behavior change
From Awareness to Action: Using Pledges and Triggers to Make It StickK
Tuesday, August 31st, 2010 | Public Health, Social Marketing, campaigns | 2 Comments
Have you ever forgotten to do something? You’re not alone. This is why to-do lists are so handy–they remind us of the tasks we need to complete. Going through my own mental to-do list on my walk home today, I came across something to add to the list. A poster ad that asked me to “pledge to be car free on Car Free Day September 22.” Let’s walk through this:
Moving Through the Stages of Change
Before seeing the ad, I did not know about with Car Free Day, so the ad helped me become aware of the day. The ask was clear: Pledge to go car free and actually go car free on Sept. 22. Enter my dilemma. At that moment, I wanted to pledge, but I couldn’t take an immediate action except to add it to my already long to-do list. Imagine a different scenario…
What if, instead of just asking me to pledge, the ad encouraged me to pledge, on the spot, by sending a text message using shortcode as the way to officially make a pledge. And then, by pledging, what if I was also able to get a reminder on Sept. 21 that I had pledged to go car free or opt-in to receive tips, promotions and specials from participating partners? And then what if on the 22nd, I received another text in the morning letting me know of the total number of people who made the same pledge I did. To go even another step, what is on Sept. 23, I got a text letting me know of the collective impact my pledge helped create, and asking me if I wanted to opt-in for a reminder to participate in Car Free Day 2011. This would make the desired behavior: easy to accomplish, fun to do and more popular.
Activate the Trigger: Pledges and Reminders
Lately, I’ve had a soft spot for the act of committing to follow-through on a certain, suggested behavior. This is because–in order for someone to go from the preparation stage of change to the action phase–they first need to make a commitment to do so.
Now, I realize commitment can mean different things to different people (just look at reality TV). This is why it’s important to understand the audience you are wanting to reach and the desired action and behavior you want them to take. For the Car Free Day example, I wanted to commit, and I can. But I know, that fitting something like that into my daily to-dos and priorities is hard despite my good intentions. However, I know if I got a reminder the night before, I would be more apt to follow-through. In short, a reminder would trigger the action I pledged to make.
Making It stickK
At the CDC conference earlier this month, a panel discussed the role of behavior economists in public health. They touched on a variety of applicable concepts to our work–one of them being the role of triggers in behavior change. In the case of Car Free Day, reminders can serve as a trigger to the action. As another example, the CDC panel highlighted stickK.com. Users of stickK.com sign a “commitment contract” where they agree to achieve a certain goal and uses various triggers (reminders, personal support networks, and monetary incentives) to help people take and maintain action.
For the behaviors you want people to make, how can you help them go from good intentions to good follow through? Help them make a commitment and leverage triggers to make it easy, fun and popular for the behavior change to occur.
flickr credit: stevendepolo
Quote of the Week: Why the Web Was Won
Saturday, June 19th, 2010 | Quote of the Week, Social Marketing, Web Communications | No Comments
Have you ever been in a meeting and someone tells you: We aren’t in the behavior change business, we just want to raise awareness? You are not alone. Put take heart, there are those who know better. Especially in the times of the Web, behavior change–and micro-choices that lead to a great action–are even more possible.
In a post titled Designing for Networks, Mike Arauz captures the potential of the Web–beyond its ability to be a distribution channel, beyond its ability to influence and beyond its use in achieving awareness:
If you only use the Internet in order to raise awareness, and perhaps to influence perception, then you are missing out on what the Web was made for: to enable large networks of people to come together for effective purposes through sharing, cooperating, and organizing collective action.
It might have been okay to work towards just “awareness” in the past, but with today’s technology, we can achieve more. I believe that the Web increases our ability to measure, evaluate and influence behavior change. The thing is: Behavior change is no longer on the same playing field. Just like journalism is evolving and the media, the way we influence behavior change and achieve behavior change has evolved. We, as practitioners, must evolve with it. I recently came across another quote that embodies this belief from one of the TurningPoint Collaborative’s PDFs, The Basics of Social Marketing:
The process of heightening awareness, shifting attitudes, and strengthening knowledge is valuable if, and only if, it leads to action.
