Will Web 2.0 help deliver Green 2.0?

Those business execs used to the quiet mumble of conversation with valued contacts over drinks might pooh-pooh the idea of social networks. Why hunch over a screen updating your LinkedIn profile when you can network in the old fashioned way? Surely, truly social networking is more about facetime, than Facebook? Think again. Social networks are becoming a tool for business, and ethically-minded firms stand to benefit more than most.

As we've demonstrated before, however, green living for many consumers is just that – a lifestyle. And as with any lifestyle people want to talk about it. They talk about it on blogs, of course, but they also discuss it on social networking sites. If businesses want to engage them, they have to follow them there. But where are they gathering?

Social phenomenon
Right now, the synonym for 'social network' seems to be 'Facebook'. The firm is trying to kick its marketing mechanisms into full gear, albeit with some hiccups along the way. Its introduction of the Beacon advertising system angered users who suddenly found that third parties were sending information about their purchases to Facebook. These would then appear on their profiles, often with disastrous results. It goes to show how marketing using networks can backfire.

But there are other ways to use generic social networks like Facebook to communicate with customers. For example, the site offers the chance to form groups of like-minded individuals. These could be people like BusinessGreen readers – ethically-minded businesspeople – who want to network with others and exchange ideas. "How – I ask you – can there be 10,003 people in a group about people's love of vanilla ice cream but no green business group?" asks the understandably puzzled moderator of the Green Business Facebook Group, who started it simply because there wasn't another one.

But potential customers also form their own groups. Searching for fair trade, ecology or carbon emissions will all find groups of people interested in those issues. Businesses which overlook these forums may be missing out on multiple opportunities.

In particular, firms with a disdain for online social networks may be missing out on some serious whuffie says Darren Barefoot, founder of Vancouver-based social media marketing consultancy Capulet Communications. What's whuffie? Science fiction writer and ardent blogger Cory Doctrow coined the phrase in a novel, and it resonated with social media types. "It's basically a reputation-based currency," says Barefoot.

Think of those viral stories that can start online and pick up momentum, snowballing across the Internet with surprising force, until everyone with a broadband connection is reading them. Whuffie is the reputational equivalent of the mass that those stories pick up as they snowball out of control. "When a negative critique of your company acquires whuffie because people link to it, it acquires power, and currency. Once that inertia starts, it's that much harder to fight it. So monitoring that is key," Barefoot warns.

Positively whuffie
Who couldn't use a little positive whuffie? When it comes to managing yours, generic sites like Facebook have the advantage of size. Others, like GUSSE prefer a focused approach. Started at the University of British Columbia, the system is the brainchild of David Vogt, the University's director of digital learning projects.

GUSSE describes itself as an "Amazon.com for urban solutions" - a social network designed for professionals to exchange ideas about making cities more sustainable. Vogt built it using software from CrowdTrust, a social networking tools company for which he is CTO. He says that businesses can engage in online social networking such communities, but that they have to tread carefully.

"Corporations generally move forward by promoting," he says. "That works in some sense, but it won't work as well in these communities. One has to engage in a conversation – and the conversation isn't a patronising one, but a very open conversation." The rewards can be surprising, according to Vogt. "These kinds of social networking tools let them not only have conversations with employees, but also their customers, their constituents, and broader sections of the community. "

When businesses get it wrong it can backfire badly, as Phil Mitchell, founder of 2People, can testify. The social network is one of a growing number focusing purely on environmental and ethical issues. Its member base of 900 is barely larger than some Facebook groups, but then, the people that join specialised groups are self-selecting – in marketing terms, these small, focused social nets represent quality, rather than quantity.

Registration process
"When you register on an online social network, you present yourself to the community with your statements, and the aspects of your profile that you create. One business owner's profile was a transparent pitch, and I wrote back to her and said this is going to backfire, and that this kind of usage was not welcome, " recalls Mitchell. "She changed her profile, so that she came across as a person first, and a businesswoman second."

But simply presenting an appropriate image of yourself by saying intelligent things in online discussions misses one of the most valuable parts of any marketing effort, argues Vogt. It's good to talk, but even more valuable to listen. "When you open up the conversation and you're dedicated to listening, you start to hear things that are valuable to you," he argues. "Maybe you'd find that a certain product isn't as well placed as you thought, maybe there's a clear customer need being referenced in these conversations. One way to test out whether a product or service is going to be worthwhile is quietly blogging about it before it even has a name."

You can go and pay a marketing firm ridiculous fees to gather a collection of individuals in a room with mirrored glass and record their opinions, or you can use a specialist social networking site as a focus group with almost no overhead, other than your time, your patience, and your honesty. At the end of the day, that, more than anything is what Web 2.0 offers companies with an ethical focus; the chance to tap into the wisdom of crowds.