If Facebook where a country, it would be the 3rd largest in the world, population-wise that is. It now surpasses the population of the United States — men, women and children. That’s a lot of eyeballs. So if your marketing mix doesn’t include the Big Four (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube), you are going to have to peddle pretty fast to catch up in the coming years (months, really).

To help you put your social media stake in the ground, here are some insights that will help you get your stake sharpened.

Don’t start unless you have a plan. Why exactly are you getting into social media anyway? Too often I see companies jump in with a Facebook fan page and no real plan. Then they flounder around for a while until one day they scratch their business heads and say, “What exactly are we suppose to be doing? What are we going for here?” So first assess your needs, then figure out your short and long term goals and create a social media strategy, and plan of action to meet them. Marketing is marketing.

One toe first. If you are just beginning with social media marketing, pick one channel first and work it. When I first started with Twitter, I spent a month or two just listening to tweets and watching trends. I followed some of the social media rock stars (and met some of them too at digital conferences) and carefully examined their conversations –  what they were saying, and why they were saying it. Very enlightening. I saw what worked and what didn’t, and I followed and unfollowed some tweeters regularly. Before I knew it, I was being followed back regularly. Which brings me to the next point…

Content is still king (or queen, in my case). Creating and sharing great content will always rule in social media. I have been hearing this for years, and yes, it’s still true. Whatever your business is, make it a priority to religiously deliver compelling content and I promise, your fans and followers will come back for more (and tell all their friends too). To develop great content, brainstorm subject ideas, follow trends in your industry, set up Google Alerts with targeted keywords that pertain to your business and interests, and follow other people or businesses that have something relevant to say. Watch what gets tweeted, liked and passed on. See my Facebook fan page Women Of Green to see what I mean. It’s a mix of original content, inspirational quotes, relevant news stories and great conversations around the subject of women and sustainability. By doing this, we very quickly became a “go to” place. You can too.

Serve, don’t sell. Nothing will turn off a follower or fan more than an overt advertising pitch or sales talk. It’s no mistake that social media has the word “social” in it. It’s about creating relationships. It’s about engaging your friends and fans. It’s about helping. It’s about serving. If that doesn’t sound like marketing-as-usual, it isn’t. That’s why you need to listen first. It’s a whole new world out there. Now, that doesn’t mean you cannot make an offering now and then. Businesses do it all the time. But remember, it’s not what you do, it’s how you do it (as my mom would say).

Mix business with pleasure. What I mean by this is show your fans who you really are. Let your personality shine through. What are you interested in besides the product or service you sell? Share that. Social media is about human beings, not corporations or machines. Even Dell knows that. Their Twitter guy is Jim, and people love him. When Dell customers have a problem or an issue, “Jim at Dell” has been known to stay up in the wee hours of the morning handling it. And he does it with all of the love in his heart. Really. I met Jim at a conference. I could tell.

Consistency is the name of the game. There is nothing worse than starting a blog or creating a Twitter account and then stopping after a few months. It sends a message that you are either not committed or not up on your industry or business. In my opinion, it’s better not to begin at all than begin and stop mid-stream. So if you can’t commit fully to your plan, don’t do it –  or get help. If you chose the latter, social media managers or assistants can help you create a presence, build a network and keep you on track. Shameless plug: call me if consistency or stage fright is creeping up for you. I will help you build it, and they will come.

Got an insight you’d like to share?

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Imagine being in a room filled with other green-minded business owners and execs and tapping into their smarts for 3 hours on behalf of your business? That’s what our Green Marketing Labs are all about.  Our first one in Denver is happening in a few weeks. Think of it, you can saturate on Saturday in our lab and ski on Sunday on the slopes. 

Here’s what happening in our first lab. 

Green Marketing Lab 1: Developing Your Marketing GPS (Green Positioning Strategy) on March 27.