Why do we want someone to know to exercise, eat right, and get their vaccines? Because we want them to act on that knowledge to prevent disease. Why do we want teens to know that drinking impairs their ability to drive? Because we don’t want them to drink and drive and hurt themselves or others.
Your Challenge
This week, think about why the Web was won. Sure–it can house knowledge and be a database of information–but it is more and can be more for you, your organization and your cause. Think about your bottom line–What is it you want to accomplish? Solve? Create? End? Start? Because at some level it involves behavior, especially if you are working in a Web environment. Do you want people to click on a certain link, read a certain story, donate to your causes—these are all online behaviors.
PS: Do you like these challenges? Are these helpful? I want to help you in being effective. And, I know I like prompts–do you?
Behavior Change Made Easy (Sort of)
Monday, May 24th, 2010 | Education and Resources, General Events and Happenings, Social Marketing | 2 Comments
Tuesday was the start of the highly anticipated Mobile Health Conference taking place at Stanford University. Though not an on-site attendee, I’ve been staying up-to-date by tuning into the Twitter chat. You can too by following the hashtag: #mh2010.
While scanning the tweets, I came across what I consider a mother-daddy in the world of behavior change: an easy, do-it-yourself module for behavior change planning (see screenshot below) developed by Dr. BJ Fogg, founder of Stanford University’s Persuasive Technology Lab.
The wizard is designed to help those plan and design behavior change strategies through answering a brief set of questions. Depending on your answer, the wizard will describe the type of behavior you are working towards based upon Dr. Fogg’s Behavior Grid–which identifies 15 ways behavior can change (see image below).
This past week, I’ve been refreshing my knowledge of the different processes and documentation for social marketing and behavior change planning as one of my biggest observances in practice is that people like tangibles. They see a print ad or a PSA, and they can respond. But are those effective? Thus, in my current organizaton, I’m working to make behavior change and social marketing tangible and relevant–in terms of the new frontier of technology and the human experience. This is why Dr. Fogg’s work excites me–it’s a tangible. It breaks down behavior into bite size pieces we can understand, digest, analyze and follow-up on.
The conference contines on Tuesday, but already, even though I didn’t get to attend in person, I’m enthused to see that many of the presentations on day one got right into the heart of social marketing and behavior change–not just Dr. Fogg.
Why This Is Important to You…
If you are working to influence the world for good, have a mission or cause you are advocating, you need to get plugged into this arena. Social marketing is relevant and if you are doubtful, just scan the tweets from the Mobile Health Conference. We’ve all heard “Mobile is the future,” but social marketing and behavior change are right along with it. Want more evidence? Look at Jen McCabe’s presentation from the conference. The movement is growing. Join us.
What Behavior Are You Selling?
Thursday, May 6th, 2010 | Education and Resources, Social Marketing | 5 Comments
In the halls of doing good, many of us are dealing with change–which means we are dealing with behaviors. Surrounding behavior is knowledge and beliefs coupled by environmental factors, assumptions and noise. To make an impact, we need to know what kind of behavior we are selling.
For experienced social marketers this might seem like a review–but we can all use a review sometimes. People leading change often “sell” one of the following:
- Accepting a new behavior (i.e. Wear a helmet when biking)
- Rejecting a potential behavior (i.e. Don’t drink and drive)
- Modify a current behavior (i.e. Wear sunscreen with an increased SPF)
- Abandon an old behavior (i.e. Quit smoking)
Some say that selling behavior versus a concrete product or service comes with increased challenges–for one, it’s harder to measure. Two, it’s hard to deliver. Three, we’re talking about deeply rooted, often value-based, behaviors and decision making. Hard? Yes, historically. But, it doesn’t mean that is has to stay true.
We can do better–for example, HHS recently launched its Community Health Data Initiative–freeing up data, making it accessible, drawing out understanding, making connections–this can help us in our efforts to achieve behavior change by working to address that measurement issue.
