "where good people get connected to opportunities to make a positive impact."

Strategy

AARP uses the Twitter account to network and point out members of the organization who are making a difference in the world.
On Twitter they also help promote other organizations and media channels making a positive impact on the lives of others.
Twitter also educates others about regional opportunities to get involved with good projects.

Results

The Create the Good Website-driven Social Network has 118K+ community members
On Twitter, they have 7.7K+ Followers
On Facebook, they have 5.3K+ Fans

4. Twitchange

According to their website, it's the Worlds Only celebrity Twitter auction, TwitChange, is an online auction in which fans bid on the chance to be followed, mentioned or retweeted on Twitter by their favorite celebrities for charity. Proceeds from the 2011 International Women's Day Charity Auction will benefit CARE.

Communications objectives

Utilize celebrity branding to raise money for charity
Be available throughout the year to raise awareness of Twitchange
Enable the yearly event to grow in size, as well as increased popularity and publicity

Results

One campaign raised $1.5M+ for tents in Haiti, as well received 35M+ visits in 4 weeks
On Twitter, Twitchange has 44K+ Followers
On YouTube, they've had 36K+ total upload views
Mashable recommended their work during the Consumer Electronics's Show giving them an award, also writing on the, "social good" of Twitchange, and its influence on Twitter

6 Successful Social Media Campaigns Social Enterprise Should See (Pt 1 of 3)

2011-03-26T13:27:00.000-04:00

In the middle of writing our upcoming eBook around social media tools (releasing circa April 2011), we've been reviewing numerous case studies that you might want to know about. Every week before our Social Media training on April 9, we'll offer more successful social media case studies your social enterprise should know about.

Are you attending our upcoming training in New York City on, "Social Media for Social Enterprise" training on April 9? There, we'll chat with social entrepreneurs, CEOs and Presidents, CSR leaders, among others, how to use social media for social good. To learn more about all the events Carbon Outreach is organizing here.

If you're one of the above groups and curious about what's happening in social media and what's next--and are reading our blog--we want to offer YOU a discounted ticket by joining our Marketing & PR for Social Enterprise group on Meetup (@ethicalprnyc on Twitter). Just enter the QR code to the left and you'll have the URL on your phone. There, we have monthly Panels/Talks around multiple issues facing non-profits, green business and corporate social responsibility campaigns.

Without ado, below are 6 Social Media for Social Enterprise Case studies that you should see...

1. Timberland, EarthKeepers Campaign

According to Timberland, their mission is, "to equip people to make a difference in their world. We do this by creating outstanding products and by trying to make a difference in the communities where we live and work."

Timberland has become an outstanding bootmaker company which walks their talk.

Communications objectives

EarthKeeper online presence is another place consumers can learn about being an EarthKeeper and Timberland’s EarthKeeping efforts
Timberland is interested in enabling their consumer base to take actions to help the environment
Using video, Timberland should enable consumers to learn about key green issues and "join the movement"
Provide an avenue to engage with consumers particularly around environmental issues--showing its environmental leadership among peers

Results

According to the Council of Public Relations Firms, 158K+ people have registered as EarthKeepers since the launch
Over 950,000 trees planted on the EarthKeeper Facebook application with 109,862,099 impressions since June 2008
On Facebook, Timberland has 352K+ fans on Facebook
On YouTube, Timberland received 68K+ views on YouTube
On Twitter, Timberland has 7.4K+ Followers

2. (RED) World AID's Day, January 2010

According to their YouTube channel, (RED) works with the worlds best brands to make unique (PRODUCT)RED™-branded products and direct up to 50% of their gross profits to the Global Fund.

Current (RED) partners include American Express (UK only), Apple, Bugaboo, Converse, Dell, Emporio Armani, FLOWE(RED) (UK only), Gap, Hallmark, Nike, Penguin and Starbucks.

Communications objectives

Partnering with Ushahidi, they could map out the success of their social media campaign in real-time.
Allow users of social media to participate in a global campaign to raise awareness of the "AID's Free Generation by 2015" (child will be born with the AIDS)
Raise awareness of the "AID's Free Generation by 2015"
Partnering with Foursquare (alongside Ushahidi) to provide an enhanced, "sense of community" and expand their audiences, they created a special foursquare badge

Results

According to the (RED) website, it's generated $160M+ for the Global Fund and 5M+ have been by HIV/AIDS programs supported by (RED) purchases
On Foursquare, (RED) has 38K+ Followers
On YouTube, they've received 5M+ total upload views
On Twitter, they've received 1M+ Followers

Challenges

From the website, I can't find information out about who actually started this initiative? Is this a corporate initiative?

3. Whole Foods

According to their website: Back in 1980, Whole Foods started out with one small store in Austin, Texas. Today, it's the world’s leader in natural and organic foods, with more than 300 stores in North America and the United Kingdom. This is a mainstream social enterprise that recognizes the importance of organic food and other products.

Communications objectives

Connect with consumers, influencers and community leaders
Learn more about their audience--including demographics of their consumers (later ensuing hot debates between them and their competitor Trader Joe's on Foursquare)
Provide outlets for Whole Foods loyal consumers to find their brand online; for potential consumers, social media should offer a place for them to gain trust for the Whole Foods online brand
Provide a space to "connect with people" as a mechanism to customer service and corporate identity, said their Interactive Art Director, Maria Erwin to Social Media Examiner

Results

Foursquare has separate stores on Foursquare; their main headquarters alone has 24K+ Check-ins to date
On Twitter, they have 1.8M+ Followers via Whole Foods HQ; their 150+ other local Twitter channels feature local initiatives and hundreds of thousands of other followers
On Facebook, they have 508K+ Fans
On YouTube, they have 1.4M+ total upload views

Challenge

Whole Foods does a lot on Foursquare, why isn't a logo put onto their website? Nor was their YouTube channel.

4. Patagonia

According to their website, "Patagonia grew out of a small company that made tools for climbers. Our values reflect those of a business started by a band of climbers and surfers, and the minimalist style they promoted. The approach we take towards product design demonstrates a bias for simplicity and utility."

What was refreshing and interesting to see on their website, "We know that our business activity – from lighting stores to dyeing shirts – creates pollution as a by-product. So we work steadily to reduce those harms. We use recycled polyester in many of our clothes and only organic, rather than pesticide-intensive, cotton."

Communications objectives

Connect and engage with loyal customers
Provide a space for customer service
Provide thought leadership about the "silent sports" which they sell clothes to, namely, for surfers, climbers, fly fisherman, trail runners and canoe and kayak paddlers

Results

On Twitter, they have 25K+ Followers
On Facebook, there are 88.8K+ Fans
On YouTube, there are 3.3M+ total upload views
Numerous blogs have recognized the great job Patagonia did using social media tools like Ignite (2009), Collaborative Thinking
(2008)
Outdoor USA Magazine included Patagonia as a winner of it's Social Media Award in 2010

5. Goodwill Industries International

Goodwill is my favorite thrift store, so excited it's part of the list. According to their website, "Goodwill Industries International enhances the dignity and quality of life of individuals, families and communities by eliminating barriers to opportunity and helping people in need reach their fullest potential through the power of work."

