Using Social Media to Promote Your Green Business

As an eco-friendly business, you know that your customers are interested in going green and treating the environment with respect. The problem is that you are having a hard time attracting the attention of your target market. This is not surprising. The going green movement is in full swing and hundreds of green businesses have entered the market hoping to capture a share.

Create a Connected Presence For Your Green Business

In order to compete effectively, you need to go directly to where your customers are hanging out. In today’s interconnected world, this means making the most of social media outlets like Twitter, Facebook, and Foursquare to target your customers and get them buying from your business. Here are some tips for using social media effectively to market your green business.

Marketing your green business is just like marketing any other type of business. The key element that will contribute to the success of yours is the development of a brand and making sure your online persona is consistent wherever you go on the internet.

This means creating a blog where you offer content relevant to your audience’s interest, speaking directly with your target audience through a Twitter and/or Facebook account, and participating in forums where people in your target market hang out. Contact me to learn how you can easily get started building a consistent green brand.

Find Ways to Engage People in Your Green Business

Using social media effectively to promote your green business means finding ways to engage your audience and get them paying attention to you. You could have the best product in the world. However, if people don’t know who you are then they cannot buy your green product or service. Social media tools were meant to make it easier to engage your customers and there are numerous ways you can use them to achieve that goal.

What you do will depend a lot on the type of green business you have and the products or services you sell. For example, a green retailer can use Facebook or Twitter to post internet exclusive coupons. Another idea is to use sites like Facebook as a place to gather feedback and suggestions from user about the products and services you sell. You are only limited by your imagination and creativity.

Implement Unique Ways for Customers to Interact

The main reason people use social media is to interact with each other. Therefore, if you want to get them invested in your green business and make your brand memorable, then you need to provide a platform in which they can connect with other people who are into the going green movement as well.

For a green business, this may mean encouraging your followers to post pictures to the company’s Facebook page of themselves doing something green. If you are on Twitter, you can host a Twitter chat every week where you can other green enthusiasts discuss pressing environmental concerns. Even something as simple as developing a forum on Facebook where people can share natural beauty tips encourages interaction with you and other fans.

Marketing your green business is a challenging task but one that social media can help make a little easier. It is important that you take some time to think about the best way to present your company to the world and come up with a marketing strategy that takes advantage of the social tools on the market. If you need help marketing your green business, please contact me for a free consultation.

Need Some Green Business Ideas?

It’s that time of year again. The kids are back in school, the leaves are changing, and you’re stuck at home or working the same dead end job wondering where the summer went. The bad news is the economy is limping towards improvement but they are projecting it will be years before the jobs returns. The good news is if you have ever thought about starting a green business then now is the perfect time to do so.

The move towards being eco responsible and going green has created a huge industry of opportunity for savvy business people looking for green business ideas. In 2009, Green Seal found that 82% of the 1000 people they surveyed were still buying eco-friendly products even though the recession was well underway. According to Reuters, people spent $38 billion on green products in 2009 alone. Green is where the money is and if you want a piece of that pie, then here are a few green businesses ideas you can start developing today.

3 Green Business Ideas

Green Business Ideas #1 – Green Consultant

When it comes to going green people are suffering from information overload. There are so many tips, articles, research studies, products, services, dos, and don’ts that people are at a loss as to what they really need to do to start greening their life. As a green consultant, you could help individuals and businesses get a handle on the process of switching to a more eco-friendly lifestyle or going green in their companies.

Green Business Ideas #2 – Green Thumb

The down economy has more and more people turning to their backyard for help in filling their kitchen pantries. Local food movements, concerns about factory farming, and the move towards organic foods are also contributing to the interest in growing food at home. If you know your way around a vegetable garden then you can start a green business teaching people how to grow and take care of a home garden. You can do one on one training or start teaching classes at your local community center.