Challenge
Think about a current project that you or your organization is working to achieve. Can you pinpoint the type of behavior you are driving? If so, tell us about it in the comments. Perhaps we can brainstorm some ways to make it “easier.”
(Hint: Look into the approach and framework of social marketing–lots of good research and case studies!)
Flickr Credit: trawin
Reference: P. Kotler, N. Roberto, N. Lee. Social Marketing, Improving the Quality of Life. USA: Sage Publications, 2002. Print.
The Social Round-Up
Thursday, March 25th, 2010 | The Social Round Up | 3 Comments
You all seemed to like this last time, so here we go again. I want to make sure I provide the best links for you–links that I feel deserve your time and attention. So, this won’t be every week. It may be every other week…or every month.
Onward.
******
Social Change
- Stories of Change–20/20 Predictions: For Ashoka.org’s third Stories of Change eBook series, Ashoka asked its social entrepreneurs to think about what the world would look like in 2020. And to follow-up that question, Ashoka asked them what each would do in the next year to move us closer to their vision.
- A Wiki of Experts: The WeAreMedia project put together this “Expertise Map,” offering a long list of people who are passionate about doing good. If you are looking to connect with good people, this could be a good starting point.
- The Other City: This film sets out to explore DC–the other side of DC, the side with an HIV/AIDS rate equal to Africa. If you are in DC, be on the lookout as I’m thinking we should get a group together to go to the screening once its announced.
Social Marketing
- The Dragons of Behavior Change: If you read my “Awareness Fever” post, then you will want to read Craig Lefebvre’s follow-up post. In this post, Craig takes the conversation to the next level. Say, everyone around the table agrees to focus not on awareness–but on behavior outcomes, then what? Enter the land of the dragons. You are going to need to prepped with the right tools, resources and questions to ask. Craig’s post can help get you started on the right foot for the journey.
- Healthy People and Social Marketing: Mike Newton-Ward share with us the update regarding adding a social marketing objectives to Healthy People 2020 saying, “This is proving to be quite the year for social marketing! Just today I learned that social marketing is in the preliminary Healthy People 2020 Health Objectives for the nation!” This is a big step for social marketing. BIG.
- MINDSPACE: Influencing Behavior through Public Policy: This document comes out of the UK’s Cabinet Office and the Institute for Government. The fact that this type of report was even written–let alone by such two high profile organizations gives me great hope. The document aims to use behavior change theory to move policy makers to better address some of our worlds greatest problems. The document’s announcement includes the words: “Today’s policy makers are in the business of influencing behavior.” If only more people not only realized that–but were equipped with the rights tools–social marketing–to make an impact. Caveat: I just found the resource and printed it out for myself, so I can’t yet speak to it in its entirety–but a huge thanks to Craig for his post that brought this resource to my attention.
- Journal of Social Marketing: Until now, the only social marketing journal was the Social Marketing Quarterly. In 2011, this will no longer be true as the first issue of the Journal of Social Marketing will be published. Currently, the journal is recruiting work for publication.
Social Media and Communications
- Twitter Your Own Adventure: Remember those “Choose Your Own Adventure” books? Welcome to the Twitter edition. I share this because as the use of social media becomes more sophisticated–storytelling is becoming ever more crucial. How can you be creative in how you tell a story?
- Open for Business–The Google Apps Marketplace: With over 2M businesses having used Google applications over the last three years, Google has recently announced its Google Apps Marketplace. The marketplate is a ”new online store for integrated business applications. The Google Apps Marketplace allows Google Apps customers to easily discover, deploy and manage cloud applications that integrate with Google Apps.” Already, more than 50 companies are now selling their business applications within the marketplace. This is a big development that we will be sure to watch as App stores similiar to Apple’s and Apps.gov continue to emerge and evolve.
- 10 Steps for Optimizing the Brand for Social Search: Brian Solis provides a jam-packed post full of helpful information and next steps.