Communications objectives

Interact with loyal and new potential consumers via social media tools
Increase opportunities and outlets for online fundraising
"Goodwill" local franchise-style companies themselves connect and learn about local communities

Results

In 2009 alone, total revenue generated by Goodwill organizations was $3.6M+
On Twitter, they have 4.4K+ Followers
On Facebook, they have 28K+ Fans
On YouTube, they have 20K+ total upload views
Goodwill social media efforts have been recognized at Social Media Club Detroit, as well as the Network Solutions Blog, also presented on a SlideShare deck on behalf of Goodwill Northern New England

6. Starbucks

According to their website, Starbucks started in 1971. "Back then we were a roaster and retailer of whole bean and ground coffee, tea and spices with a single store in Seattle’s Pike Place Market." Today, Starbucks represents an important player in the coffee market internationally. Starbuck's Investor Relations recognized the work by their employees saying, "Starbucks credits our success on the hard work of employees; for delivering strong financial results and positioning the company for long-term, profitable growth.

Communications objectives

Connect with consumers in a place many of them already are, especially considering they offer paid wifi and office-like environment
Create avenues to provide education around ethical coffee making and distribution
Provide industry leadership around ethical coffee making and distribution
Interact more times with the potential consumer, investor and community influencers
Increase their online brand; enhance their online brand

Results

On Twitter, they have 1.3M+ Followers, their @MyStarbucksIdea campaign itself has 20K+ Followers
On Facebook, they have 20M+ Fans
On YouTube, they have 6.2M+ total upload views
Starbucks social media efforts have been praised by the Next Web as the, "Starbucks Formula", as well as Directory Journal Mashable (May 2009), Social Media Examiner (May 2010), the Brand Channel (June 2010) among many others (May 2009),

20 Social Media Statistics Social Enterprise Should Know

2011-03-23T09:09:00.001-04:00

As always, we're busy at Carbon Outreach. While creating Marketing & PR for Social Enterprise in New York City, we've also organized a series of trainings, focused around social media for social enterprise, non-profits and corporate social responsibility leaders. As well, we're writing several eBooks on the subject, including topics on video and mobile campaigns.

During our research, we've encountered numerous statistics that might help you think critically about your next online marketing campaign (including how to integrate it with your offline efforts).

The following are reasons to start and continuously revitalize your social media marketing efforts:

Facebook (infographic via DigitalSurgeons)

1. Facebook generates a staggering 770 Billion page views per month (via Social Media Today)

2. 71% of U.S. web users have Facebook accounts (via iStrategyLabs)

3. 30 Billion pieces of content (ie. links, photos and blogposts) are shared on Facebook each month (via Royal Pingdom)

4. The average user spends 55 minutes a day on Facebook (via tthompson's SlideShare deck)

5. The average user is connected to 80 community pages, groups and events (via Social Media Today). For companies, around 43% of users will 'like' a brand on Facebook and and there is at least a 17% increase in likelihood of purchase (via MarketingProfs)

5. In Feb 2011: 134,078,221 unique visitors, 3,542,770,228 visits (via SiteAnalytics). That's a lot of visits, what could it mean for your social enterprise, non-profit or CSR campaign?

Twitter (infographics via DigitalSurgeons)

6. For companies, around 25% of users will follow a 'brand' and 67% will purchase from that brand. Versus Facebook where 40% of users 'like' a brand and 51% of those who like that brand will purchase (infographic and info via DigitalSurgeons). This means when your business is on Twitter, your followers are more likely to buy.

7. On Twitter, 22.5% of Twitter users accounted for 90% of activity in 2010 (via kcorrick's SlideShare deck). In this, there's room for your business to align yourself with those power users!

8. In Feb 2011, Twitter had 27,281,814 unique visitors and 174,670,683 visits (via SiteAnalytics). That's a lot!

9. There are 14 Million daily active Twitter accounts, 40 Million active monthly (via kcorrick's SlideShare deck). There's opportunity to connect with active users where they visit daily!

10. Twitter still has great uptake. Last month alone, there were around 460K new Twitter accounts PER DAY created [as of February 2011] (via KissMetrics)

YouTube

11. YouTube increased in importance by 20% from 2009 to 2011 (via HubSpot SlideShare deck)

12. YouTube viewership continues to grow (see left Quantcast statistics graph as of March 2011)

13. The average American Internet user watches 30 minutes of video online per day (increased 40% over 2009). This is not to say that social media shouldn't be used in conjunction with television--as the average television consumption per day is still at give hours. (via ArikHanson.com)

14. In March, total video streams see significant year-over-year growth up 31.5% to 14.5 Billion streams (via Nielsen Blog). If you don't use YouTube, use video!

15. Visitors who watch product videos are 85% more likely to buy than if they didn't watch the video (via Invodo of Internet Retailer, April 2010)

16. With proper optimization, video increases the chance of getting front-page results by 53x, and is the "easiest way to a first-page ranking" (via Forrester Blog, January 2009)

17. Video useage is likely to increase sevenfold from 2009 to 2014 (Cisco Visual Networking Index, June 2010). Many customers are looking out for what your company is doing through video. When will you start taking advantage of that space?

LinkedIn

18. LinkedIn is the world's largest professional network. In Feb 2011: 15,229,622 unique visitors, 51,630,216 visits (via SiteAnalytics)

19. LinkedIn has 101 Million users worldwide, including 44% from the US (via amover's SlideShare deck). Worldwide, LinkedIn hovers at the 10th most popular sites across Europe and India according to AppApeal.

20. Of active members, 17.8 Million are in LinkedIn Groups, with 1.5 Million new members per week and 1.2 Million new posts and comments happening weekly (via Mashable)

Article Contributors

Erica Grigg, Carbon Outreach
Aliza Burns, Carbon Outreach

7 Location-Based Marketing Tactics for Social Enterprise

2011-01-10T13:14:00.000-05:00

We're elated to inform you about our new meetup. On 18 January, our Marketing & PR for Social Enterprise (@ethicalprnyc) will have an event on 'Foursquare, Facebook Places & Green Marketing'featuring Wendy E. Brawer of Green Map (@greenmap) (with two decades of experience in green mapping) and Carbon Outreach co-Founder Tim Watson (@sociallytim). There, we'll consider how your social enterprise should consider including location-based marketing in your social media strategy in 2011.

Prior to our conversation, we thought it'd be useful to do some research. Below is a summary of recommendations for social enterprise to use location-based marketing services.

First, what is location-based marketing? Wikipedia has lots on what they call location-based media which, "allows for the enhancement of any given environment offering explanation, analysis and detailed commentary on what the user is looking at through a combination of video, audio and images and text." For social enterprise, this means enabling users (of location-based services) to get rewards, specials and other feedback that increase their engagement with your brand.

