Social media has changed the world dramatically. We are seeing more and more charitable actions carried out by social media channels. For example, Twestival is the largest global grassroots social media fundraising initiative to date, raising over $1.2 million within 14 months for 137 nonprofits. Under disastrous circumstances, like the BP oil spill, Tumblr promoted awareness and raised funds by offering a new background color. When earthquakes devastated Haiti and Chile, Google Earth launched special search engines to help families find their loved ones.

Valerie Jennings, the founder and CEO of Jennings Social Media Marketing started the company in 2003. Coinciding with the US social and economic conditions, Jennings has been through the unstable post-9/11 period, inflation, recession as well as natural disasters. As a small business, Jennings not only survived, but thrived during the past 7 years. All of these made us reconsider our values and beliefs. Why are we here, what do our families mean to us and what are our life purposes?

Jennings Social Media Marketing is a full service company that utilizes the art of online storytelling with the science of measuring quantifiable results. Jennings creates comprehensive social media marketing and web advertising strategies from website design and development to viral videos. The company represents publicly traded to medium-sized businesses across the U.S. and overseas including technology, sports, sustainability, entertainment, travel, financial, health care and real estate.

Follow Valerie Jennings on Twitter @ValerieJennings

Like Jennings Social Media Marketing on Facebook here

Smart phones are becoming more and more popular and advertisers have begun using them as a tool to reach large audience with the use of applications. Here is an article from mashable.com about how people are welcoming advertising with smart phone applications.

Consumers Embrace Mobile Advertising

Advertisements on mobile devices are both welcome and effective, a recent study from mobile audience media company JiWire revealed.

This is especially true of advertisements that appear in apps. Of the roughly 1,000 smartphone users surveyed, 52% claim they have acted on an advertisement in an app and 18% have made a purchase directly from an ad in an app in the last month.

In addition, 53% said they were willing to share their location to receive more relevant advertising and a full 76% said they would prefer to download a free, advertising-supported app instead of paying an upfront fee for the same app.

This is great news for social gaming apps like Foursquare and Gowalla, which enable users to unlock special deals from advertisers based on their locations. It’s also great news for Apple, whose mobile app advertising platform, iAds, will debut this summer with the iPhone 4.0 OS.

Dr. Robert Patterson, Chiropractor & Internal Health Specialist of Overland Chiropractic recently reviewed social media marketing for the health care industry, which showed up on bussinessweek.com.

Read it here.

Read the full article here

I want to share an article written by Lauren Indvik from Mashable.com regarding ways of recycling used electronics. Every year, less than 20 percent of consumer electronics is collected in eco-friendly ways. Donations of used electronics are highly encouraged. Charitable recycling programs including Dell and Goodwill, the Wireless Foundation, Students Recycling Used Technology, Komputers 4 Kids and eBay Giving Work. However, a couple of steps are also recommended before taking the action, for example, clean the hard drive and donate supplementary materials.

5 Charities for Donating Your Old Electronics

Consumer electronics, a broad category that includes TVs, computers, audio devices, phones and other related devices, currently constitutes nearly 2% of the municipal solid waste stream and is steadily rising at a rate of 8% per year. According to the EPA, of the roughly 2.25 million tons of used and unwanted electronics each year, 18% is collected for recycling and roughly 82% winds up in landfills.

These are unfortunate statistics given the many useful and eco-friendly alternatives for disposing of your old electronics — not to mention tax breaks for consumers. We’ve highlighted a few of these options below, along with information about preparing your unwanted goods for donation.

Read More

Here are a few tips to improve search engine optimization, use social media marketing and increase sales opportunities:

1.       Improve search engine optimization (SEO) and create an online brand to attract businesses looking for your company via targeted keywords.  Run a Google keyword suggestions report and include tags, keywords and links which support sales.

2.       Increase SEO by driving traffic from Twitter, Facebook, blogging, LinkedIn and Videos, which will increase the type of industries coming to your site.  These keywords should complement the online sales system.

3.      Identify a clear call to action via Twitter, YouTube or LinkedIn such as driving traffic to the main website to increase email opt-ins.

It is obvious that most sales leads are contingent on a social media marketing strategy. While it is important to incorporate social media tools into the sales process, it is more critical to leverage SEO blog posts to maintain a relevant image via Google search.  I would advise the company to utilize an e-newsletter to continuously market to the company’s online audience and drive regular traffic from a e-newsletter to the primary website.

I would like to share a contest further proving that social media greatly influences the sustainable fashion industry and advocates the green movement.

Treehugger.com, one of the largest websites in the world and the leading media outlet dedicated to driving sustainability mainstream, releases the nominees for the Best of Green 2010 Readers’ Choice Awards. Treehugger’s editors and writers put their heads together to name more than 170 winners across eight topics, naming the people, places, products, companies, and ideas that are pushing the green movement forward. Now, Treehugger.com invites readers to pick the cream of the crop. Through April 2, readers can vote in more than 40 prize categories across our eight main topics. The Readers’ Choice winners will be announced the week of April 12.

Within the Fashion and Beauty topic, Treehugger lists seven different categories, a few of which are dedicated to social media.

According to Ecouterre.com, nominated in the Best Fashion website or Blog category, states in its mission statement that “green fashion is more than a passing trend… like any good product design, clothing production can be accomplished in a better, smarter, and more socially and environmentally sustainable way.”

Kelly Drennan is a true social entrepreneur, devoted to making change within an industry known for its many negative social and environmental impacts including labor, energy, waste, water, and the use of toxic chemicals. Her site www.Fashiontakesaction.com empowers members with the tools, ideas and community to create prosperity through positive social and environmental change. “Members have the convenience of accessing our suite of resources; global business directory, current trends, evolving standards, marketing opportunities and industry news all in one comprehensive location,” Drennan said.