- Top 10 Best Practices for Federal Government Web Sites from USA.gov: Whether you are a newbie or a veteran, this site offers something for everyone. If not this Web page, all of Webcontent.gov is a great resource and helpful guide.
What about you? What good info have you read lately? Please provide the link in the comments so we can all check it out. Also–if you’re in love with your Google Reader like me, here’s my public profile. Let’s connect.
flickr credit: Benimoto
One Word of Advice for Voters of Pepsi’s Refresh Project
Monday, February 1st, 2010 | Blog Talk, Case Studies and New Orgs/Campaigns | 5 Comments
Sustainability. In a fast-paced, 140-character world, short term and one-hit wonder thinking is rampant. But when it comes to making a difference and solving the great problems of our times, we need to be thinking for the long-term. This is why I hope the voters of Pepsi’s Refresh Everything Project will keep the concept of sustainability top-of-mind.
Let me first say that I applaud Pepsi’s jump into social good–and I hope more groups follow their lead. Perhaps if more did, then we’d have more case studies, a deeper set of lessons learned and more refined best practices. In a sense, we’d have more to talk about. This post is not for the folks at Pepsi. Rather, it’s aimed at the people who are engaging in Pepsi’s Refresh Everything Project.
For those not familiar, Pepsi is foregoing its Superbowl Ads and instead, engaging in a social good experiment. Pepsi will award a total of $20 million in grants over the course of the year. Who will receive the grants? That’s for you, me and everyone else to decide by voting–and a big reason why I hope, each voter, keeps in mind the concept of sustainability when reviewing the proposed projects. (More on how the project works.)
When reviewing the proposals, a thought kept pulsing, growing bigger and bigger inside me. Pepsi is awarding $20 million dollars in resources–but what if you had $20 million dollars or your organization did–how would you allocate those resource and why?
Sure–Recruiting people to help clean the highways is great–but what if we knew of a way to make it where people didn’t litter in the first place?
Sure–It’s great to offer a summer camp to kids to teach them to better appreciate the earth, but how can we scale this to reach more children in more places?
Sure–It’s great to find ways to get people up and moving. But, there are so many good people working to achieve this already. What strategies do they find working? Let’s invest there.
The Pepsi Refresh Project is a great initiative, but it’s just a start. I expect (and hope) we’ll start to see more of it. I also agree with Beth Kanter that, with crowdsourcing efforts, this is where having a key group of content experts involved is key. But, to me, the biggest take-away is that we, as a community, need to be thinking more strategically with our resources–this is why I love social marketing. It addresses both the short-term and the long-term. It looks at advocacy as well as promotion and a wide range of other various tools. It thinks both upstream and downstream. In other words, it offers a framework for us to create sustainable programs, products and services that truly can make a lasting change and a better world.
Thus, to all you voters, when reviewing, please keep in mind the idea of sustainability. What’s going to make the biggest difference for the amount of effort, resources and time?
What about you–what advice do you have either to Pepsi or to the fellow voters?
Making Behavior Fun, Popular and Easy
Wednesday, December 16th, 2009 | Social Marketing, Social Media, Web Communications, campaigns | 8 Comments
If you know social marketing extraordinaire Nancy Lee, then you have heard this saying. Recently, on the social marketing listserv, some dialogue has been shared in response to Nancy Lee and Philip Kotler’s article in Stanford’s Innovation Review titled “Best of Breed,” which looks at corporate social marketing. This could be its own post, but alas, I want to focus on the message of being fun, popular and easy.
Why? Because whether it’s social marketing or corporate social marketing, you are still working to effectively change or influence behavior for good--and an effective way to do so is making your desired behavior fun, popular and easy--which is exactly what started bubbling through on the social marketing list serv as others started sharing some of their favorite fun, popular and easy social marketing initiatives. Enjoy--and when you find yourself running around ragged, ask yourself: Is anyone having fun? Is this easy for people? and go from there.
