Communicating sustainable and green business initiatives on Social Media: Why and How?

“The goal of social media is to turn customers into a volunteer marketing army” – Jay Baer, Convince and Convert

“Marketing is about telling good stories. Social media marketing is about getting your customers to tell them for you” – Corey Eridon Hubspot

More and more companies are investing in CSR and green initiatives nowadays such as the maintenance of their carbon footprint, or a new eco-friendly venture that promotes efficiency. The long and short term benefits of this could be extremely rewarding for the company. However, the full benefits of this cannot be enjoyed unless these eco-friendly actions are communicated effectively.

How can they communicate their green initiatives effectively? The answer is Social Media. The importance of the role played out by Social Media in carrying out a message to the public is unparalleled.

Why?

Because social media does the impossible when it comes to marketing, with all the ease of a click and comment. It builds a community for you, who then take the word out to the masses for the company. When consumers speak about a particular green or sustainable product or service, there is more weight to it than the company who creates it speaking for itself alone.

“A brand is no longer what we tell the customer it is – it is what customers tell each other it is” – Scott Cook

 

What could you potentially lose if communication is lost?

Communication is always key to the sustainability of any business. If your ideations, your new eco-friendly initiatives are not communicated effectively to the outside, the business could easily stand to lose out on a great amount of consumers who are becoming more and more environmentally conscious. On the other hand, you could also lose out on a venture with some of the giants in your field, because they are unaware of the eco-friendly protocols that your business follows.

Corporate Social Responsibility has never been more important…

Corporate Social Responsibility is one very good reason why your sustainable business efforts need to be communicated. In laymen’s terms it just means that you will make your profit while doing some good for the betterment of the world.  Most of the giants in the business arena are there because they figured out early on that ethics plays a huge role in the success of a business, not to mention the fact that competitive advantage is always built on the foundations of innovative thoughts and good values. It is not just about donating to charities; it is also about making people understand why you want to make the world a better place. So how will you do it?

Just keep it simple and make it authentic; you will automatically stand out.  This could very well become a part of a brand image that will go a very long way in ascertaining the continued success of your business.

The Guardian published an article which highlighted ten of the best campaigns which communicated their green initiatives to the public with great results.

 

How do we develop good Social Media communication strategies?

Developing good communications when it comes to carrying out your businesses’ environmentally conscious motives also mean that you will be engaging your stakeholders as well as consumers and this requires very well targeted messages that are clever and striking.

The use of clever content, ambient adverts and technology can lead to some great results which will really highlight your sustainable movements.

 

“Content is fire and social media is gasoline” – Jay Baer

 

The communication of green business on social media is not just important for large scale companies. Small and medium scale entrepreneurs could easily use this to their advantage, in order to appeal to, build a trust with and widen their client base effectively.

 

What’s so great about it?

For a minimal amount of expenditure, or none at times, if done right, social media marketing can carry the name of your business throughout the world in a matter of minutes and appeal to a vast audience that will do one of the toughest and trickiest jobs for you with ease; Positive PR.

 

 

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