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About the Speaker
• J Shepp, Green MBA
oey
• Principal at Earthsite
Web Strategy for Sustainable Brands
• Founder of Open Brands
Social Brand Monitoring
• Internet Marketing Director for
Green Festival
JoeyShepp.com

The Open Brand:
Beyond Green Washing
Sustainability Messaging in a World of Radical Transparency

Roadmap
1. Trends
2. Case Studies
3. Principles
4. How To
5. Questions

Green Washing
Making environmental marketing claims
that are not true or stretching the truth.

Chevy FAIL

F FAIL
uji

7 Sins of GreenWashing
1. Hidden Tradeoffs
2. Lack of Proof
3. Vague Claims
4. Irrelevant Claims
5. Worshiping False Labels
6. The Lesser of Two Evils
7. Outright Lies

So, Where next?

Social Media Is the future of
Sustainability Marketing

What is Social media?
• Social Networking
• Online Video
• E-Commerce
• Online Advertising

Interactive Marketing Growth

Facebook Growth
F acebook has grown from
100 million to 200 million users
in less than 8 months.
If it were a country, it would
be bigger than B razil.

The number of visitors to the
site in March more than
doubled to 9.3 million, up
from 4.3 million in February.
Twitter Growth

Social Media is a
Disruptive Technology
Old School New School
Top Down Bottom Up
Closed Open
Advertisement Conversation
Print Media Digital Media
One to Many Many to Many
Privacy Transparency

An Open World
Open Open Open Open
Culture Government Software Brands

So,
Who controls
a Brand?

Yesterday:
Marketers

Today:
Community

What do people Trust?
• 81% trust word of mouth
• 56% trust media editorial
• 25% company advertising
• http:/ bit.ly/
/ Dtn7S

Power Shift

The Connection to
Sustainability Messaging
• Social Media is based in
transparency and
openness.
• Sustainability Messaging
requires transparency
to be trusted.

Radical Transparency
Case Studies

Chevy Video
Contest
• What happened?
• Chevy launches a YouTube campaign to submit
user generated videos promoting the Chevy
Tahoe.
• Backlash
• Activists seize the opportunity to voice their
feelings about the Chevy Tahoe.
• GM Fast Lane Blog
• “ E on we made the decision that if we were
arly
to hold this contest, in which we invite anyone
to create an ad, in an open forum, that we
would be summarily destroyed in the
blogosphere if we censored the ads based on
their viewpoint. So, we adopted a position of
openness and transparency, and decided that we

#AmazonFail
• Friday: Authors discover that Amazon.com is delisting their
gay and lesbian titles in book search
• Saturday: Word spreads around the Twitter like wildfire
• Sunday: Amazon provides a few vague responses about it
being a glitch.
• Monday: Stocks have dropped by 2%

Skittles puts Twitter on their
Home Page
• home page into an online portal
featuring a live Twitter feed
alongside F acebook, F lickr, and
YouTube content
• so many hits the first day it brought
down Twitter
• But just two days after its launch,
Skittles was forced to rethink its
social media strategy after users
deluged the site with inane and often
profane "tweets," the messages sent
by Twitter users.
Source Link

jetBlue in the Beginning…
• J blogs about how it was creepy that J
oel etBlue followed him.
Moments later, J
etBlue direct messaged him apologizing and explaining
their human approach to connecting with their customers.

jetBlue Today

Intel Publishes
Social Media Guidelines
• Be transparent.
• Be judicious.
• Write what you know.
• Perception is reality.
• It's a conversation.
• Are you adding value?
• Your Responsibility
• Create some excitement.
• Be a Leader.
• Did you screw up?
• If it gives you pause, pause.

Zappos CEO on Twitter
• CE Tony, talks about his
O,
company, but also shares his
personality.
• Massive following
• E success story in using
arly
Twitter. Jumped on the new “ I think the way to succeed in today’ s world is to
make your business more personal. Twitter is also a
technology early. great way of doing that.”
-Tony, CE of Zappos
O

Many CEOs on Twitter

Patagonia documents
product lifecycle

• GoodGuide provides
the world's largest and
most reliable source of
information on the
health, environmental,
and social impacts of the
products in your home.

Community Powered
Customer Support

A call for SHARED RESPONSIBILITY
Companies Customers
1. Be human 1. Be understanding
2. Use real names and be 2. Use your real identity
personal
3. Anticipate problems will 3. Recognize that problems
occur, and set clear, public will occur and give
expectations in advance for companies the information
how you will address issues. and time required to
competently address issues.
4. Cultivate a public 4. Share issues directly or
dialogue. through a forum.
5. Speak plainly, candidly 5. Give companies the
with customers. benefit of the doubt.

Social Brand Monitoring

Open Brand Channels

How do I make
my business Open?

Thinking Open

Open Brand Principles
• Embrace Transparency
• Meet People Where They are At
• Customers Trust Customers
• Befriend Influencers
• Social Currency

Benefits of being Open
• Customers do marketing for you.
• Gain innovation from your
customer feedback
• Quicker response time to
customer concerns
• Real time insights to customer
needs
• Build loyal customers

How brands should prepare
• Don't Hesitate
• Prepare F Transparency
or
• Connect with Advocates
• Evolve your Enterprise
Systems
• Shatter your Brand Website

Social Media Marketing
Basics

Start with Listening
• Google Reader
• Google Analytics
• Google Alerts
• Tweet Beep

Page
It’s like a user profile,
but for your business
Create a F acebook Page for
your business and start
collecting Fans. Post photos,
videos and links for your Fans
to check out and comment on.
Build an active customer
community.

Social Networking for
Professionals
Have your employees build full
Profiles on LinkedIn, which in turn
will build a powerful profile for your
company. Many features support
company business development: J oin
professional groups, get advice from
peers, hire new employees, and get
introductions to key contacts.

How to Twitter
Basic How to Guide

What is Twitter?
• Microblogging
• Real Time
• Public
• Always On

Basic Twitter Use
• Personal Updates (tweets)
• Responses to others (@user)
• Sharing Links (tiny URL)
• Retweeting (RT)
• Direct Messages (DM)

Best Practices
• Get your user account N OW
• Tweet consistently, 1-6 per day
• Provide value to your
community
• Increase ‘ signal’ by using
# hashtags

Deeper Implications
1. Speed of learning
2. Ambient intimacy
3. Increased authenticity By Stephen Dinan
4. Customized attention networks
5. Increased individuality
6. Tracking global concerns
7. Personal connection to our heroes and heroines

Go Further

W e b St rat e gie s fo r Sust ainable Brands
• Web Design and Development
• Social Media Marketing
• Consulting
Fairfax, CA
415.259.4546
info@ earthsite.net
www.earthsite.net d

Follow us on
@ earthsite
@ joeyshepp
@ openbrands

Questions?