The Piano Staircase
To encourage passerbyers to take the stairs rather then the escalator (and thus promote physical activity), this group turned the stairs into a piano--whenever you stepped on a stair a different sound would echo--in effect, making taking stairs more exciting than an everyday escalator. I can’t find the source, but it apparently had a 60% success rate. Who’s behind it? Volkswagon. Apparently, Volkswagon has been trying out some experimental marketing based around “The Fun Theory” to see if they could create desired behaviors if the action was made fun. You can read more about the piano staircase and other initiatives such as the recycling arcade and more at TheFunTheory.com.
The Pink Glove Dance
You may have seen this one already, as it’s been circling the blogosphere for a while. But, it’s an example of everyday people--hospital employees--finding a way to make their job fun while communicating a message--that you aren’t alone when taking steps to prevent breast cancer, like getting a mammogram.
Musical Hand Sanitizer
Aas part of Volkswagon’s initiative, they are hosting an awards program on the best “fun” applications for healthy and good behaviors. One entry was a University who had installed hand sanitizers to prevent the spread of germs during the flu season. They found few students using them. Thus, they adopted the fun theory and installed some sounds. Each time someone went for hand sanitizer, a funny noise was created. Results? With the sounds included, students were seven times more likely to use the germ-reducing resource.
Pedestrian TV Traffic Light
In this example, you get some free entertainment while waiting to cross the street. Instead of staring at a red outline of a person wishing it to change with your desired mind control, this traffic light shows TV clips--vidoes from YouTube, funny clips from TV shows, etc. This way, the hope is that you’ll actually wait until it’s safe to cross the street.
Make Your Watermark
Design you own bottle at the vending machine. Granted, I know bottles and paint on bottles isn’t good for the environment. But if you can’t quite get that change initiated, then check out what this group did. To encourage people to buy water over sugary pop or juices form the vending machine, they enabled it so people can design their own water bottle from the vending machine at the point-of-purchase. Now that’s easy, and fun!
Fun, Popular and Easy…Online?
More examples are found on the FunTheory.com Web site mentioned earlier, and I have to admit--it’s fun just looking through them. But, my mind started going: How can you make your online and social media communications fun, popular and easy to help you achieve your behavior change mission? Now, that’s a weighty question. Then, I started thinking about what is it in a Web or social media behavior change initiative that makes it fun, popular and easy:
- FUN: Community-based, drive accountability of others through accountability, collaborative in nature
- Example: Certain online communities help training for a 5k easier by focusing on accountability or making the desired behavior fun by making it social. Other communities, such as the Sister to Sister Foundation’s online community focusing on healthy behaviors for heart health amongst women. These type of communities make healthy behaviors fun by creating accountabilty and making the behavior social.
- POPULAR: Driven by influencers and respected peers in the community or content area the desired behavior resides.
- Example: AIDS.gov video-storytelling. AIDS.gov encouraged state officials to create their video on why its important to get tested for HIV. Another example? HHS’ flu PSA contest. Not only was this driven and announced by the HHS Secretary herself, but it was also supported and promoted by all of HHS’ agencies. And it’s winner--come on, who’s more popular than a rapping doctor?
- EASY: This may be the most important when it comes to the online arena. Because, for people to use the technology combined with the messages, etc., the technology must first work. It must incorporate usability best practices, be accessible and depending on your audience, address literacy issues, including technology literacy. You technology could be great, but if it’s too complicated and no one uses it, it’s just techology.
- Example: Most recently, AIDS.gov hosted the “Face AIDS” campaign asking people to join in. The effort involved a few steps, but AIDS.gov made it easy and fun by creating a collective flickr account to display all the images. Here’s a thought: Some social media is easy to adopt. one click and your a fan, one click and you are a follower. One click, and you’ve downloaded a healthy recipe book. One click and you have a mobile app to track your physical fitness. How can your organization leverage these easy tools for behavior change?
What about you? What are some of your favorite fun, popular and easy social marketing efforts? Any of those take place online?