Green Business Ideas #3 -Sell Green Products

One of the fastest growing areas in the green industry is the sale of eco-friendly products. Personal care, green cleaning, and reusable items are just a few of the things people are spending their hard earned money on. There are many ways you can approach this type of green business. You can create green products yourself or you can make money introducing people to eco-friendly products and services.

Do you have a green business ideas you are working to build into a profitable business?

Download my free social media checklist (sign up in sidebar) for a daily to do list of all the things you need to do to increase your following. For personalized help, contact me for a free consultation on the best way to market your business online including using Twitter and other internet business tools.

(photo credit: GreenNetizen)

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Greenwashing Hurts Everyone

There is a terrible fraud being perpetuated in the ecosphere that threatens to undermine the trend towards green living and is causing many consumers to unknowingly pollute the environment while under the impression that they are saving it. It’s called greenwashing and many unscrupulous businesses are indulging in this deceptive marketing tactic to con you out of your money and stomp on the environment at the same time.

What is Greenwashing?

The simplest explanation of greenwashing is when a company makes misleading, or outright false, claims about the Earth-friendliness of their company, products or business practices. It can be something as basic as claiming a product is green when in fact the environmental benefit is negligible to outright deception by launching a wide scale marketing campaign extolling the company’s new green initiatives when in reality the company is doing nothing of the sort.

Companies who participate in greenwashing are pretty clever when it comes to hiding the truth about their eco-friendliness and it can be a challenge separating fact from fiction. To help you avoid giving money to companies that choose to greenwash their business rather than clean up their act, I’ve put together a few tips for spotting a greenwashed product.

Educate Yourself

By far the easiest way to spot greenwashing is to understand what green really means. At its heart being eco-friendly means doing no lasting harm to the environment. So from its inception to its disposal a green product should have no adverse affects on the environment. It’s the same with businesses. Corporations should run their companies in a way that has little to no negative impact on the planet.

When you see a product on the shelf that claims to be eco-friendly, think about how the product was created, the impact it might have on the environment with its use and what happens to it when it is disposed of. If that product adds to environmental problem in any way, chances are it’s not as green as the manufacturer would like you to think.

Beware of Seals

Another area where companies try to pull a fast one is in the use of official looking seals and labels. Some seals, such as “Green Seal”, are valid because the product was independently verified by a credible third party. However, other seals are unregulated and thus are self-serving at best. Research which seals are official and lookout for those products that carry them.

Superficial Changes May Indicate Greenwashing

The most transparent form of greenwashing is when a company makes changes that are purely for show. For example, changing a product’s packaging to emulate the color scheme of similar green products, adding buzzwords like Eco or Enviro to the name of the product or spinning a product’s marketing pitch to make it appear to be Earth-friendly.

Usually your gut instinct will warn you when a company is trying to pull the wool over your eyes with these types of tactics. So if it feels too good to be true, it probably is. It is a good idea to take the time to find companies who are truly committed to the environment and, therefore, whose products you can trust to be green.

Greenwashing is a sad and senseless fact of this move towards eco-responsibility. But as more and more people wise up to the deceptive tactics of unscrupulous companies the sooner they can be exposed for the frauds they are.

Download my free social media checklist (sign up in sidebar) for a daily to do list of all the things you need to do to increase your following. For personalized help, contact me for a free consultation on the best way to market your business online including using Twitter and other internet business tools.

Click here for more articles on going green and greenwashing.

Why a Green Business?

In a previous blog post, we talked about the definition of a green business and some reasons why you would want to build a sustainable business. In addition to creating a healthier and more stable environment for current and future generations, having a green business can be very profitable. Your business overhead will be lower and you’ll be able to command higher prices for the products you sell.

How you go green depends very much on where you are in your business. People who want to start a green business will definitely have an easier time of it than people with an already established business. In either event, here are a few tips for building a sustainable business that will help you prosper in this new era of eco-responsibility.

