Original Article on Triple Pundit: Expert Editorial on Sustainable Business

Joey Shepp, founder of Earthsite, a self-described new media company for sustainable brands, spoke on the subject at the LOHAS conference. Engagement is the basic strategy of social currency. Companies must 1) respond, 2) participate, 3) share and thank their communities. These strategies lead to user-generated content (UGC), which is one of the main objectives of any social media campaign.

It’s so powerful, says Shepp, that if you engage your customers in this way, you can turn your entire brand (and company) around. When Intuit, for example, went online in the social media sphere, 80% of comments were negative. It was a function of the fact that many of their customers had felt they were not being listened to. Within 3 months, they were not only able to turn it around, they were able to improve their product in many ways with feedback they’d received.

Having customers feel more ownership over your brand gives it more stability. Figure this: if they like you, and someone else attacks you (whether it’s on a Yelp review or your Facebook page), it’s like that person is attacking them. And, as Shepp says, “You’ll start to see people defending you…you won’t even have to respond.”

In the media world, there’s four basic outlets for small companies: earned media (PR), owned media (website), advertising (paid), and social media (community). As a small company with a limited ad budget, it makes an active engagement in social media a pretty strong case.

As Shepp likes to add, though, social media can be quite a sustainable option. There’s reduced travel, many to many communications, reduced paper use, and perhaps most importantly, it helps to hold the feet of companies to the fire….secrets are getting harder and harder to keep.

From the GreenSmith Sustainable Business Consulting Blog:

“My first guest is Joey Shepp, who has been involved in the sustainable business realm in some form or another for the better part of a decade, and presenting engagingly about it at innumerable events. Whether it’s leading the technology efforts at Green Festival, running web, design, and social media strategy firm EarthSite, Joey has a lot to say on how technology and green meet, and how to do it effectively. We had a far ranging conversation, largely anchored in the social media realm, Joey sharing interesting perspectives on privacy, Facebook, how he sees geolocation based businesses being of use to you and I, and more.”

Listen to the Complete Interview Here:

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A presentation at the LOHAS Forum 2010 on how social media provides many values beyond marking ROI and how engagement is the basis for a new social currency.

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