Turning Transparent in a Green World

SLM: The Marketing of Green May 31- June 4 Monterey, CA

Do you have green building products that span both the Business to Business and the Business to Consumer worlds? You may want to attend the Sustainable Life Mediaconference at the end of the month in Monterey, CA. Sustainable Life Media focuses on green brand management and everything you need to make those brands authentic and market changing.

The event contains mostly consumer goods, but what happens in consumerland spills over into B2B world. The one sector reinforces the other.

You'll hear about:

• Transformations
• Capturing the essence of sustainability
• Consumer product case studies
• Green brand messaging
• How to inspire employees and customers alike
• Collaboration programs
• Give Back Programs
• Low impact packaging
• Social Media shifting consumer thinking
• Eco Labeling 
• Green event planning
• Social footprints

Check out the whole line up here: http://sustainablelifemedia.com/events/sb09

Other key presentations:

LCA on a budget, Jeremy Faludi, Professor, Stanford Design School.

Top 10 Online Sustainable Brands Stories and the Tools That Got Them There

A Legal Look at Green Marketing Claims and the FTC's Green Guides

Transparency & Green Materials: Key Building Blocks for Tomorrow's Brand Leaders

Leonard Robinson, California Dept. of Toxic Substances - DTSC Goes "Wiki" With Green Chemistry "On September 29, 2008, Governor Schwarzenegger signed Assembly Bill 1879 and Senate Bill 509, two laws that authorize California state government to develop an alternatives analysis framework to stimulate the rapid acceleration of replacement of harmful chemicals and ingredients with safer alternatives in products sold in California. One of the most forward-looking initiatives in the world, Mr. Robinson will share his perspective on the implications of this initiative and the doors it might open for new product innovation for a greener future.

Check out the Who's Who list of attendees and go if only to meet the sustainable innovators inside a company who might want to bring your product into the mix.You never know who you might be sitting next to.

Be there or NOT be talked about.

 

YOU are liable for what bloggers say about your products

What!?! Hold the phone, the horses and your job! How can you be held liable for what others say?  In an article posted on Internet Marketing News we learn that the Federal Trade Commission is "revising the guidelines on endorsements and testimonials for the first time since 1980." (thanks Marianne for the heads up.)

The guidelines being reviewed by the FTC would change the rules to hold companies liable for untruthful statements made by bloggers and social networking users who have received samples of their products. Additionally, the proposed guidelines would hold bloggers liable for the statements they make about products. more...

That means that going transparent and listing ALL your sustainable attributes just upped the anti of responsibility for marketers. It looks like the line is being drawn when you GIVE a blogger a product to write about vs. the free market users making free market statements.  The difference is in the "giving."

And even if you give a person a product, they will still need to have real, raw data somewhere in the public and other than your site to link to and back up their statements. If you provide them that link, along with the product when/IF they choose to write about you (and it is a choice) you have a higher chance of them talking about the sustainable selling points - providing permanent, positive promotion.  

The American Association of Advertising Agencies are arguing that the guidelines are too tough. Those that live in the green world know that the guidelines are loose compared to what they'll be facing in sustainability standards. This new marketing expectation will be a piece of cake for them.

THE GOOD NEWS

Of course if you have put your product through a Life Cycle Assessment and conducted a Life Cycle Impact Assessment, and had that information certified by a third party you practically blog proof already.

Every minute bloggers make mistakes and misquote facts, having a huge bank of transparent and public knowledge keeps those misquotes at a mininum. No one wants to look like an idiot online anymore than they want to look like an idiot offline.

Marketing Departments need to have "Marketing"Safety Data Sheets at their disposal just for such an occasion. Just like Material Safety Data Sheets cover your assets for what's in a product, Marketing Safety Data Sheets will cover your communication assets.

Social media isn't going away, however, fixed communication devices such as newspapers and magazines are. It's time to start gearing up for a world where you can't control every word, but you can control the public data those words came from.