Tips for Developing a Green Business

Start Small and Build on Success

When you want to go green, it can be tempting to make sweeping changes in order to hurry along the process of becoming more eco-friendly. But sudden changes can be difficult to maintain especially if you have employees. Instead of hitting hard and fast, go slow and steady to give everyone involved plenty of time to adjust.

Think Long Term

Get into the habit of thinking long term when making business decisions. A major aspect of a green business is the fact that the business has little to no negative impact on the environment. Therefore, whenever you make decisions about how your business is run, think about the long term consequences of your actions. What may seem inconsequential now may have a huge impact down the road.

Reduce Your Impact

If you manufacture products, work to reduce the impact your production has on the Earth. This includes reducing your consumption of resources, such as water and electricity, and reusing or recycling as much of the waste you produce as you can. Not only will you reduce your carbon footprint but you will save money in the process.

Get Employees Involved with Your Green Business

If you employ people, get them involved in the company’s quest to go green. Solicit input about ways the business could be more eco-friendly. Offer incentives for helping the company achieve its sustainable business goals. Promote the reality that being an eco-friendly company takes team work and make sure you let them know how much you value all their efforts to help the business move in the right direction.

Get with the Green Program

Connect with an environmental group and involve your company in local green programs. The program can be as basic as planting trees or as elaborate as helping to raise money for green organizations by hosting fundraising events. If you have the time, space and knowledge, you can even create your own green community program which will give you a unique edge over your competition.

Building a sustainable business is a process that may take several years to complete. Take your time and implement changes that will stick. Before you know it, you’ll have a green business that you will be proud to own. If you are an entrepreneur looking to start a green business of your own, download my free social media checklist (sign up in sidebar) for a daily to do list of all the things you need to do to increase your following. For personalized help, contact me for a free consultation on the best way to market your green business online including using Twitter and other internet business tools.

Sustainable Business Practices

With all the talk about going green, it is easy to get lost amidst all the advice offered on a daily basis that is designed to help you become more eco-friendly. One area where it can get especially confusing is when it comes to starting and running a green business. Just what exactly does “green business” mean and why, as a home based entrepreneur, should you be interested in implementing sustainable business practices in your company?

Definition of Sustainable Business

Although it would be great if green business referred to a company that was pulling in the cash hand over fist, the term green business actually refers to a company whose products, processes and manufacturing activities address the triple bottom line; the environment, people and profits. According to Wikipedia, a business can be considered green if it meets all of the following criteria:

1. It supplies eco-friendly products and services that reduce the need for similar conventional products and services.

2. Each business decision incorporates the principles of sustainable business development.

3. The business itself is more eco-friendly than its competition.

4. The business is committed to being eco-conscious in its day to day operations.

Basically, to be considered a green business a company must sell Earth-friendly products and have implemented a sustainable business strategy that focuses on running the business in a way that has little to no negative impact on the environment or society at large.

Building a Sustainable Business

Building a sustainable business is just as important as going green in other areas of your life. One simple reason is a business that works in harmony with the Earth is far more likely to survive than a business that depends on nonrenewable resources or pollutes. Just think about it. If your company depends on a nonrenewable resource, when that resource runs out where does that leave your business?

Another good reason to have a green business is it helps you do your part to be a good conservator of the planet so that future generations can also enjoy the beauty and splendor offered by the Earth. It is a sad fact that if we don’t do something now, the next generation will be the first one to have ever inherited a planet that was worse off than when the previous generation received it. You don’t want our generation to go out like that now do you?

If those two reasons don’t do it for you, then building a green business is simply better for the bottom line. Using fewer resources, such as electricity and water, saves money. Coupled with the fact that most people are willing to pay a premium for Earth friendly products and you have a recipe for profits that you’ll be able to sustain for many years to come.

In the next article, I will pass along some tips for building a green business you can be proud of. In the meantime, download my free social media checklist (sign up in sidebar) for a daily to do list of all the things you need to do to increase your following on Facebook and Twitter. For personalized help building a sustainable business, contact me for a free consultation on the best way to market your business online including using Twitter and other internet business tools.