First International Water Hour

The first international Water Hour takes place today June 11, 2010 between 8PM and 9PM local time. This global event is about protecting one of our most precious resources. For those concerned about the coming water crisis, this is an exciting opportunity to take action and raise awareness.

Water Hour is a moment to celebrate water, to create a torrent of messages and a flood of action for water! Water Hour takes a whole new approach. Rather than focus on fear and guilt, Water Hour seeks to reconnect with the awe and wonder of water in our lives, and create positive change from a positive place.

Water Hour is a celebration, a time to reflect on what water really means, and a dynamo of action to protect water. People are invited to get involved in a journey to re-awaken their connection to water, and to commit to its protection.

The event is designed to encourage on-the-ground action and celebrations, preferably recorded in postings, photos and video to share with others online. Water Hour taps into the enormous power of social networks like Twitter, Facebook, Flickr and YouTube, connecting across the globe to create something wonderful. Communicate messages worldwide through social media, with http://www.waterhour.org/ as a hub.

Take action to conserve water in your household and workplace, to clean and protect the rivers and lakes and aquifers where your water comes from, to stop pollution, and to assure that water is shared fairly. To review the ways Water Hour is being celebrated, click on the top five picks and more ideas. However you mark the hour, share it with the world on the Water Hour social networks.

Join the Swim Drink Fish Music Club - free from 8PM - 9PM local time. Go to the "I Have a Code" blank, type "waterhour" and then click Redeem. Fill in the profile form and your one-year free membership is active.

Water Hour is an initiative of the Ecologos Institute’s wider water protection program called Water Alive.

Social Media and the Green Message: WWF Global Online Event

The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) is using Twitter to stage a global online event today. Titled "What a Difference a Day Makes," the goal of the event is to encourage people to share the ways in which they help to make the world more sustainable.

The WWF is an international non-governmental organization that focuses on conservation, research and restoration of the environment. It is the world's largest independent conservation organization with over 5 million supporters in more than 90 countries, Their efforts contribute to approximately 1300 conservation and environmental projects around the world.

The group's mission is "to halt and reverse the destruction of our environment." With the "What a Difference a Day Makes" event, the organizers are seeking to draw attention to the fact that all around the world people are recycling, conserving, and making ethical purchasing decisions. The overarching message is that millions are engaged in efforts to create a sustainable world, and together we can make a difference.

This WWF campaign is similar to the annual Earth Day event celebrated on March 28. Earth Day organizers asked participants to report their green actions online. This year's event logged almost one billion acts of green. An April 22, Earth Hour is another annual global campaign. Event organizers asked people to show their support for the green economy by shutting off their lights for one hour at 8:30 PM local time. Although these events are often maligned by eco-purists, as reviewed in an article entitled "Silencing Earth Day Critics," such comments are unproductive and unwarranted.

Sustainable global events like the ones cited above illustrate that social media can be a humanizing force. Because hundreds of millions of people are easily accessible at any given moment, social media has extraordinary reach. The need for collective action on the environment makes social media ideal for the dissemination of the green message.

To participate in the WWF campaign post a message to Twitter with the tag #wwf24 about the sustainable things you do in your day, and the organizers will add you to the map.

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Small Business Guide to Social Media

Dell is a leader in social media and a good example of the trend towards increased corporate environmental stewardship. Like many other firms, Dell has been hit hard by the global recession. However, despite a halving of profits, Dell's commitment to the environment represents the kind of positioning that can help many companies to weather this historic downturn.

Dell's environmental programs, "conserve product energy consumption, reduce or eliminate materials for disposal, prolong product life span and provide effective and convenient equipment recovery solutions. By streamlining business steps and processes to be as efficient as possible, Dell helps minimize stress on the environment while achieving speed, responsiveness and cost savings that are passed along to customers."

Based on Dell's conversations with customers, they have created a series of social media guides. Each guide includes an overview of the approach, the opportunity, tips for getting started, examples of best practices and case studies.

1. Listening to customers, prospects and influencers is the foundation of all successful social media programs. By listening to online conversations happening in blogs, forums and social networks, you can bring the voices of your customers directly into your organizations.



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2. Many people equate "PR" to "digital PR" or "digital influencer relations." While they are similar in many ways, there are some important nuances to consider. Most importantly, online conversations are much more direct and personal, requiring the highest level of transparency and candor.



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3. Twitter is fairly new to the social media scene, but many companies have already found ways to use it for business, from announcing new products to helping out customers in need.



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4. Crowdsourcing is the process of enabling your customers to play an active role in creating a new product or service, or in some cases, solving a business challenge for your company. Let's face it – our customers know what they want and need better than anyone.



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5. Facebook is the fastest growing social network in the world with more than 100 million active members. Facebook offers a variety of solutions for small businesses to connect with customers and prospects more deeply and leverage the huge, viral potential of this community.



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6. Photos and videos can engage customers and convey more about a company and its people, products and services than text alone. Today, new technologies and Web sites like Flickr and YouTube have made it easier than ever for businesses to produce and share multi-media content.



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7. It's important to understand how a social media program is performing against specific business objectives in order to maximize the impact and justify further investment. The beauty of social media is that it is highly measurable using tools like Google Analytics.



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By following these guides you can use social media to grow your businesses and better serve your customers.
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Next: Shortening Your Sales Cycle With Social Media / Twitter / Social Media and ROI


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The Green Market's Series on Mobile Marketing