In her recent article “Going Green” featured in the spring 2010 issue of Trends Magazine, Drennan says, ”most people have an idea of what green fashion looks like. But for many still, it usually conjures an image o hippie frocks and burlap sacks.” With the hopes of breaking this stereotype, Drennan states the permanence of green fashion. “This is not a trend. It is a movement. It is a shift in consciousness, in our habitual practices, and a change for the betterment of the planet.” Her strong advocacy for green fashion has landed Drennan’s Twitter account, @ecofashionista, a nomination for a Best of Green Readers’ Choice Award within the Best Style Twitter Feed category.

Vote for the “Best of Green 2010 Readers’ Choice Awards: Fashion & Beauty” now through April 2nd. Treehugger.com will announce the Readers’ Choice winners the week of April 1

Social Media offers designers the chance to promote their own eco-friendly fashion lines, as well as share the green methods in which they create their garments. The social media sphere as a whole offers a place for the green advocacy movement to create awareness. The sustainable fashion is not just a trend, not just hippie potato sacks and Kumbaya, but instead a wearable, fashionable and profitable permanent niche within the overall fashion industry.

websites like Ecouterre.com, an online community devoted to the future of sustainable fashion design, provides evidence that going green is not a trend. According to their mission statement, “Organic clothing, produced without toxic pesticides and dipped in low-impact dyes, is gaining popularity across the globe. In 2006, retail sales of organic cotton products reached $1.1 billion globally—85 percent higher than the year before, according to the Organic Exchange.”

The stigma of eco fashion conjures the image of hippie love children wearing recycled potato sacks singing Kumbaya. The plethora of green runway shows displayed at this past February at New York’s Fashion Week breaks this stigma stating that sustainable fashion is far from its 60’s commune stereotype.

The video “The Latest Eco-Fashions from the Green Shows at New York Fashion Week” posted on the homepage of Ecouterre.com, chronicles the beauty of sustainable fashion, as well as feature the different methods designers take in order to create green couture.

Samantha Pleet, founder and designer of Samantha Pleet, started her collection four years ago. She wanted to make clothes that were sexy, for people who want to dress up a little bit of their lives. More intriguing than the fairy tale–esque collection is the fabric itself. “The mud silk is an amazing fabric,” Pleet said, “it’s an ancient Chinese tradition, they take China Silk and actually hand dye them with yams, then bury it in a river bed. In two months you get this amazing fabric, it’s like a paper bag.” Garments shown include shorts a dress even a romper all made from the mud silk fabric.

JoAnn Berman founder and designer of JoAnn Berman, utilizes the recycling of old fabrics. “People don’t make fabric like they did in the 30’s, 40’s and 50’s. There’s almost something church-like in a 1920’s nightgown, and it takes a lot of cajones to cut it up, turn it into something, and have people appreciate it!” Berman said. Among the colorful garments featured is a spliced piece with a 2010 cut, created from an 80’s beaded dress and a broken leather handbag.

Leanne Mai-ly Hilgart, founder and designer of vegan coat line Vaute Couture, started a year and a half ago. “I spent a year on development, eight months on fabric research alone,” Mai-ly Hilgart said, “all my fabrics are made for the line and are completely high performance. They are ready for a
Chicago winter, that’s how I designed them. They are wind resistant, snow resistant, heat retaining, completely recycleable, machine-washable and made in the USA. Her recent collection features her signature pea-coat dress updated for the season by incorporating geometrical inspiration to reveal sleek lines.

The social media sphere has proved its permanence in the fashion industry by creating a more personal consumer-producer relationship. This social phenomenon contains various facets extending to different niches within the wide world of fashion, one being the eco branch of sustainable clothing.

Mike Dobbs, group director of SEO at 360i, posted his top 10 search engine optimization (SEO) tips on Mashable.com. Twitter pages and individual tweets now appear in Google search results.

Dobbs says now is the time to optimize your Twitter presence. Here’s a preview of his tips:

1. Choose a good handle

   Be sure to pick an optimal handle that’s relevant to your brand or campaign and easy to remember. Your handle (also known as your Username) then becomes part of your customized Twitter URL such as twitter.com/yoursite or twitter.com/yourtopic. Doing this creates a static address for future search indexing, which also helps usability for other cross-channel promotions. So choose wisely! The fun challenge…

2. Select an account name wisely

   Optimize the Twitter account name to best reflect your brand. Your name is what appears next to your profile, which can be different than your handle/URL. You obviously want an account name that promotes yourself, your company or your brand…

(Read more)

Jeremiah Owyang, Web Strategy Blogger, has come out with what he is calling a “definitive matrix” to help companies objectively sort through several social media networks, including the new Google Buzz. Owyang advises that a company’s ultimate decision, when evaluating these networks, should be based on one basic strategy: find out where your customers are and use the channel that is the most effective way to reach them.

From Owyang’s Executive Summary:

Find out where customers already are through developing data around consumer behavior called socialgraphics. Facebook continues to demonstrate a sophisticated marketplace for consumers and brands to mix about, however don’t discount MySpace’s active consumer based – if your customers are there. Continue to monitor Twitter and respond if customers are there – but they’ve yet to indicate sophistication to help marketers, instead rely on third party tools and agencies to respond. The feature set of newly spawned Google Buzz isn’t important, what matters is their ability to aggregate social content which will impact search strategy for businesses trying to reach consumers.

Read the entire blog post at Web-Strategist.com