Spotted in the otherwise usually tasteful Vancouver Art Gallery giftshop. Buyer on crack?

How the whole event came together reads like an ad for Social Media. I saw a Twitter Tweet from Granville Online, (a Vancouver green living website), promoting a video profile of a local ‘band’ who was making music with instruments constructed from recycled Vantown scrap. It looked like such a fascinating prospect for an Earth Day evening, I decided to buy tickets on the spot for myself and one very discriminating 9-year old companion.

We were blown out of our seats. What I thought would be a somewhat quaint, eclectic local performance turned out to have more in common with the Blue Man Group, or even Cirque du Soleil without high-wires. From their opening piece, a surprisingly soft and musical number played on plastic hoses, to huge, sparkling stainless-steel kettle drums rolling around the stage like careening bumper cars and thundering like 747 engines backfiring, the show had us transfixed. If you are reading this before 8pm (PST) Friday April 23, 2010, get down to the Stanley Theatre (Granville St. & 12th ave) and get a ticket, or check online. If not, well, maybe watch their Facebook video with headphones turned to 11.

The event was sponsored by ABC Recycling. Talk about a brilliant tie-in for a local firm. (I hope they get their share of props for backing this) A the same time, ABC’s partnership with the Kidney Foundation’s Recycle For Life campaign was introduced. Their ‘Kidney Car’ recycle-your-vehicle program has been expanded to include ‘Kidney Metals’, a recycling program covering literally everything (kitchen sinks included). It was a feel-good marketing combination that deserves as much coverage as it can get.

As for my difficult-to-impress companion: He wouldn’t leave until he got his new CD autographed by every member of the ensemble. And their return of his enthusiasm was much appreciated.

The GreenBriefs Green marketing 2-bits: I wouldn’t be doing my blogger-best if I didn’t offer a bit of feedback. The product is top-notch. Loved ScrapArtMusic’s use of Twitter and Facebook (check their page). They could have spread the word a bit more with some postcard media, or other quick pocket-sized take-away at the event itself. As a marketer, I’d love to see their music used on a TV spot for Reynolds Recycled Aluminum, or the Encorp Return-It Program. Or even the new Honda hybrid. (They could send out some PR to the ad agencies in charge of these sorts of accounts) But I get a bit of a head-scratch from the name – ScrapArtsMusic sounds less sophisticated and powerful than the show itself plays. Perhaps as their following (and hopefully success) grows, they may evolve their identity. Or not. Like I said, the product is superb. The world may just beat a path to their door.

Not always. At least, that’s the message I’m trying to convey in this latest London Drugs video. I took a tour through my local store and helped the manager build a display of green products for Earth Day. These are products identified under the What’s the Green Deal program Unicycle Creative helped them launch more than a year ago. Have a look, and if you think you know anyone who likes to shop green, send them a link. The more, the greenier.

But what would their love-child be named?

If you are an advertiser who buys billboard media, chances are you may have some vinyl boards in the mix. If that’s the case, you can now get your old billboards repurposed into dashing courier-style bags by Vancouver’s ECO Apparel. This is a great re-use of material, and could become an instant hit with your staff, customers or media contacts. (Imagine sending out your next green press release in a case built from one of your own billboards, or offering them as a gift for key clients)

There’s a tasty photo essay on how they ‘harvest’ billboards on the ECO Apparel site here – each is individually ‘designed’, with the most unique & colourful billboard sections chosen and cropped by hand.

ECO Apparel also offers closed-loop recycling for corporate wear you purchase from them. If you outfit your sales team with cool fleece, they can return it to ECO to be recycled into new polyester fabric. Nice product responsibility!

All of which makes me wonder: what else could be made from corporate cast-offs? Oak chopsticks from the old boardroom table? Scratchy underwear from the fabric of discarded office cubicle dividers? Land for homeless tent shelters in unused parking stalls? It’s a whole new world! But seriously, if you’re interested in billboard bags or green corporate wear, contact ECO Apparel. They’ve got it going on.