Since Foursquare has become one of the most popular location-based media tools, we'll focus on it. In December 2010, Foursquare says it has 5 million users worldwide. In March 2010, CNN called Foursquare a market leader among location-based technologies. What's the key to Foursquare's success? AOL's Daily Finance says it is because, "Foursquare has been able to encourage the development of a richer ecosystem around its primary check-in service."

Now, Foursquare started as a fundraising tool at South by South West in 2009. Beth Kanter (@kanter) wrote about Pete Cashmore's prediction, "Foursquare would be the next Twitter for 2010," recommending that non-profits should seriously consider how Foursquare could change fundraising practices. If you're not reading Beth, I highly recommend.

What better time than now? Following are great uses of location-based technology for your social enterprise (depending on whether your organization accepts donations) these tactics could work well within your social media strategy in 2011:

1. CO-ORDINATE CAMPAIGNS. More recently, Just Means' contributing writer Maria Stepanek (@causeglobal), wrote about an Earthjustice campaign that on the San Francisco BART public transit system, asked BART riders to "check in" with them on Foursquare. For every check-in, one of Earthustice's major donors is pledging $10 to help the nonprofit's attorneys fight environmental pollution.

Success: Earthjustice raised $10K+ within weeks.

2. ADD TIPS. Another campaign noted by @Causeglobal on Just Means: Big Love Little Hearts who's Chief Organizer Estrella Rosenberg @charityestrella) who used Foursquare successfully through adding 'tips' to some 600 locations. "1 in 100 children are born w/ a heart defect. Pulse-Ox screening saves lives - you can too! Check in with the hashtag #100x100." Organizers embedded a link in that "tip" on Foursquare that drove people to the nonprofit's Web site.

Success: Seven hours into the campaign, a donor said she would contribute $1 for every person who checked in. Within 12 hours of launching the campaign, the hashtag had been used 11,703 times, and the donor was so impressed, she ended up giving the nonprofit $25,000.

Another way to use 'Tips' might be like that of the History Channel that placed 'Tips' in historically significant locations around the US to promote their 'America: The Story of US' Show. Alongside providing incentive for users (through prize drawing), the History Channel made the show the most watched in the channel's history. Thanks @bostonmike for the info on his great 'Top 10 Ways Enterprise Marketers Can Leverage Foursquare' slidedeck.

3. MARKETING YOUR PRESENCE. Be like Whole Foods, Trader Joes or thousands of stores that put Foursquare clings onto their windows. When claiming your space, you'll have statistics on most recent visitors, gender breakdown of customers, when customers check-in, along with special offers (below).

4. MAKE DEALS. Have a physical office space? What's successful: have it coincide with a special, offering influencers reason to check-in.

Various kinds of special offers include those below (thanks to Foursquare Business Page and Smart Marketing for recommendations):

First Timer Deal: Item offered at free/ discounted for first check-in (show phone at check-out).

Group discount: In this offer, offer a group of people significant discounts. Hey, if your consumers have big families, this works! Group discounts are a great way to build even more exposure for your business as more stories are generated through multiple check-ins.

Loyalty Deal: Think of this offer as a business punch card. These deals may be claimed by customers after a certain number of check-ins.

Charity Deal: Check in and we will donate $$ to a charity of your choice.

Mayor Deal: Offer for the person who checks in the most.

5. PROFESSIONAL SOCIAL NETWORKING. Your company doesn't have to have a store to check-in to places. In fact, as @ChristineG notes in her blog, "online business owners can use Foursquare to make connections—the same way they do via other social networking sites." This means you don't have to have a physical address to interact with other users--instead, you can indicate where you are, including at professional events like conferences, seminars or meetings.

6. ADD TO-DOs. This great idea was recommended by Heather Mansfield of @nonprofitorgs. Heather noted this was another way to market the causes and non-profits within your city. The only down side is you're forced to add 'To-Dos' with brick-and-mortar locations.

7. FOLLOW YOUR USERS. Many users are likely to also be active on Twitter (see demographics here), by following influencers on Twitter, you'll be able to increase customer interaction.

12 Social Media Trends for Social Enterprise in 2011

2011-01-06T11:39:00.001-05:00

2010 saw many ups and downs in the environmental space, including the shocking BP oil spill. For 2011, many environmentalists have high hopes, as 2010 gave more reason than ever to improve the way ethical business thinks about the triple bottom line. In this article, I'll cover ways your social enterprise can and should use social media/ social marketing in 2011.

Before delving into what's in store for 2011, let's check out what happened in 2010 around social media for business and social enterprise.

Some Google favorites around social media trends for 2010 include two Mashable lists (Mashable list and other Mashable list), both of which include social buying sites like Grupon and mobile advertising. According to Bloomberg, social media trends focused around niche marketing (the kind that Max Gladwell probably enjoyed seeing with his successful TED spaghetti sauce case study on the importance of niche marketing). On the other side, Jeremiah Owyang (@owyang) focuses mainly on how businesses can keep up in the social media space noting, "real time is *not* fast enough".

As for ethical-focused social media, Community Organizer 2.0 Debra Askanase (@askdebra) had some great thoughts on social media for sustainability-focused business and non-profits for 2010's trends. For non-profits, the Non-profit Technology Network recommendeds to-do's for 2011 that include enabling mobile [ie. giving campaigns and mobile-enabled homepages] and increasing engagement through interaction with social communities.

Onto 2011 trends, there are many greats including Social Media Explorer, who includes QR codes (scannable barcodes for mobiles). Reuters tells us 2011 will bring bigger and better cause-a-thons, "will gain in popularity as savvy entrepreneurs will capitalize on the relationship-building advantages." Looking forward, Entrepreneur.com recommends watching out for video content streaming straight from blogs.

After having observed and executed numerous social media outreach strategies in 2010, it seems the following could be employed and improved:

1. Augmented reality for meetings--starting off with telepresence meeting spaces. Being in a social media space, meetings and webinars are an important element of learning capabilities brought about through online communications. @Tomraftery talked on successfully using telepresence with SAP in December 2010. Skype will continue with its market share despite it's one-day outage. I'm still an avid consumer, not because they gave me $1.00 credit, but rather, the CEO's apology e-mail.

2. Location-based technologies more important. Forget about handing fliers to cars, apartment, houses, cars or bicycles. Your green business should be easily accessible via Foursquare, Facebook Places and Gowalla. Learn from Whole Foods Market, who has had lots of success.

2011 may bring more niche green location-based technology like the Locavore

App, Green Map app or Travel Efficient app via MapQuest (thanks to the Daily Green).

3. Social media planning. No longer is set up a Facebook and Twitter account and just do it going to be good enough. Brain Solis said it, "failing to plan is planning to fail". Don't worry, Mashable has the social media plan in 5 steps. Social media plans look much like marketing plans and should contain a 'Background' of your company, Objectives, Key messages, Problem (ie. target audience you're trying to connect with) and Solutions (ie. which social media tools you'll use and how).

