Celebrating Earth Day Online

Today is #EarthDay and brands across the web are using social media as a tool to get their audiences involved in helping out Mother Earth. Patagonia, Starbucks, RadioShack and Lowes have all launched fantastic Earth Day Campaigns across various social media networks, demonstrating their desire to make greener and more eco-friendly choices for our planet.

With a digital download on iTunes, sponsored by Patagonia, users will see 60% of their music purchases going to environmental organizations such as the Rainforest Action Network and Earthjustice.  If you BYOM (bring your own mug) to Starbucks, you can enjoy a free cup of coffee since you’re cutting back on environmental waste. Lowes has a sponsored tweet offering a free tree giveaway when you stop by the store, and RadioShack is advertising major discounts when you bring in old electronic devices that they recycle for you!

Companies are helping their consumers make smarter, greener choices for our planet by integrating Earth Day campaigns into their online strategies. So for those of us that aren’t able to get out and celebrate our beautiful planet by planting a tree, these online initiatives make great alternatives!

Here are some more ways you can celebrate online.

16 Quotes to Live By

1. Every time you smile at someone, it is an action of love, a gift to that person, a beautiful thing.-Mother Teresa

2. Would I rather be feared or loved? Um... Easy, both. I want people to be afraid of how much they love me. -Michael Scott 

3. Life is either a daring adventure or nothing. - Helen Keller

4. Don't ask me who influenced me. A lion is made of all the lambs he's digested, and I've been reading all my life. - Giorgos Seferis 

5. Do things everyday that scare the living shit out of you. -me

6. Take the risk, forget the fall, if it's what you want, it's worth it all. 

7. Whatever you do, don't be bored! 

8. The best way to cheer yourself up is by cheering up others. 

9. Whether you think you can, or you cannot, you are right.

10. Quit the wrong stuff. Stick with the right stuff. Have the guts to do one or the other.- Seth Godin

11. Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover. -Mark Twain

12. Give everyday the chance to be the most beautiful day of your life.
-Mark Twain   

13. You'll be on your way up!
You'll be seeing great sights!
You'll join the high fliers
who soar to high heights. -Dr. Seuss  

14. All you need is Love- The Beatles 

15. Fuoco nelle vene - The Italians (Live Life with Passion!) 

16. la vita e bella - The French (Life is Beautiful)

Building "Social" Into the Fabric Your Business

In today’s new age of communication, incorporating “being social” into the fabric of how you listen and interact with your customers is absolutely necessary. Everyday online there are tens of millions of people expressing what they want, need, how they feel, what they intend to do and how they are going to do it. The way people are communicating is changing and companies that are receptive to that, are embracing those conversations, turning them into valuable opportunities of positive brand interactions.

It all begins with the concept of listening. By utilizing the right tools, companies have the ability to take a set of unstructured data and extract dozens of things like people, places, geography and events, to find out where conversation is taking place, who is participating, the words being used, and what it all means.  It’s figuring out what you know about your customers to identify what they need and what’s important to them. Taking those insights and implementing meaningful, actionable strategies to respond to those people in real time, makes it worth the effort. It goes beyond listening to understanding and from understanding to insight.

If companies can change the way they listen, understand, and respond, they can change the way they build advocacy around their brand.  

Nearly 60% of impressions about brands are developed before ever making a purchase. - Karen Quintos, Dell CMO 

Identifying where conversations are taking place and getting involved to create positive connections will spread positive brand awareness and advocacy across the social web.  It’s no longer a one way monologue, but rather a dialogue that allows you to give the empowered social consumer what they want, when they need it.