With over 1,500+ new products enter the market each year, how will you break through the clutter and position your product or service so it’s not another “me too”? In this green marketing lab, you will:

Obtain a clear understanding of the current green market – its obstacles and opportunities

Identify how meaningfully different you are from your competition

Uncover the advantages that result from using your product or service

Identify your key target audience(s) and the rational and emotional reasons they buy your product or service

Develop a strategy statement to effectively communicate your message to your target audience(s)

These interactive, real-life marketing laboratories will give you the insights and tangible solutions you need to make your marketing meaningful in the maturing green market. So bring your questions. Bring your challenges. Roll your sleeves up and have some fun.

PRICING: $40 per lab or $130 for all 4 labs (discounts available for CORE members).

Saturday March 27, 2010, 9:00am – 12 noon

Location: All 4 labs will be held in the CORE offices at 1801 California Street, Suite 4900, Denver, CO 80202.

Register for all 4 labs or any of them individually at: www.corecolorado.org or call (303) 894 6333

Presenters: Irv Weinberg and Carolyn Parrs of Mind Over Markets, a dedicated green marketing communications company in Santa Fe, NM. To learn more about our work, go to www.mindovermarkets.com.

Hope to see you there! Can you help us spread the word and Retweet this or share this with your community?

Many thanks!

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A couple of weeks ago we challenged you right here on the Green Marketing Blog to TAKE THE GREEN MARKETING CHALLENGE. We’re happy to say we’ve had quite a few takers. Most of them green businesses that are part of the Green America Business Network. A brave bunch. Here’s what we asked:

Send us your green brand message (logo, brand line, graphic, copy), and we’ll evaluate it. That means our Green Team at Mind Over Markets will assess your brand and post the results here on our Green Marketing Blog.  Then we will open it up to you, our readers, to join in and make comments, suggestions, or add your brilliant ideas to the conversation.  Now let’s get going…     

BRANDING LINE

We’re happy to say that Terra Source Chocolates started the challenge off on a happy note. We like your branding line, “Responsibly Decadent” because it says it all and honors the real reason people love chocolate. Because it’s so decadently good. That’s a good start. A good balance of the green message and the chocolate message. So many green brands go to saving the earth as their total message. We’re happy you didn’t. Now hurry up and get your branding line integrated with your graphic and on your website because it is sorely missing there.

COMPANY NAME

Next, your name, Terra Source, does not have the same impact.

Irv (our copywriter and King): Personally, I don’t like generic names. I much prefer a name that is your claim. Terra Source could be anything, and in fact, variations of that are everywhere in the green product world. You name should be as unique as your product.

WEBSITE

Now to your website. Remember it’s going to be your #1 marketing vehicle, so use it well. Make it decadent too. Make healthy, responsible decadence part of your brand personality. Have fun with it. Be wickedly funny and charming in what you show and what you say. Define what decadence is for your customer and involve them in the process. Social media is perfect for this, just like we’re doing here.

Carolyn (social media maniac, project manager and sometimes copywriter): For instance, ask your customers and potential customers “What does decadent mean to you?” Post it right on your site, your blog, your packaging, etc. Have them join in the conversation. Create a decadent Facebook Fan page and give away some chocolate to your new fans who answer that question. Decadent is such a delicious word, you’ll get all sorts of yummy responses.

Back to your website. Right now, your web copy is as generic as your company name. There is so much good stuff to say about chocolate (its health benefits for one), that you are missing a big selling opportunity by not giving your customer permission to indulge. Tell me more about what makes your chocolate responsible. Then I can feel three times as good.  The taste, the benefits, the sustainability of it all. That’s a good story to be telling. Make sure you’re not saying what everyone else is saying.

Entice me. Visually, we all think you are missing it. Show me people eating your chocolate with a twinkle in their eye. Above all make your product photography luscious. Your current photography is a disservice to your product. Simply put, it’s not delicious enough. 

LOGO 

Your logo is another generic element. There are way too many planets in the green business logo universe today. And yours doesn’t even feature the countries that are the source of your chocolate.  If your logo is invisible, why bother? 

