Social Media and Social Consciousness

Integrated Marketing today involves more than advertising and direct mail. It’s about messages that can reach people around the world in an instant. It means being socially conscious and politically aware and it also means being able to communicate on a global scale. It means understanding your target audience – who they are – what they like - no matter were in the world they happen to live.

When I talk about integrated marketing with our clients – I make sure to include the Interactive/Digital components of their marketing, social media including how they will incorporate social networks – MySpace, Facebook, Blogs, Twitter, etc. and I always make sure their messages and actions around social responsibility are included.

For all of us involved in marketing today, you would have to be living under a rock to not know that as a marketer you now have to combine marketing innovation with social and environmental concerns. Better known as Sustainability Development and Marketing.
Sustainable development and marketing are concerned with how today’s business contributes to some of the most significant challenges the world faces in this century – from climate change and the environment, to health and safety for workers globally.

Companies create a competitive advantage by understanding the global communities in which they do business. In recent years, hundreds of companies have developed ethical reports and policies on environmental performance. These initiatives seem to appear more where consumers make decisions to switch brands that they feel do not respect social responsibility issues.

Integrating sustainability values into a brand can contribute to market growth, after all a company’s corporate responsibility can become that company’s differentiator in a market place where price and performance are the same.

Although a company’s brand is about value and self image, consumers want to know more about the company behind the brand. To understand just how relevant sustainability marketing maybe to your company or business – ask yourself and your team these simple questions:

Are social and environmental issues on the radar of our customers?
Do social and environmental issues have any impact on our product offerings or our company’s reputation?
Is our company’s survival threatened by changes in the global economy and environment?

History has proven that consumers naturally follow brands that lead. So as a marketer you must encourage brands that create sustainable principles. (Visit Sojo's Greener World - http://www.sojoinc.com/green/)

Twitter Has No Time Zones

Image courtesy of ABC

Everyone is still talking about Twitter. One thing I think everyone is realizing is that Twitter, more than any other social network, is the best at spoiling the ending of a much anticipated television show.

For example, last night many Americans geared up to watch the season finale of Grey's Anatomy. I know this for certain as Twitter informed me - it was one of the top trending topics being tweeted last night. It's no secret (unless you just don't watch the show), one of the main characters has had a brain tumor in the last few episodes. Plus, in the "real" world, there has been a lot of speculation that this person who plays the brain tumor patient was leaving the show to pursue movies full time. So the debate was on: Does she live or die?

But of course there was more. There is always more (well, if they writers are good). And as the plot thicken, I clicked on the hashtag marked #grey's. There were a lot of "OMGs", ohhs and ahhhs, and just generally people showing their disbelief over the season finale's storyline.

And then I saw that the people on the West Coast were just settling in to watch their season finale of Grey's Anatomy. I say their because if they were not careful on Twitter and were tempted to clicked on the little hashtag marked #grey's, they would be eliminating all element of surprise for themselves. How sad, I thought.

My point is, Twitter can be used as a real time discussion of all things - except for subjects that have surprise endings. Twitter does not know the meaning of time zones. So, for the people in other time zones that wanted to get on Twitter last night and discuss Grey's Anatomy as the show happened, well, it just wasn't possible because within that same stream were people who had already seen the show.

So, with new technology, comes new habits we have to adapt. If we do not want our endings spoiled, we have to learn to stay off of Twitter (well, Internet period).

Sojo Designers Especially Love This

Watch Font Conference on CollegeHumor

Sojo's Graphic Design Goes to the Movies

Recently we designed an 8 foot banner for E L Music Publishing, which they will use for movie/music premiers. The banner will first be seen at the premier for this movie:

Vote for the 2009 Peachtree Road Race T-shirt!

Click here to vote for your favorite!

For the non-Atlantans, here is a little history on the Peachtree Road Race. The Peachtree is held every year on July 4th and sponsored by the Atlanta Journal Constitution (AJC). Until recently, in 2008, it was the world's largest 10 K race with 55,000 registered runners. And according to Wikipedia, in 2008 the Vancouver Sun Run had over 59,000 registrants, however the Sun Run is two races, a 10k and a 2.5k; the Peachtree has just one. (Take that Vancouver Sun Run.)

Thus, every year over 60,000 people try to register for the limited 55,000 spots in this race. Why? For the prestigious T-shirt every year (only available to those who finish the race)? The glory? To beat someone's time? Your own personal victory? Perhaps we will never know unless we participate.

Here's a look at some of the other shirts that have been designed over the years.

*All images via AJC

For all things Peachtree Road Race related, go here.

Happy Earth Day!

In celebration of Earth Day today, we would like to share with you a few tips to stay green from our Creating a Greener World website.

• Use low-flow faucets, showerheads, and toilets in your bathroom
• Use compact fluorescent light bulbs – they reduce emissions by about 65% as compared to a regular light bulb.
• Caulk around windows and weather stripping around doors
• Bring your own cup to work for coffee
• Go paperless; pay your bills online
• Car pool or walk or ride your bike when you can
  
• Bring your own bags to the grocery store
• Eliminate junk mail at work. For no fee, the EcoLogical Mail Coalition will eliminate the junk that former employees receive at work

Sojo has a unit that specializes in advising organizations and corporations on sustainability. Many organizations today have new sustainability policies they have to abide by and we can help you do that. We can help you communicate your policy to your employees and customers, and assist you in boosting your corporate social responsibility reputation. And most of all, by working together, we can make our home a little greener for ourselves and future generations.

For more tips, visit our Creating a Greener World website and contact us today to see how we can help you go green.

32% of Influential Churches in the U.S. are on Facebook

Social Networking is Shaping Religion Today

According to a survey Sojo recently conducted, 32% of the country’s most influential churches surveyed are using Facebook. Some of the churches surveyed included:

• World Changers Church International in College Park, Georgia
• Calvary Chapel of Ft Lauderdale
• North Point Community Church in Alpharetta, Georgia
• Southeast Christian Church in Louisville, Kentucky
• Second Baptist in Houston, Texas
• Word of Faith International Christian Church in Southfield, Michigan

Of the churches surveyed, 32% reported either having a Facebook page or group for their church or for its individual ministries. All 32% of the churches using Facebook stated that they initially started using Facebook as a means to connect with their Facebook-using members. Now, the top reasons for using this particular social network is still for connecting with members but has evolved as a tool for communicating important upcoming events and volunteer opportunities to members of the congregation that use Facebook. One church reported that they wanted to stay "relevent" to what its' youth in the congregation was using to communicate.

In this survey, junior high and high school membership averaged to be 1,063 members. Averages for college student and members in their early 20's were not applicable.

Two churches surveyed reported that their pastors had personal MySpace pages. MySpace and YouTube tied for being the second most used social networks among the churches we surveyed. Twitter, one of the fastest growing social networks right now, is currently only being used by 10% of the churches in Sojo's survey. Several churches mentioned they were looking into possibly jumping onto the Twitter bandwagon.

Surprisingly, only 10% stated they were using Tangle (originally GodTube.com), the world's largest faith and family-based social network with 550,000 registered users. And another 10% stated they were not using any form of social networks.

Below is a breakdown of the social networking sites revealed in our survey.