4. Social buying. Grupon has revolutionized the way we buy things; together. Carrotmob, on the other hand, has enabled group purchasing to improve business' responsibility. Now, companies like GreenDeals.org have the opportunity to capitalize on the green consumer market.

5. Question & Answer. Your newest way to find out what your audience is asking about? Quora is taking the market by storm but these sites likely won't have a green equivalent. But already, the uptake on this has been massive. This is, again, other way to learn more about your target audience through interaction.

6. Mobile advertising (especially with-in Adroid and iPhone apps) and mobile giving. While Haiti continues to struggle with its infrastructure 2010 showed the Red Cross continues to have major success in the text-to-donate and online giving donation platforms aiding Haiti's recovery.

7. Use metrics! Know how successful your social media outreach campaigns have been through Google Analytics or HootSuite's statistics.

8. I agree with DreamGrow that campaigns will get more dynamic, integrating off- and online actions. This means integrating your online campaigns with offline outreach. It's simple; once you're in full swing of your campaign, you make your people offline see your online community. Marketing your online community will get bigger and more information and transparency will contiune to be key!

9. Social media incentives. How are you rewarding your consumers? I agree with this Host Wisely list saying it might look like a discount or membership card.

10. Know your audience by name. Speaking of wisely, your customers are going to be more self-interested. Knowing your target audience is more important than ever. @Lornali spoke on this in 2009 covering green-only social networks. In 2011, new networks will spring up--targetted toward the sustainability community. Katie Fehrenbacher, on behalf of GigaOm brought up another list of 10 green social networks. In 2011, green marketer's should be more interested than ever to see where their consumers are. If more green networks spring up, proliferate your strategy!

11. Sharing. The Real stuff I mean. Websites that enable you to reduce your consumption through social media sharing will get bigger and better, like Rentalic or Toolzdo.

12. Count our carbon emissions. Accenture noted this might happen through more mobile applications--likely targeted toward individual emissions reductions. More social media campaigns will start to measure the carbon emissions alongside ROI, like Envido has done in the UK.

10 ways social media can help achieve MDG's

2010-08-04T22:56:00.001-04:00

Tomorrow, I'll be part of a panel presenting on 'Social Media for Youth Leaders' to the International Youth Conference. During this two-day conference at the United Nations, 600+ international participants come together to consider how to best motivate their peers and governments to move towards Millennium Development Goals by 2015. With less than 2 short years, achieving the MDG's will take lots of hard work. However, several believe it's still possible.

To quickly recap what are the Millenium Development Goals are?

1. Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger

2. Achieve universal primary education

3. Promote gender equality and empower women

4. Reduce childhood mortality

5. Improve maternal health

6. Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases

7. Ensure environmental sustainability

8. Develop a global partnership for development

There are many ways to achieve each of these goals. Each depends on the country and their political, social and economic structures. However, many nations are interested in improving their reach in the world economy by having better technology infrastructures. How can we use the power of the internet and new technology to help reach the above MDGs?

Here are 8 recommendations:

1. Mobile technologies can help inform citizens of life-saving information

2. Technology and collective knowledge enables communities to build better systems for climate adaptation and mitigation

3. Exchanges of information are essential to all vast social changes. According to the World Association for Christian Communication, "Whatever one thinks of Millennium Development Goals, providing access to information and knowledge helps address issues related to poverty, education, health, politics and environment."

4. Providing a platform for increasing awareness of citizens internationally, especially important to areas like the Asia-Pacific region--where 2/3 of the worlds poorest live (641m people). According to Minar Pimple, Asia's Deputy Director of UN Millennium Campaign, "the media has the power to give voice to the voiceless".

5. Social media can 'crowdsource' petitions quickly and easily (like the USA's ONE campaign)

6. Technology (should) strategically connect constituents and political participants

7. Social media's transparency enables constituents to hold governments accountable

8. Giving women technology and empowering them to be digital citizens, according to UNGAID, empowers everybody

10 ways to implement SEO campaigns for green business

2010-08-03T10:37:00.001-04:00

We've been busy at Carbon Outreach. We co-organized the Green Entrepreneur Summit in New York on 22 July, and presented there on Marketing & PR Panel on 'Scaling Up Without Selling Out'. We posted photos to Facebook on the sold-out event, and heard lots of positive feedback from attendees about how this was "the best green event of the summer".

We've also started a new Meetup on Ethical Marketing & PR in New York City (find us on @ethicalPRNYC on Twitter) that's gaining traction from green communicators across the globe! This week, Tim Watson, our CTO, presented on 'Using SEO Effectively' for green business and we wanted to share. His presentation is below, along with 10 recommendations for using SEO in green communications campaigns.

Effectively using SEO for Green Businesses

View more presentations from Carbon Outreach.

Top 10 considerations for Green Businesses implementing SEO

Take an integrated approach to marketing
While SEO can greatly improve your company’s exposure among searches. You should take a broad approach when thinking of how you will market your green products, services or not-for-profit. You need to consider where your consumers spend their time and when are they ready to hear your message. Social media, traditional PR and other marketing tools can be as or more effective than SEO.

SEO takes time…it does not work over night
It can take months to implement an SEO initiative. This is because to properly implement an SEO initiative you need to complete the following steps:

Determining your keywords
Testing those keywords via Adwords and or AdCenter
Optimizing your site for those keywords
Promoting your site to get other sites to link to you
Submitting your site to search engines
Getting your site crawled and properly ranked by the search engines
Testing your search ranking and then re-optimizing based off results (repeating steps a-c)

Specific Keywords are better than general
It is nearly impossible to rank the top search results for keywords such as 'Vegan', 'Green' or 'Hybrid'. There is too much competition for these keywords for you to rank high. Anyway, these keywords are too specific. People searching for products or services usually start with a general search and then refine their search as they better know what they want and as they are closer to buying a product or service. This means that specific search terms are more likely to get the sale! A good specific keyword might be 'Vegan caterers in Manhattan'.

Test your keywords via Google Adwords or Microsoft AdCenter
After you come up with what you think are good search terms, test you keywords buy running some Adwords or AdCenter campaigns. This will help you understand really which search terms drive sales and traffic.

Use a sitemap
Crawlers need to be able to crawl all the web pages of your web site. A sitemap is a web page that simply has a link to all the web pages within your site. When a crawler finds this page, they use it to discover and then index all the web pages on your web site.

Use standard HTML tags
Crawlers may use content in the TITLE and H1 tags as identifiers as to what type of content is on the web site….so use these tags.

Use Meta Tags
Crawlers use the meta tags KEYWORD and DESCRIPTION when determining what type of content in on that web page. Use the keyword tag to suggest keywords that are relevant to the web page. Use the description tag to contain a short description of the web page.

