Using Facebook to market renewable energy credits
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As a green marketing firm with a strong online practice, our clients often ask us to help build widgets and other custom applications for social media networks like Facebook. So it is worthwhile for us to report here on the viral green marketing efforts that seem to be generating special buzz for their novel approaches.
Village Green, a California-based provider of renewable energy credits, has tapped into social media to promote its brand and services to a younger audience that’s ready and willing to work for a greener planet.
Its new Facebook application, Green My Vino operates like a charity pledge drive, except for-profit companies are leveraging their green goodwill to generate sales and publicity. For every Facebook user that sends the Green My Vino application to their friends, the participating California wineries will pledge to buy a certain amount of renewable energy credits (RECs) from Village Green.
Therefore, you have Facebook users, eager to prove their eco-credentials to their peers, effectively acting as free brand ambassadors for both Village Green and the participating wine companies. In exchange for the free brand exposure, the wineries are surely happy to purchase some RECs from Village Green, and hopefully the market for renewable energy improves.
By Stefan Deeran at The Element Agency in New York