While considering social media planning for several sustainability-focused organizations (and practicing on three Twitter streams @carbonOutreach @GreenCollarJobs and @LowCarbonMedia), a clear benefit of social media outreach is the RT affect. The RT affect goes something like this: I like your message so much I want to duplicate it for my networks and include you in (AKA ReTweet).
What's great about the RT Affect?
Three things: first, RTs are real-time measurable. (See Mashable and YoungEntrepreneur articles on RTs and widgets to see how many times each article was RTed.) Secondly, social media gurus (like my friend Jon M Bishop who does social media planning with Gumtree; Brian Solis (I call the 'brainfather of PR 2.0'); Dominic Campbell who creates social media outreach campaigns for government at FutureGov); Sarah Evans who singlehandedly created #journchat or Max Gladwell; Paul A. Smith who focus solely on sustainability and social media) love to have efficiencty metrics for Marketing and PR. Lastly, as noted on the utility of Tweets--RTs mean authentic branding (that's scalable) for environmentally-minded organizations. It's nearly impossible to get away with greenwash on Twitter.
Therefore, ten qualities get me RT love and make me want to RT others. Definitely ask yourself these questions on creating your set of Tweets. IS your Tweet...?
Intriguing (Makes me say, "hmm")
Informative (like liveblogging an event with hashtags)
Instructive (developing logistics for an event, for example)
Inspired (creative)
Innovative (a new spin or point of view in your field)
Sincere (authenticity = essential)
Straightforward
Salient (noteable)
Succinct (only 140 characters, don't forget to shorten your URL)
Sweeping (include affiliations and support for other organizations)
I was lucky enough to have a conversation with a technology-focused non-profit consultant, Dave Chakrabarti. Dave recently completed finished a Project Manager role at the Chicago Technology Cooperative, now a freelance Non-profit Geek (love that title).
Dave has worked on creating websites for non-profits for years. Speaking on creating an RFP proposal for a client--we noted (on two different occassions) the importance of maintaining a web presence. Dave noted:
"You can create a $50k blog or website" that quickly looses its value without consistent updates. But "you can also create a $50 blog, worth more because it's actually engaging".
Herein lines the big problem: where does a sustainability-focused company or organization focus its energies? How do we make the best use of the internet to harness the power of social networks to spread the word on sustainability? Well, creating a website or blog and setting up your organization where your potential stakeholders are already congregating is essential.
Most importantly, after creating a set of great social networks--don't forget to create and maintain your social media outreach strategies using your specific set of tools. Above are tools sustainability-focused organizations and companies should seriously consider and per month hourly investments. In the US, there are plenty of options for non-profits to hire Social Media Interns, including via AmeriCorps (for 10 months with a stipend and government stipend) or via Craigslist with 3-6 month plans, or another organization receiving acclaim is Intern Queen (@InternQueen) based in Los Angeles. In the UK, there's Gumtree (a UK Craigslist), School of Everything optional to exchange services in the freeconomy. Another interesting site is ForTheLoveOfIt.org.
Although not all social media outreach campaigns are made equal, these hourly estimates define how much time--and ultimately--what kind of investment, you'll need to pay for in the next 6 months to 1 year. Trust me. If you think my hourly estimates are overestimated, please comment!
What is Twitter? Quickly: Twitter's an internet platform which enables you (or your organization) to update select followers in 140 characters. It's very similar to Facebook status (now 'share') updates.
Twitter is just another feature of an economy that's changing at hyper speed. Although the above video is slightly long, the very important feature is that Twitter can and should be used to inform, engage and co-create value with your customers. Twitter is great for green business!
You may have seen Mashable noted in April 2009 that 60% of Twitter users quit after one month, but maybe it's also a sign that @Mashable following only continually grows and they aren't going to dump their Twitter feed (and that story got RTed nearly 2K times). In March, Mashable also reported Twitter uptake rates were over 1,000%. Doing the math, a mere 400% increase in active users is still an incredibly valuable resource. With that said, I'm sticking with Twitter and I advise sustainability-focused enterprises and organizations to do the same.
Ten reasons green businesses sign up and stick with Twitter
Connect with innovators and leaders in sustainability on a first name basis (including Al Gore and local leaders like Steve Moore in London, Jen Khatchatrian in Chicago, Brian Solis in San Fransisco, Arié Moyal in Montreal, David Connor in Liverpool, Roger Hamilton in Bali, Jude Chia in Kuala Lumpur, as well as environmental and business journalists and bloggers galore)
Learn about competitors
Inform your audience immediately and get response quicker than e-mails
Improve website SEO
Track progress of PR campaigns in real-time (through comments, follows, RTs or @s, DM and #hashtag conversations which can be RSS fed into your website)
Twitter connects you directly with your funder or buyer--this means you have more information about them (likes, dislikes and friends, among other information)
Great customer service (for example, liveblogging a conference increases connections within your community and back to your organization #IBMimpact is the official hashtag stream for the Impact Conference today in Las Vegas, where greenies could chirp in through multiple streams for constant contact including via James Governor) the event is co-organized by Sandy Carter (VP of IBM Service Oriented Architecture & Websphere Marketing, Strategy and Channels)
Internationalization of your business or organization through viral outreach (for example, extensive and immediate outreach for @WhiteHouse or recently released @NYSenate feed with corresponding www.nysenate.gov on a smallish communications budget)
Ultimately, create buzz around your initiative, game, product launch or news
Tweeting should compliment your blog or website, Facebook and LinkedIn groups (collate 3-5 tweets using a Twitter widget). You can also trend topics without Tweetdeck or Twhirl apps (ie. so you dont have to Tweet using the online interface) using Monitter.
Tweeting alone is kinda lonely, though...
There is a time cost involved with Tweeting; maintenance takes time. It's been noted that 10 minutes per day is sufficient. For me, it takes around 30 minutes, with the occasional hour- or two-hour session connecting and increasing the number @carbonOutreach @GreenCollarJobs and @LowCarbonMedia follows (I run those accounts).