Rankings change
Your page rank is determined by how the search algorithm ranks you against your competition. If the search algorithm changes or you get new competition, your ranking might change. Therefore, you should test your search rankings on a regular basis and then based off the results determine if you need to re-optimize your site.

Link to high quality sites
If you link to high quality sites, then the search engine assumes you are also a high quality site.

Get high quality sites link to you
Search is a popularity game. If high quality sites link to you, then the search engine assumes you are a credible site that deserves to be ranked high.

BONUS: Avoid looking like a link farm or spam
Link farms are web sites that just contain links to other sites. Often these sites get paid for every link clicked on their web page. They provide little to no content. Avoid looking like these sites, because search engines (and many searches) see these sites as spam and try to pull those sites from their listings.

Value of social media: 19 reasons it wins you customers

2010-06-01T09:00:00.000-04:00

There's been a lot of talk about social media. In the following article, I want to address what's been said about the value of social media, as well as add several recommendations about how green companies and organizations will find social media tools valuable in 2010 and beyond.

In 2008, USA Today said companies were turning users into profits. Monetizing social media companies such as Twitter and Facebook was a hot topic in 2009. Venture capitalist blogs like Venture Dig wrote about it. Search Engine Marketers like Search Engine Land wrote about it. Mashable asked: who will monetize social media?

By 2010, organizations like Social Media Today asked the same questions: how will companies make money using social media tools? TechCrunch also asked, what's the value of social media? One Huffington Post story, written by the VP of Dell's Social Media, wrote, isn't the value of social media what business is about? The Social Media Examiner noted lead generation and brand advocacy were two important factors in businesses' finding value in using social media tools.

Speaking specifically about online retailers, the Next Web Social Media blog notes the most important object for retail shops using social media tools is to convey deals and offers. Another blog notes 'sexier' campaigns have more engaged audiences.

Finally, Brand Week boldly stated its value of every Facebook fan: $3.60 (via Vitrue and representing a Facebook fanbase of 1 million which equals $3.6 million in media spend). "It's important to understand that once you build that fan base, you want to make sure you're leveraging it," said Michael Strutton, Chief Product Officer at Vitrue.

For green businesses and non-profits, many social media analysis covers how to stay in touch with green issues such as Planet Green's 15 ways to use social media for green good, including finding and attending green events. Ecopreneurist also wrote about using the web to build your green business. Mashable also wrote about how to find summer green initiatives using social media tools like Twitter (in 2009).

Though there's been debate about the value of social media, there are many reasons to invest time and money into social media marketing as part of your communications portfolio for your green company or non-profit.

Nineteen reasons are outlined below:

1. Improves customer feedback (DM, @reply, blogposts, e-mail through Facebook) this means direct feedback about product launches or coming back from negative PR (take Domino's for example--negative customer feedback made Domino's launch a new and improved social media launch)

2. Cost-effective says social media expert @jowyang (tools are free--time is expensive and easily wasted if you're inexperienced)

3. Tools enable community building around your product and how it relates to sustainability. @Amyrsward on building a sustainable community (visible through your Twitter followers and Facebook likes)

4. Increases brand loyalty; take the case of Mashable's analysis of NPR listeners in 2010

5. Naturally viral (including videos, blogposts & #hashtags [like #Twestival)

6. When your audience sees Twitter or Facebook messages daily, you have higher chances of active customers--word of mouth is valuable

7. Makes learning about your competitors easy (What are customers saying? What are employees saying? What's their price point? Are they authentically green companies?)

8. Increases brand awareness

9. Video and picture content lowers user education costs (especially great for retailers with different/interesting products). According to Jim Stein, CEO of American Ratings Corporation, businesses which educate consumers find more value in higher quality products and services; this is true online and offline

10. Improves SEO (Search Engine Optimization)

11. Livefeeds of conferences and seminars increases event attendance and engage participants

12. Measurable interactions online (How many RTs? How many Fans or Followers? How much sales?)

13. Green and sustainability-focused companies are consistently thinking about their identity & mission because of transparency (take the example of Mindful Metropolis (a Chicago-based environmental publication) that have admitted they need $20,000 to cover their budget gap)

14. Enables customers and businesses to create and improve trust

15. Connects with customers in a multifaceted way

16. Uses platforms that a variety of demographics interact with daily

17. Creative campaigns s hows your company is innovative and an industry leader

18. Connects with online and offline journalists increasing PR potential

19. Improves your relationship and improves your businesses' understanding of target audiences through Foursquare

Green & Mom Tweet-up in Chicago for #ToMamaWithLove!

2010-05-19T13:37:00.000-04:00

In just 1 hour, the Carbon Outreach crew is driving our Hertz Prius to Chicago from Brooklyn for some great events in the Chicago sustainability community.

We're proud to support green companies and organizations in New York and Chicago, including Green Festival on 22-23 May and Mindful Metropolis's Green Carpet Gala on 21 May. We'll also be doing some filming for our upcoming YouTube series on 'Green business and PR' to be announced in June.

Our addition to this Chicago 'Week of Green' is a Tweet-up (hashtag #ChiGreen #ToMamaWithLove) on 20 May to connect green moms and families, and we're excited!

Why are we interested, you ask? We got inspired! In a conversation with Stacey Monk this week at Epic Change (an amazing non-profit that has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for kids in Tanzania) we learned about how they're at it again.

This time, they have a goal of $50K for @MamaLucy, the head of a multifaceted school in Tanzania. Funds raised will be invested in support of Mama Lucy Kamptoni, a remarkable grassroots changemaker in Tanzania who once sold chickens and used her income to build a primary school that now provides a high-quality education to over 400 children in Arusha. Her next goal, which To Mama With Love seeks to fund, is to build a boarding facility on campus so that every child who attends her school has a place to call home.

For this, they started ToMamaWithLove.org and associated #ToMamaWithLove especially for American Mother's Day. What better way to support your green friends and mom than donate?

Since there are so many wonderful green moms out there, I've partnered with Global Green Pals, a green toy company on 20 May (@carbonoutreach's birthday) to give all my birthday presents to this extremely worthy cause. Charity Water started raising money through birthday party fundraising several years ago, and I think it's a great idea to feel good about turning a year older and re-routing your presents to people that really need them.

Hope to see you there!

Donations have now closed on behalf of Carbon Outreach. Do donate directly to ToMamaWithLove.org (and feel good that 100% of proceeds go directly to a great cause!)

Lessons from BPs #Oilspill: Social media for crisis communications

2010-05-03T21:42:00.001-04:00

Just as Earth Month ended, the BP Oil Spill has hit the environmental community with a blindsided fury. Across Twitter conversations, Facebook updates and embeds and YouTube videos and replies, the world is watching the next actions of BP. In reaction, BP says it's doing as much as it can and is actively engaging in crisis communications.