If there’s one thing any marketer likes it’s a client who can back up their claim. When I met Kevin Pegg from Energy Alternatives in Victoria last year, I knew he was the real deal. So I was pleased and honoured when he asked Unicycle Creative to build some magazine ads to tell his story.

Energy Alternatives has been designing and installing off-grid power systems since 1984. Yet with the recent focus on green energy comes a whole crop of equally green competitors. Our strategy was to simply tell his story, referencing the green movement yet not depending on it to sell our benefits. We stayed in the realm of reality for images as well. Rather than searching for sleek, shiny stock photography, we chose to use shots from Kevin’s own extensive library of installation images – colour tinted in Photoshop to give them a unique look and represent different periods in EA’s history.

We had one other ace in the hole. Energy Alternatives was chosen to create the power system that ran the Olympic rings lighting up Vancouver’s Coal Harbour for two spectacular weeks in February 2010. Without stepping on VANOC’s toes, we wanted to tell that story as well.

If you’re a green marketer with a history, now may be the perfect time to tell your story. Just be sure to do it in a way that is interesting, genuine and relevant to your customers.

The ads are breaking in local and national publications this month. So I’ll keep you posted on the response.

Waking up at 5:30, I have to wonder if driving a carbon-spewing vehicle across an international border to sit in a room full of strangers watching someone speak about the power of remote digital connections… isn’t just a little ironic.

Regardless, I’m here at the Social Media Conference Northwest, to navigate the constantly-evolving thicket of Twitters, bloggers and Facebook Friends. Is it a green communications technology? Perhaps, compared to some. But more importantly, its a way of engaging people that no marketer, green or otherwise, can afford to ignore. I’ve had some experience in the field (hey, you’re reading this, aren’t you?) but I wanted a better idea of where it’s all going – to get more sustainable results for myself, my clients and you, dear Green Briefs readers.

As is my way with conference recaps, I’ll do my best to cover the speakers I saw, (apologies for the length, but it was GOOD STUFF!) and offer my own 2-bits at the end.

The Opener: Weak Publishing – by Matthew Dunn, ‘Chief Explainer’ at Say it Visually!

It’s good to start a conference with the Big Picture. Dunn began by describing his roots in a Colorado town so small the local newspaper is still to this day set with hot lead type. He also showed how ’six degrees of separation’ theory collapses large groups down into close and accessible connections – person to person communication that is ‘weak’ in broadcast terms, but wide where it counts – reaching the right people.

So how does this help marketers? Check this stat: By 2011, the data captured and stored in the world will be equivalent to 300 Gigabytes for every human on the planet. And Google can only go so far. So we look at web sites from friends. We ask trusted associates for references on companies, information and resources. Social media provides short-cuts for information (read: your marketing message) to get to people.

Breakout Session 1: Online Video as Part of your Social Media Strategy – Aaron Booker, Varvid Digital Video Production.

Varvid started by doing videos for the ‘Value-Added Reseller’ community and has been live webcasting since 2002. So they’ve been there. They now also offer event-based social media solutions, corporate video projects and custom Internet video portals. Booker chose to use the classic YouTube video Welcome to the Revolution to introduce his presentation. Not a hangin’ crime, but I was surprised Varvid did not have their own version of a stats-based sales piece. The best quote from this stat-vid: Social media has overtaken porn as the #1 activity on the web. More relevantly, under reasons to use video on your site, YouTube is now the #2 search engine behind Google, so video boosts your search engine rankings. But not all video is created equal. What NOT to post, according to Booker: boring corporate profiles, messages from the CEO, commercials, or ‘viral video’ – (These, according to Booker, are a stroke of lightning, not a strategy) What does work: How-to video. Case studies. Video press releases. Client testimonials. Event video. (Cameras, lights, interviewers make events look exciting, and everyone wants to get their mug on film – as you see above)

Business Strategy for the Interconnected Age – James Burnes, Project Brilliant

This dude was psyched, waking up the crowd like the coffee we couldn’t have. And in no quiet terms, he told us he would be talking business strategy, not tactics. In a 20-minute presentation that stoked my marketing strategic fires, Burnes gave a branding 101 class that made it obvious Social Media deserves as much attention in the boardroom as any other communications channel:

• What are your goals?
• Who are your targets?
• How will you deal with angry customers and support your loyal fans? (The two most important groups in social media)
• What do your customers want?
• Where do they go online?
• Who is our talent? (Hint: it starts with the executive team)
• What are our core milestones and events (trade shows, sales push, etc – plan around these events)
• How will mobile accessibility to social media affect you? And finally:
• Do you need your own social platform/community? (group on facebook, etc)

Burnes then offered some real-world examples of strategies, each condensed into a tight sentence. I challenge you to get yours this tight:

• “Give prospective customers more exposure to what it’s like to do business with us.”
• “Move excess inventory through special offers and deals”
• “How do we drive referrals by making it easier to spread the word on the web?”
• “Recruit the best talent by showcasing our staff’s work and the lifestyle we live.”
• “Deliver easy ways for customers and prospects to share their product ideas.”

Burnes also drove home the need for a budget. His solution for where to get that money? Eliminate print brochures. Classic web-guy statement, but nobody in this crowd was disagreeing.

“Social Media Monitoring as a “Free” Focus Group – Or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Buzz” Clay McDaniel, Spring Creek Group

Many decision-makers ignore Social Media as a “Land of the Malcontents”, populated only by whiners and geeks. But if you know where to look, there is all sorts of research information online, for free or close to it. All companies with a website are ‘Global’ – and you have access to information like never before.  Including, the entire deck for this presentation, offered online by the Spring Creek Group right here.

Begin by listening to what’s being said about you. Google Alerts is a good place to start. This service sends you an email every time Google finds a page containing keywords that you specify (like your company name). You can also place alerts for peoples’ names, your competition’s company, key issues etc etc. Other tools like Technorati help filter some of the billions of sites for you, and Twitter has its own set of tools (Twittersearch, Twendz) to monitor trends and keywords. For more robust, customizable solutions, check out Scoutlabs or Radian6. If you just want to jump right in yourself, here’s your 1-2-3:

1. Set up your Google Alerts
2. Spend 1 month determining where your customers, competitors others are posting most about you, themselves, their market
3. Pick top 2 key social media channels for you: Monthly deep-dives using one or more of the right tools.

Then look for those “a-ha” moments regarding your brand. That may be a trend in discussions, a surprise customer service issue or an opportunity to fill a need you never knew existed. But if you never listen, you’ll never know.

Blogging, Tweeting & Revenues. But really, who has the time? by Anne-Marie Faiola – CEO Brambleberry – AKA The Soap Queen

This was one presentation I had to see. How one small retailer grew her business with grass-roots social media and still mans the Twitter, blog and Facebook helm every day. Anne-Marie Faiola sells materials for handmade craft soaps, (molds, colorants, soap) online through a company she started when she was 20. In her words, “People bought my products just because I was helpful and friendly. People buy from people they like.”

Faiola budgets her social media time thus: Twitter: 30min/day Composing 15-20 tweets a day, jumping into conversations etc.  Facebook – 10 min a day. Blogs, one every single day – 60min. YouTube – (4 episodes of Soap Queen TV) 8hrs to film once a month on a weekend – (60hr project for the entire team)

Faiola then went beyond strategy to specifics. She uses Tweetdeck – to create lists of her followers so she can track them by category. Hootsuite helps her schedule her twitter updates so they appear regularly throughout the day. For blog writing, she recommends creating an editorial calendar and keeping a buffer of completed blogs.

Her YouTube Channel, SoapQueen TV has its own interesting story – the tale of another nail in the print advertising coffin. In 2006, Faiola had a $48,000 print advertising budget. With one stroke of the pen, she decided to use that money to set up her own in-shop mini TV studio. Including a local camera crew and editing services, each episode now only costs an average of $1000.

At first, her board rejected the idea of a Social Media plan. Now, using Google Analytics, Faiola tracks tangible sales directly from her online social media activities. In one example, she tracked $16,000 to a Twitter sales campaign. At the same time, year over year sales are up 29%. Cleaning up, one might say.