Social Media Classes for Green Building Products Start on April 1

Last week at the California Green Summit, I asked vendors the question "Do you use Social Media"? The answers ranged between "we go to trade shows" to "we let our marketing department handle that" to complete blank stares.

While Social Media does fall under the marketing department, the fact that the front line at a trade show didn't have the answers at their finger tips told me that their marketing department would give me a complete blank stare as well.

No worries, don't flip out if you weren't an early adopter, just don't be a never adopter. To not employ social media in your modern marketing strategies is a akin to doing business without a phone today. In the future while you're making cold calls, others have already made alliances and friends boxing you out of an opportunity. People do business with friends first.

Social media gives you a leg up (or face up) on the competition. It's where they get to know you just like they would if you lived in a small town. In a small town, you have to show up and be present, let people kick your tires during the times when they don't need you and know that you can be trusted when they do.

If you're a service driven corporation using distributor networks, dealers and installers,  social media should be at the very top of your list of corporate skill sets. It is NOT just for the marketing department. SM needs to be taught inside of sales, customer service and part of every employee's orientation training including the CEOs.

Social Media turns you transparent and opens up new conversations: 

A) You're able to prove you are sustainable when purchasing asks the tough questions.

B) You're able to standup to open public opinion on blogs, vlogs, twitter, and 50 other open communication venues. Lately, Salesforce added Twitter to it's tool box as a way to respond to customer complaints.

C) You're able to gain free PR in the form of permanent, positive promotion.

WHERE DO YOU START?

To close that knowledge gap Green Building Pages is offering a new series of webinars to help any GBP product lister over the entry level social media hill and ready to begin a progressive program. The program could later be used by the company to train their distributors and dealers as well.

The program is free, but only for Green Building Pages product listers as it builds on top of the authentic information provided in listings covering the triple bottom line, sustainable product attributes.

You can sign up by going to the Green Building Pages and checking the WEBINAR WEDNESDAY's box in the email registration box or send a request directly to me at Mary.Hunt@GreenBuildingPages.com

Here's the schedule:

WEBINAR WEDNESDAYS:

WHEN:                    12 noon PST, 1:00 MST, 2:00 CST, 3:00 EST

SIGN UP:                Go to www.GreenBuildingPages.com  and sign up by adding your name to the webinar newsletter or contact

                                 Mary.Hunt@GreenbuildingPages.com

                         

41.09       Introduction to Social Media Parts

4.8.09      Building Searchable Green Brand Management

4.15.09    Creating a “Marketing Safety Data Sheet”

4.22.09    Getting Linked In for Sales, Public Speaking and Business!

4.29.09    Twitter: How to Put 140 Characters to Work

5.6.09      The Top Rules in Social Media Writing

5.01309    How to Overcome Bad Ratings

Facebook's New Face

Does it matter what is happening over on Facebook? If you're selling business products - absolutely!

 

To wear the sales/marketing hat and not use the new tools to help your business grow is akin to working without a phone and expecting to stay in business - while you're communicating by mail, your competition is taking calls. In that same light, while your website sits still, your competition is creating relationships in virtual clubs and social media spaces such as Facebook and Linked In.

 

Today in Ad Age, Ian Schafer, the editor of Deep Focus gave us a fast facts list on the changes at hand in Ad Age.  

• Existing Facebook "Pages" will start to look/act/feel more like typical Facebook "Profiles."

• Brands pages will move from segregated areas of Facebook to within users' social graphs.
• Information subscriptions will allow people to opt deeper into others' data streams.
• A new "publisher" feature allows for selected broadcasting of information to those subscribers' Facebook home pages.
• A new Facebook home page (take a tour here), with a general (real-time) news feed but also filters to allow you to sort through information, friend lists, and apps will launch by March 11. You will also be able to share any type of content on the home page with your friends.

Go to his full article and links here. 

It's time to test the new waters while everyone else is in the same learning curve position as you. If you feel overwhelmed at the thought of one more learning curve, fear not, we'll be providing the first 7 steps in digestable bites to all our listers by mid March.