For us, crisis communications is a sub-set of Public Relations designed to protect and defend an individual, company or organization from facing a public challenge to its reputation. Social media has clearly changed how companies handle negative publicity. As Brian Solis noted in 2008 in "Crisis Communications for the Social Web",

"For the first time, we have the ability to identify and address potential crises as they surface. And not only do we have the ability to engage with people to address their grievances or discontent, we can also learn from each engagement and feed the corresponding lessons, experiences, and criticisms back into the sales, service, and product development departments to change everything for the better."

It's like this: G ood news travels fast. Bad news travels faster. But before you get into such a rut, why not consider: how did I get here? Watching the warning signs is the best way to avoid disaster, and BP may or may not have seen their faulty equipment. Either way, it's best to identify warning signs that a crisis is developing, says the Institute for PR.

According to one AM radio dialogue on crisis communications around a government & social media roundtable, "it's not another avenue to push your press release", rather "we should share information and active engage with others".

Social media tools like YouTube, Facebook and Twitter are multifaceted and valuable tools for PR & Marketing. Below, I focus on aspects of social media that BP utilized for crisis communications, as well as #CrisisCamp, an international, mostly-online community that's coming to BPs rescue via Google mapping and Twitter tools.

Though the main focus is on the #OilSpill, this helps even the greenest and well-meaning company come back from public mistakes, including but not limited to, negative feedback from customers or disgruntled former employees.

The Good:

BP as a company isn't completely heartless. Rather, they're trying to show they're doing something to stop millions of gallons of oil spill from their underground drilling facility. In social media terms, they've done good things, including

Stepping-up within the first few days (though arguably still late)
Creating a Twitter account (@BP_America)
They've admitted responsibility and are talking about what their next actions are, says a recent blogpost
BP has finally started updating it's Facebook page (previously updating it around February 2010)
BP has established a telephone number for oil spill related claims. The call-in number is +1 800.440.0858, and it's available 24/7

The Bad:

Things BP could improve upon. Before BP shares were so seriously devalued, could more time or money spent on infrastructure to listen to employees have helped this situation? Imagine if you knew about problems within your business before wasting time and resources.

Absent or anti-social, social media outreach is a symptom of a larger problem--internal communications processes must be equally as flawed.

Publishing all @BP_America press release tweets IN CAPITAL LETTERS before 28 April. To the Twitter community, CAPITAL LETTERS is like SHOUTING
They're Twitter account only follows 9 accounts, mostly government agencies like @Whitehouse. This shows their disregard for those actively involved and who have the most at stake--especially leaders in the Gulf Coast region.
Not clearly informing their audience about the exact steps they were taking through some kind of video or picture content. Rather, agencies like Al Jazeera English made videos describing the problem.

The Ugly:

BP has been highly invested in petroleum since the early 20th century. Needless to stay, it's moving slowly towards environmental sustainability, and beside social media, there are many ways that it's imagine could be improved. Maybe the most important step would actually be to invest more highly in renewables and improve it's transparency--because companies that don't commit themselves to relentlessly understanding and engaging with their consumers--are bound to fail.

Using social media as a 1-way platform for communications; Twitter & Facebook should not be used like billboards because PR is now a 2-way conversation
Only briefly mentioning other organizations and responding publicly via Twitter--In the most recent 20 tweets, just 5 mentioned other partner organizations helping to coordinate volunteers
Not recognizing the sentiments of individual Twitter users by replying publicly
BP has done little or no work on releasing footage of the problem and explaining exactly their solution

#CrisisCamp to the rescue

Co-Op style organizations like Crisis Commons are coming together over teleconference, wikisand in-person meetings called Crisis Camps to make solutions-oriented technologies. For instance, an Oil Spill Widget directing public and response organizations with vital information. Another important feature is their Grassroots Mapping Tool, which is in the process of happening. Follow the #ccoil feeds for all the developments. Another great feature is geo-tagged pictures via #oilreport and @oilreport, who are letting observers know exactly how to map the crisis.

Take away for green business:

This isn't the first time oil has spilled from a refinery or tanker. It hopefully will be the last. Either way, green and sustainability-focused companies can learn from the mistakes of other organizations and increase connections with consumers.

We certainly hope in the coming years and generations, business will use its power to enable government and society to think proactively about the triple bottom line--not only financial, but also environmental and social developments. Otherwise, we'll forever be crisis communicators.

50+ Green Twitter Accounts to Follow this #EcoMonday

2010-03-11T12:17:00.001-05:00

Using Twitter isn't about 140-character Haiku's, tweeting at 3am, stopping living your real life offline.

Social media is about using online tools--primarily, to make your offline life better. These power Twitter users (focusing on sustainability, green jobs and clean tech) improve the experience of Twitter users and sometimes seriously brighten up our days:

1	Adam	Vaughan	@Adamvaughan_uk Journalist at Guardian [UK]
2	Andy	Hobsbawm	@dothegreenthing Helps you do one green thing monthly
3	Ari	Meisel	@liontex Green building consultant; Author
4	Asheen	Phansey	@Asheen President, Quaking Aspen; Adjunct Professor, Babson
5	Biana	Alexander	@ConsciousTV Online video on green throughout the USA
6	Chris	Baskind	@chrisbaskind Director of Web Operations, Viva Verde Media
7	Christina	Wood	@ChristinaVWood Policy Developer, Planet Positive
8	Christine	Esposito	@TerracomChicago President & Chief Tweeter at Terracom Public Relations
9	Cian	O'Donovan	@Cian Media & Tech Consultant, 10:10
10	Claire	Carlton	@WWF_Climate 1 of several World Wildlife Fund Twitter accounts--fun and playful
11	Dave	Hampton	@carboncoach Dave trains groups about carbon & helps individuals reduce
12	David	Wilcox	@davidwilcox Also 'Social Reporter' David documents social innovation in London
13	David	Connor	@davidcoethica David supports CSR internationally
14	David	Roberts	@drgrist David has funny and bold tweets about environmental activism
15	Dominique	Camacho	@SustainableNYC A great store on the Lower East Side, NYC
16	Don	Carli	@dcarli Senior Research Fellow, ISC--Don has informative & engaging tweets
17	Dorothee	Royal	@dorotheeroyal Dorothee is a social entrepreneur and is moving quickly
18	Dorothee	Royal	@OrganicNation Soon becoming the blog on USA organic development
19	Erica	Ringewald	@greenwatchdogNY Does what it says on the tin
20	Esperanza	Garcia	@esperanzagarcia Esperanza is mobilizing 1000's of Filipino youths
21	Gavin	Starks	@agentgav Director of AMEE, Gavin has thought-provoking tweets
22	Gia	Machlin	@Ecoplum At the forefront of green business in New York City
23	Greg	McLachlan	@workcabin Working for green jobs in Canada
24	Hugh	Byrne	@greenbiztweets Highly reputable twitter power-user
25	Jen	Khatchatrain	@ecochic Mom & green journalist
26	Jen	Kaplan	@greenhance Author; Blogger; Marketing Faculty at Maymouth Uni.
27	Jessy	Tolkan	@JessyTolkan Green jobs advocate
28	Jill	Fehrenbacher	@JillFehr Publisher, Inhabitat.com
29	Joe	Solomon	@engagejoe Social Media, 350.org
30	Joel	Makower	@makower Author; Founder of Greenbiz.com
31	Judy	Harper	@JudyGreenEdge Director, GreenEdge NYC
32	Julian L.	Wong	@GreenLeapFwd Senior Policy Analyst, Center for American Progress
33	Kevin	Coyle	@ClimateGuru Education VP at National Wildlife Federation
34	Kevin	Powell	@kevin_powell Writer; Activist; Author
35	Kim	Boriin	@thegreenboriin Green meeting planner
36	Kim	Masoner	@Beachcleanup Does what it says on the tin
37	Kimo	Goree	@Kimogoree Director of Reportig Services, International Institute of Sustainable Development
38	Liz	Neves	@Raganella7 Sustainable Living Consultant
39	Liz	McLellan	@Hyperlocavore Founder, free yard sharing community
40	Mario	Vellandi	@mvellandi Digital PR & CSR
41	Max	Gladwell	@maxgladwell Blogger, Social Media for green advocate
42	Melissa	Graham	@Sustainablecook Purple Asparagus, Head Spear
43	Micah	Jason	@cleantechnyc NYC-based incubator for clean-tech companies
44	Michael	Klugman	@mklugman K-12 Science & Tech Supervisor, NY State
45	Nathan A.	Winters	@Follownathan Author, blogger, Chats up #Agchat
46	Paul	Malouf	@PaulMalouf Blogger, Consultant
47	Paul	Smith	@greensmith Blogger & Sustainability Consultant Extraordinaire
48	Phil	Clark	@Zerochamp Digital Director at UBM Built Environment
49	Rizwan	Tayabali	@Globosocial Social entrepreneur & non-profit Consultant
50	Rob	Smart	@Jambutter Opinionated Blogger & #Profood advocate
51	Simon	Berry	@Colalife An amazing CSR campaign to save lives with existing CocaCola networks
52	Tim	Winkler	@TimWinkler Chicago-based green connector
53	Tom	Savage	@Brightgreen Social entrepreneur, Founder of Bright Green
54	Will	Johnston	@Growandmake Oregon-based green store & sustainable living guide
55	William	Shaw	@Artsandecology Royal Society of Manufacturer's & Arts, Arts & Ecology Centre
56	Zachary	Cohen	@Zacharycohen Social Media strategist, blogger & #ProFood friendly

Can social media end waste? 12 interesting waste reduction campaigns

2010-03-01T15:47:00.000-05:00

This post is inspired by my week with No Impact Man (#4) and 6 others for the No Impact Week Challenge that invited curious New Yorkers into the world of zero impact, and really changed my week to say the least.

Recently moving to Brooklyn, New York, I've gotten lots of positive responses from green and social media-friendly New Yorkers. Brooklyn seems like another ideal spot for sustainable innovation. In fact, you'll never want to leave! Things you might love include sprawling green spaces like Prospect and Brooklyn Bridge Park, USA's largest Co-op--Park Slope Food Co-Op, Brooklyn Brewery, numerous museums, various and diverse communities, as well as the Brooklyn Grand Army Plaza Farmer's Market (among nearly a dozen other farmer's markets) and tons of [vegetarian, raw & locally-sourced] restaurant options.But I had some doubts before the first few weeks.

After several years of being seriously involved with green business in London and Chicago, it felt for a little while that New York City generally didn't support a green lifestyle. Take, for example, garbage. According to Wikipedia, New Yorkers use 12,000 tons (or 24,000 pounds) of residential trash per day. Walking past piles of trash everyday, including beds, computers, dressers among other wares can make the average environmentalist slightly discouraged to say the least.

While New York has a very visible trash problem, trash is a problem throughout the USA. The Clean Air Council says Americans produce on average 4.4 pounds of waste per person per year, and up to 56 tons of trash per American over their lifetime. OECD statistics say Americans consume nearly 2 times more than the average Japanese person.

Since trash is such a problem in America, I thought it important to investigate and share those social media campaigns aimed at reducing trash consumption and increase local consumption and exchange. (All of these organizations are located either in the USA, UK or Canada, but I'd love to hear about organizations in other countries.) The following are 12 campaigns using social media to their advantage:

1. Hate Waste, United Kingdom. In addition to fliers around major cities like London and Glasgow, 'Love Food, Hate Waste' enables busy city folks to better prepare dishes with their leftovers. They're on Twitter, Facebook, blog and iPhone app, too!

2. Freecycle. [The above video is produced by the America Association of Retired People on their YouTube channel] Besides having international recognition as the leader in lending and exchanging (with 4000+ communities), freecycle is one of the most trusted brands internationally and an example of what some are calling the 'freeconomy'. Freecycle is on Twitter and Facebook.

3. The Story of Stuff, International. With a powerful, short and sweet naration, this story has garnered national attention. The Story is on Twitter, Facebook, has a YouTube account and blogs.

4. No Impact Man, New York City. Almost singlehandedly, Colin Beaven is a new media journalist focused on environmental issues. He blogs, Tweets and is on Facebook (the film also has a Facebook Fan Page, too!). Colin did an inspiring documentary about reducing his net impact to zero for one year with his wife and daughter and the results may surprise you. So much happened, Colin also wrote a book about it.

5. Earth Hour, International. In 2009, it was the world's largest mass participation event ever! This is a campaign by the World Wildlife Fund that aims to reduce electricity consumption. Started in 2007 in Sydney, Australia with 2.2 million homes and businesses, by 2008 more

than 50 million switched off, and in 2009 1 billion turned off their lights for 1 hour. There's something to be said of campaigns that has 3 unofficial Facebook pages, although a clear YouTube channel, and blog this campaign is definitely grassroots.

6. Waste Watch, United Kingdom. Started in 1987, Waste watch had a mission to make waste issues mainstream and encourage waste reduction, reuse and recycling. Just moving into the social media space, Waste Watch is on Twitter, though they've successfully reached over 2 million children and have helped train hundreds of environmental education professionals and shape policy.

7. Unpackaged, United Kingdom. Started in 2006 by Catherine Conway, this social enterprise and store in London that's been extremely successful in reducing their store packaging to zero and urging customers to do the same. They are on Twitter and Facebook, and have some of the BEST salted carmel you'll ever try in your life.

8. Waste Reduction Week, Canada. In the 1980's a number of Recycling Councils and environmental organizations began holding provincial Reycling and Waste Reduction weeks. In 2001, the same organizations thought it high time to pool their resources and extend nationally into the Waste Reduction Week (WRW). In 2010, 13 provinces and territories are participating. The annual event happens the third week in October and covers the impact of waste in Canada; urging Canadians to reduce waste. Find them on Twitter, YouTube and Facebook.