How to use social media to promote your brand – Brad Nelson, Starbucks

Seeing Brad, It’s like the ‘I’m a Mac’ guy got up on stage to present. His comfortable, casual delivery is perfect for Social Media. This is the guy you want talking to millions of customers every day. He began with some caveats. If your product sucks, social media is not going to fix it. If you are not willing to be transparent and open, social media is not for you. If there was one main message he preached it was to LISTEN. All media is social. All companies are media companies. Goodbye Ad Wars. Hello Conversation.  Add value to the conversation, and if there’s a fire, respond to where the fire is.

Nelson had an interesting comparison to the social media world of just a few years ago. If 2009 was the year of status updates, 2010 is the year of the check-in. When you check in with Twitter, YouTube, your Facebook page, that’s where your real world and your digital world connect. So what’s next for Starbucks?

• Location – smartphones, Foursquare, and other technology that knows where you are adds layers to social media experience
• What’s a 1-800 number? Anyone under 25 will probably not call it.
• Social media is how you discover content. Facebook helps people discover content, through links from trusted friends.
• Social Media will help us even more to decide what to buy.
• Organizing – Elections, Tweetups

Nelson’s parting (espresso) shot: Start now to build credibility in the Social Media world. One day you’ll need it.

The Green Briefs 2-Bits: More than ever I believe Social Media will be a relevant channel going forward. Social Media NW is affordable, accessible and has something for small or large businesses. Will people tire of Tweeting? Undoubtedly. Will some defriend Facebook and revert to growing organic carrots and playing guitar all day long? I hope so. But more conversations and better content will make our new connections with each other more and more important to business. Heck, I remember a time when business cards didn’t have a web site address. So leave a comment. Tell me what you think – after all, that’s what this social media thing is all about, right?

Whoops, gotta go. It’s time to feed my Tweeter.

The tap vs. bottled water debate is nothing new, but I came across an article on the Granville website which made me think municipalities may have the wrong idea when it comes to promoting it. Turns out Vancouver has recently upgraded the facilities that treat the already excellent tap water that comes from our spectacular North Shore watersheds. With this $600 million upgrade, officials in the region say they can now boast to having the highest quality tap water in the world.

“No doubt about it,” says Bill Morrell, media relations manager at Metro Vancouver, ”I would put our drinking water up against any other tap water source in the world.”

The article goes on to point out several myths in the bottled water world.

Myth: Bottled water is safer.

Fact: Bottled water can be from any source and treated in any manner. The two largest brands of bottled water in Canada, Coca-Cola’s Dasani and Pepsi’s Aquafina brands use filtered municipal tap water from Brampton, Ontario, and Calgary, Alberta.  NRDC testing also found bacteria and chemicals (including arsenic and methylene chloride) in some other brands of bottled water.

Myth: Bottled water is always strictly monitored and tested.

Fact: Metro Vancouver tests tap water everyday from hundreds of sources, up to 25,000 times per year. Bottled water plants may only be  inspected only once every three years.

With these kinds of advantages on tap, maybe it’s time to take the gloves off when it comes to marketing our own sweet mountain water. And let’s ditch the ‘tap’ reference. We have mountain water delivered to our homes, pure and simple.

Mr. Morrell, if you ever want to go up against the bottle cartel, just let me know.

I’m ready for my closeup. Er, maybe a little too close. But it’s all for a good cause, namely the continued greening of one of BC’s great independent retailers. As some Green Briefs fans will know, I helped London Drugs brand launch their What’s the Green Deal sustainability program almost two years ago. Since then they have led the way in retail responsibility with programs like in-store recycling drop-off, free recycling for small appliances or electronics you replace with a London Drugs purchase, and of course, Bring Back the Pack – the only packaging recycling program that takes Styrofoam.

So now I’m leading with my chin to help spread the word. And I’m asking you to help. Tell me what I should feature. Ask me some tough questions. Suggest some on-camera stupid-human tricks. I’ll do my best to V-blog all about it.

And if you want London Drugs to continue getting even greener, don’t forget to tell your friends about What’s the Green Deal. That’s how social media works.

Many thanks to ace shooter and editor Don Barnard for cutting out most of my mistakes.

Gotta go now. They want me in the makeup truck.