Defining SocialButterfly–Social Change, Social Marketing and Social Media
Thursday, August 13th, 2009 | Changeblogging: NP, activism, social change +, Social Marketing, SocialButterfly | 3 Comments
At SB, I’ve noticed a spike in new visitors this summer who might be wondering, “What is SocialButterfly all about?” Well, I’ve been evaluating that myself, and encouraged by a few colleagues of mine, I believe it’s time for an update. As we go forward, you’ll see me working to align my work, content and chatter around this working vision: Make SocialButterfly a resource for information and dialogue on social change, social marketing and social media.
In my first post on SB, I explained that:
Defined–a social butterfly is someone who is amazing at socializing, making connections and creating conversation…appearing to ‘fly’ about the room. In the context of this Web site, it is a play on words.
‘Social‘ is taking from the term social marketing, in which marketing efforts are applied to create and influence behavior changes that are beneficial to society. In other words, depending on one’s view, it is learning to examine social issues and look for ways to ignite social change for the better.
‘Butterfly‘ is taken from the butterfly insect, which goes through a metamorphosis, and changes into a beautiful creation. Thus, this site works to promote and increase understanding surrounding the practice of social marketing by inspiring any and all to create change for the better. Then, in a ripple effect, maybe we could all become SocialButterflies in creating social change for the betterment of society.
As the header alludes, social change, social marketing and social media is a metamorphosis and we all play a role in spreading the good. It’s an evolution of an ongoing revolution. We can all be SocialButterflies. Let me elaborate:
Social Change–In the online space, and as our world becomes a smaller place, boundaries continue to become blurred. More public-private partnerships are evolving. Government agencies are reaching out to non-profits. Private sector is getting energized by government. And, this is good. Social change for social good takes a village. I was recently inspired by the discovery of Booz Allen’s “MegaComunities” concept. It mirrors a similiar message that I detailed in my graduate research–emphasizing the collaboration across fields, industries and sectors. Social change umbrellas work of non-profits, journalism, activism, advocacy, health, environmentalism, social justice, human rights, public policy, lobbying, and more–for the improvement in the quality of life.
Social Marketing–Again, social marketing, on SB, does not mean social media. It means influencing behavior change for social good. Founded by marketing guru Philip Kotler and Nancy Lee, it’s the “science” behind behavior change for social good–aka social change. See the connection? Social change is the WHAT or the GOAL, social marketing is the theoretical STRATEGY or FRAMEWORK.
Social Media–Social media encompasses a variety of TACTICS and/or TOOLS. Social media marketing is best when it’s an integrated approach that complements current outreach and communication efforts, when it works to solve a problem, and is about what it enables, empowers and builds–more so than tools or information. SB looks at social media for a few reasons 1) It’s evolving itself as new tools and best practices continue to emerge on almost a daily basis; 2) Because of its fast growth and continual change, it demands savvy practitioners; 3) Because of reason #2, an active commitment to learn and engage is required, not just for me, but for all of us colleagues; and 4) It has the potential to completely change the game for social change and behavior–and in many ways, it already has–making it critical to know, understand and grasp.
But I can’t accomplish this alone. It’s going to take an active-living-breathing-charged-committed-encouraged-motivated-and-dedicated swarm of socialbutterflies to move the needle. What are your thoughts? How do you think we’re doing?
flickr credit: ~flutterby~’s
A Global Petition: Round 2
Wednesday, May 6th, 2009 | Conferences and Events, Groups and Associations, Social Marketing | No Comments
If you are a SB reader, then you are familiar with this topic: the creation of a social marketing association. If you’re new, then I invite you to join the conversation as it continues to evolve.
No, this is no re-mix of Social Media Club, but it’s a potentially Global Social Marketing Association, speaking in terms of behavior change.
I was prompted to write about this topic when I received an email from Craig Lefebvre on the Social Marketing listserv announcing a new petition–a call for global engagement. Though I had created a humble petition of my own on iPetition over a year ago, I am very excited to see this one having momentum, both online and offline.