9. The Rubbish Diet, United Kingdom. Another single-handed zero waste challenge by Karen Cannard to slim her rubbish bin in 8 weeks. Karen is on Twitter, Facebook and recommends zero waste on SlideShare. The Chartered Institute of Waste Management awarded Karen the Recycling Champion of 2009, and Karen is wholeheartedly passionate about reducing waste.

Eating locally and sustainably means less waste. Dually, supporting local farmers means less room for genetically modified seeds, preservatives and a better quality of life. That's why #9 and #10 are dedicated to local foods campaigns.

10. Organic Nation, United States. This blog, started by Dorothee Royal and Mark Boyer

explore sustainable and organic farming and foods across the United States. The site is also seriously well designed and has awesome videos. Organic Nation also avidly uses social media tools, particularly Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Vimeo as well as Flickr. Organic Nation was nominated for a Shorty Award.

11. Brooklyn Farm Yards, United States. Started in 2008 by Stacey Murphy, the Brooklyn Farm Yards is a decentralized farming network based in Brooklyn, New York. While starting, the organization has raised nearly $14,000 to develop a 1-acre youth farm. They're on Twitter, Facebook and blog.

12. Park Slope Food-Coop, United States. This inconspicuous green grocer in Park Slope is actually home to the largest Co-Op in the United States, with a majority of food coming from within 100-200 miles of Park Slope, New York City. With 14,000+ members on one 3-hour shift monthly and $25 in annual dues, the Co-Op has enough volunteer time to be entire volunteer-run. The Co-op is on Twitter, Facebook and blogs on products and info. There's also a documentary underway about the Food Co-Op.

Campaigns I'd like to see on Twitter:

International Compost Awareness Week, United States. Sponsored by the US Composting Council from 2-8 May 2010, this event is on Facebook (albeit with a meager 5 fans) and needs more social media love!

Five ways Haiti can use solar power for sustainable development

2010-01-25T09:01:00.000-05:00

Have you seen the tweets requesting solar panels? This one is from @pierrecote, a multimedia producer in Haiti. Comprehensive approaches to energy sources are important for Haiti considering the infrastructure prior to this disaster. According to the World Bank, 78% of Haitians lived on $2/day in 2005, compared to the Latin America & Caribbean average of 23%. The CIA Factbook also says of the Haitian economy, "2/3 of all Haitians depend on the agricultural sector, mainly small-scale subsistence farming, and remain vulnerable to damage from frequent natural disasters, exacerbated by the country's widespread deforestation." For Haiti today, this means the power needed immediately needs to come from a variety of sources, including renewables. Solar panels are most relevant because there's no shortage of sun.

As Janet Shoemaker-Galloway of @TriplePundit found, there were many useful ways that energy could and needs to be used in Haiti. Particularly, “solar-powered equipment [could be used] for

water, lighting and communications being sent to Haiti as part of the reconstruction efforts.” These four items and ChrisBaskind's tweet about solar power playing a role in Haiti's recovery made me think--how and why sustainability is important in Haiti now--in the midst of widespread hunger and poverty.

Thanks Ken Lennox for the photo.

Dozens of news organizations are supportive of using solar power to energize Haiti, and are following this topic including World Changing, CNET, MIT Technology Review, USA Today; MSNBC even calls it 'solar salvation' since solar-powered talking Bibles are to be donated in February.

#1 Lighting can be used for extending medical efforts and increasing safety. Darkness means a higher likelihood of theft and violence during evening hours, in addition, medical services could extend their hours with lighting. Haitians recognize this and have started burning whatever they for kindling, including tires. In addition to having a poor roads and health systems, Haitians also had a poor infrastructure for electricity notes Treehugger.

#2 Health. Lighting and electricity go hand-in-hand, but electricity is also used for numerous other uses. Treehugger quote the Solar Electric Light Fund that around 1/2 of Partners in Health clinics in Haiti are powered by diesel generators--trucked across Haiti's mountainous roads. When rains are heavy, clinics must go without power. Of course, many hospitals and small clinics are without medicine--but without energy for medical equipment and sterilization, the health of Haitians will be in danger. For SELF, this means powering clinics with solar installations that integrate with existing generators to power critical loads.

#3 Water needs energy to be purified, unless it's transported from small streams across the Haitian countryside. Already, thousands of Haitians are fle eing to the countryside so logistically this makes no sense. The [US] Mayo Clinic recommends men drink 13 c ups (3.3 liters) of water per day and women drink 8 cups (2.2 liters) of water per day and they base their information from the Institute of Medicine. On the other hand, USAID says 4 gallons per day or a minimum of 8 million gallons a day for the Haitian population of 2 million, says the San Francisco Chronicle (although World Bank indicators put the population at around 9 million). A solar panel manufacturer, SolarW orld, says it’s donating enough panels to power 10 water pumping stations (operated by Water Missions International) –which will provide clean water for as many as 175,000. What about water for the other millions of Haitians?

#4 Eating is also kind of essential. Sun Ovens International, a Solar Powered oven company, will partner with Friends of Haiti Organization next Thursday and send around 300,000 meals and solar powered ovens to Port-Au-Prince. Of Triple Pundit, “A donation of $40 will purchase one solar cooker kit for a family. One hundred percent of all donations are used to send the ovens to Haiti – no expenses are deducted. Additional shipments of the Sun Ovens are being planned."

Thanks Mark Turner for the Sun Oven photo.

#5 Communicating

“Communication is critical in getting humanitarian aid, services and information into the disaster area" of TriplePundit. Communication has been absolutely foundational in getting the word out through social and traditional media. Although many tweets are from international organizations, texting from within the country (and internationally) is also a great way to communicate simply and easily. For friends and relatives inside Haiti, texting can potentially both save your life, as well as confirm you're still alive to friends and family. There was even one case of a survivor saved by a First Aid iPhone App. Although laptops aren't at the top of the list of things to survive, communication is very important to Haiti in the long-term.

XO laptops with solar-charging backpacks are being distributed via One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) says their blog.

What about you? How can you help back in New York?

@CrisisCamp and other offline get-together's are a great way to raise money, awareness and ideas around sustainable innovation for Haiti. If two positive things develop from this horrible disaster, improving fundraising models and crowdsourcing relief efforts are probably the two most influential for improving the lives of Haitians immediately.

Still wondering if this social media thing really impacts sustainable development?

I recently moved to New York and met Damien Basile who connects New York ‘Digital Somethings’. Damien is helping publicize Non-Profit 2.0 in February in Washington, D.C. which you might consider attending. The co-creator, Geoff Livingston, blogged about Five social media lessons from Haiti on Mashable, which summarized the deep impact of social media on relief efforts. Wendy Harman, the Social Media Manager for the American Red Cross said, “This was the first time I truly felt like people were using these tools to take action for good.. More than 2 million people [texted ‘Haiti’ to 90999]. The impact was huge – that money is right now providing people with basic needs like water. I have no doubt it wouldn’t have spread so quickly without social media.”