Nicole (our graphic artist extraordinaire): Name recognition is key in your branding efforts. Rethink your choice of fonts and typeface. Yours feel dated and hard to read. Why not use fonts that reflect your brand image – back to decadent again. Regarding your color choices on your site, one idea is to use ones that are actually ingredients in your chocolate: raspberry, blueberry, etc. This makes your color palate relevant and it enhances your brand line, “Responsibly Decadent”.

PACKAGING

Your packaging is inconsistent. Again, it needs to reflect your brand. (Are we sounding like a broken record yet?). It might be via color coding, illustration, photography, etc. Whatever you choose, let it be a marriage of elements that work together to strengthen your brand.

Irv: Mary Wells, one of the greats of advertising, once told me that good advertising is a substitute for a free sample. She was right. I want all your branding and your website to give me a taste of what you do and make me order it express shipping because I can’t wait for my first bite.

Ok, what do you think? Join in on the conversation by posting your thoughts below in our comment box.

And thank you Josie for TAKING THE GREEN MARKETING CHALLENGE.  We think you are on your way to fabulous and effective branding.

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One of the Ten Commandments of Green Marketing we preach is “Thou Shall Be Transparent.”  Now it seems that is a Golden Rule for the United States Federal Trade Commission (FTC) too. They have just  issued a ruling, according to Chris Brogan, a social media guru I follow, that basically says , “If you get something and decide to write about it, you have to disclose that it was given to you and/or whether you were paid for the review.”

The reason for this is simple. It’s the FTC’s job to make sure advertisers (and now bloggers, podcasters, etc.) are telling the truth. More specifically in this case, it prevents people from masquerading as being independent when they are not.

So much communication is floating around the airwaves today that it is vital to be able to tell news from commentary, paid opinion from fact.  All of us support free airwaves and the free flow of information, but along with that goes a responsibility for transparency. It’s not that any view should be regulated in any way, it’s that these views should be presented with clear authorship and clear lineage. If it’s opinion, we should know whose opinion it is and if it’s paid advertising, it should be presented as such (think health care debate).

I believe this rule should go doubly for the marketers of green products and services. But sadly last year alone, of 1,753 environmental claims reviewed, researchers found all but one made claims that are either false or misleading. (Source: State of Green Business 2008).

Now that green is getting some real traction, it’s more important than ever to keep it real. Because if you don’t, you’ll see, especially in this passionate market, green eyes are watching. Just look what they did to poor Kermit.

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Word of mouth has always been the most effective form of marketing and advertising. Today it’s word of mouse. Never before has there been a more potent opportunity to track, listen to and communicate with green consumers. Even more amazing there are legions of Influencers out there who are speaking about what you make and what you do.

Are you listening in? Monitoring their blog? And their tweets on Twitter? If you’re not, you should be. Once you know what they’re thinking and what they’re saying you can reach out to them. If it’s positive, give them heartfelt thanks and appreciate their efforts on your behalf. If it’s negative, communicate with them and let them know you appreciate their concerns and are working to rectify them. Word of mouse is a powerful thing.

To prove the point, just a couple of weeks ago two Domino’s pizza employees posted a video on You Tube of them spitting in a pizza (and doing other nasty things). The ripples went out faster than a case of swine flu. Within hours, thousands and thousands of people downloaded that video which put the international pizza delivery chain in crisis. Imagine that. That’s how fast a situation can be spread by the click of a mouse.

On a more positive note, Blendtec, a company that makes super duper blenders at a super duper price ($399.00 and up), created an “extreme blending” video series called “Will it Blend?” and posted it on video-sharing sites like You Tube. The first five videos cost $50.00 to make. Imagine that.

One particular video featured a bright and shiny new iPod being pulverized by a well used Blendtec blender. When the company posted a link on Digg after setting up the video on their site, it spread like wildfire which soon led to appearances on The Today Show and The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. Soon the views for Blendtec’s video series reached 60 million and increased their sales by 20%.

As some traditional media loses its audience and its clout, social media is the way to go. It’s not only cost effective, its brand effective. It’s a new world out there, use it or lose it.

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