The petition has just almost 100 signatures and anyone is welcome to support it. The great (and strategic) piece of this petition is that is was launched with the buy-in of the Social Marketing Quarterly’s Editorial Review Board, which consists of many of the field’s thought leaders. The petition states:
*********
We, the undersigned, agree that the moment has arrived for the development of a social marketing organization. We will support, in words and actions, the creation of a global social marketing organization by July 2010. To work towards this end, we share the following core principles:
- Social marketing starts from the personal perspectives of the people with whom we work.
- Social marketing is a well-established professional discipline with a strong academic and practical foundation.
- Social marketing is a systematic approach to large-scale behavior and social change.
- Social marketing is a “community of practice” that is open to all disciplines and types of practitioners and can be applied to a range of environmental, public health, and social issues.
- The development of a professional social marketing organization should be a widely participatory and transparent process.
- A social marketing organization should represent the views of practitioners, organizations, academics, researchers, donors, policy-makers and others who advocate for, practice, and support the use of social marketing applications to address social problems.
*********
Other steps to move forward have been outlined and consist of:
- Create an Ad Hoc Guidance Group of no more than 20 members.
- Establish a date for convening a “Congress” for the social marketing organization prior to the 2010 National Conference on Social Marketing in Public Health.
- In next four months, the Guidance Group will oversee a process that solicits Delegate nominations from the social marketing community.
- We suggest that work groups be created from this group of delegates to achieve certain objectives.
- The outcomes of this Congress will then be presented for discussion and affirmation to a larger group of the social marketing community attending the social marketing conference in Clearwater Beach, FL in June 2010. Officers should be elected at this time and the organization formally announced to colleagues, stakeholders and professional communities.
*********
I’ve signed it. And so has the legendary marketer himself: Philip Kotler! Won’t you join us? At the very least, I’m going to do my best to get to next June’s 20th Anniversary of the Social Marketing in Public Health Conference, where it’s hoped that the association will officially be launched. Go here to sign the petition directly.
flickr credit: Gataen Lee
BloggersUnite.org Drives Earth Day Buzz
Thursday, April 23rd, 2009 | Blog Talk, Blogging and the Blogosphere, Case Studies and New Orgs/Campaigns, Changeblogging: NP, activism, social change +, Social Media | No Comments
Can you swallow this math?
According to Copywrite, Ink, there were 88,000 blog posts on Earth Day (April 22) that were added to the already existing 2 million written earlier in the week. What’s even more amazing? …About 10% of all those blog posts, came from bloggers on BloggersUnite.org.
In all transparency, I’m a participating members in both the BloggersUnite and BlogCatalog communities, and we worked on a project together in the past, but dang—they deserve a big pat on the back for accomplishing their exact mission, harnessing the power of the blogosphere.
As mentioned on the BloggersUnite Earth Day event page, Earth Day 2009 was held April 22nd and also marked the beginning The Green Generation Campaign, a two-year campaign that will culminate with the 40th Anniversary of Earth Day in 2010.
More Green Goodness
- In honor of Earth Day, Colleague Mike Newton-Ward and fellow social marketer wrote a post on applying a social marketing approach to the environment and other green goodies that I highly recommend checking out. Bonus: He provides a slideshare presentation that outlines this even more! (But like a good blogging friend, I’m going to make you go to his post to access it. It’s worth it.)
- Looking for ways to take action? Check out EPA’s “Pick 5″ campaign to identify five ways you can start today to make a difference for our earth. Twitter tag: #p5e
One More Thought
So I say again, great job Tony, Rich and the whole BloggersUnite team–and count this posting just one more for the record book! And I ask you, the SB reader, how have you seen blogging communities drive awareness, change and/or action? I have some of my own ideas, but I’m more into hearing yours. =)
Alexandra Bornkessel
Email: abornkessel@fly4change.com
Search
Fly With Us
Subscribe to the E-Newsletter
#read4change
Recent Posts
Social-ites
Categories
The Buzz
Social Marketeers
Kudos
Helpful Peeps and Places
Resource
<
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported License.
If you have questions, comments or concerns, email me at socialbutterfly4change@gmail.com.
Technorati Profile