Many of us try to be as “green” as we possibly can in our homes and in our personal lives. We may recycle, turn off lights in rooms we are not in or even rooms we are in, we buy Energy Star appliances and have some sort of water filtration system so we do not have to buy bottled water. If we can make these changes at home, how come when we walk into our workplace, all of that goes out the window?

We can bring our green lifestyles into the word place in cost effective and simple way. Here are a few simple ideas to bring green into your office environment.

1. Recycle. Bring a recycling bin into the office. Let your co-workers know that it is just for plastic and glass items. If there isn’t recycling pick-up at your company, have a different person volunteer each week to bring it to the local recycling center.
2. Reduce the Use of Paper/Plastic Dishes and Utensils. One of the largest amounts of waste in offices are styrofoam coffee cups or bowls,  plastic utensils and paper plates. Start by promoting everyone to bring in their favorite mug from home that they can wash and take home everyday or simply leave at the office. Buy an inexpensive set of utensils and dishwear to leave in the office kitchen, with this make sure you have an office policy that states everyone must wash their dishes after using them or at the end of the day. There is not a magical fairy that comes and cleans the dishes at night after everyone leaves for the day. If there is a dishwasher in the kitchen make sure it is an Energy Star appliance but regardless if it is or not you should not be running it every day. If there is an office party and you have a large amount of dishes, fill it up and run it. Otherwise employees should still be washing their dishes after use.
3. Turn Off the Lights. In most offices the lights are constantly on regardless if anyone is in a particular room or not. If there is no one in the conference room, turn off the light. Make sure employees turn the lights off in the kitchen area when they leave the room; the kitchen or break room should only have a lot of traffic in the morning and during lunch and break hours so there is no need for the light to be on all day. For offices that have cubes and a lot of natural light, discuss possibly turning off some of the the overhead lights near the windows to save on energy. Also let employees know that they can purchase a desk lamp if they are in an area that does not get a lot of light, just make sure to provide them with CFL or LED light bulbs so you don’t negate the energy savings of reducing overhead lighting.
4. Shut Down Your Computer. This has an added bonus! Your computer is not in use at night so turn it off when you leave the office for the day. If it is attached to a power strip make sure you turn that off as well. Do you ever wonder why you have to reboot your computer everyday? That’s because it is running all night and possibly still have applications running. If you starting closing down all applications and shutting down your computer properly, your computer will most likely run faster and will be less inclined to crash. This may not seem like a lot of wasted energy, but every little bit helps.
5. Use Online Document Sharing Services. Why print out employee manuals or internal documents? Save them in a file sharing application such as Google Docs or Dropbox. Everyone that you give access to can then open up these items right on their desktop and they will always know where to find them. If you must print something try and print on both sides of the sheet of paper and refrain from using colored ink. Make sure you only buy recycled paper and if you printed something with a mistake, recycle the misprints or turn them into note paper.

These are five simple ways to promote a green environment in your office. They may seem like little things, but a little bit goes a long way when we are trying to protect and preserve our planet! What green practices have you implemented in your office?

This Idea Spark blog post is the result of the discussion during our Friday morning Creativity Coffee. If you’d like to join us (in person or via web/phone conference), please sign up here. There’s no charge or obligation. We just love ideas and open discussion!

Last week’s Creativity Coffee focused on Characteristics of Key Influencers—who they are and how you recognize them. But once you do identify key influencers and others you have engaged/desire to engage in social conversation on behalf of your brand or business, what kind of information should you be gathering on these people? Why is it important to do so? This was the topic of our last Creativity Coffee—Social Profiles.

1. What’s a Social Profile?
• Core component of a Social CRM. The social profile is the heart of a Social Consumer Relationship Management system. It provides a 360-degree view of the individual and enables the brand to target its communications, marketing, messaging, promotions and outreach based upon the wealth of information collected and summarized within the Social CRM.
• Collection of data versus usage. Each brand/company has their own view of an individual. The information gathered in a social profile is only as powerful as the way the brand uses it. Unique tagging and customization is critical to enabling the brand to create highly segmented groups for specific messaging, handling and engagement only if that brand decides to created targeted messages!
2. What are the components of a social profile?
• Contact points. Contact information is no longer limited just email or snail mail addresses. Social profiles are multi-dimensional and include contact points from a variety of traditional and “new media” sources—blogs, Twitter, Facebook, FriendFeed, YouTube, etc. People can also have multiple identities that map to either their professional or personal associations, interests and networks.
• Activity profile. A social profile includes a record of an individual’s relevant social communications and activities. This includes direct communications with your company, but also expands to public social communications that pertain to your brand, your market, your products, your company, or even your competitors. Brands want a view not only of a person’s influence within social communities but also their engagement within those communities. The social profile should provide that information.
• Communications analysis. The social profile should include a history of every communications between the brand and the individual, but it should also provide an analysis of the social conversations that the individual has had. How engaged is that individual? Have their conversations been positive, negative, neutral? How often have they mentioned or discussed the brand’s products? What communities are they engaged in? How often have they been exposed to the brand’s communications?
• Segmentation and customization. While a system’s core data and analysis is essential to developing a view of the individual’s personna, it’s the brand’s own definitions of important segmentation that makes or breaks the value of the social profile. Enabling multiple custom categories or tags within the social profile enables the brand to (even on the fly) define an essential way of defining an individual in relation to the brand for later use in communications, messaging and marketing.
• Influence analysis. The social profile should include ways for the brand to evaluate a person’s standing within the social community—how much that person can influence and reach others.
• Preferences. Interests and communications preferences need to be an integral part o the social profile. How they want to be contacted, how often, which channels and what they want to receive…these are essential and should be strictly adhered to.
3. How can brands use the Social Profile?
• Targeted marketing. At the end of the day, everyone wants to sell their products. Using all the intelligence developed in the social profile, the marketer now has the opportunity to fine tune their messages, offers, communications and engagement with a willing and interested audience. Higher response and action rates will ensue.
• “Free” data. Much of what we’re gathering into the social profile is freely available data. Marketers pay a high price for lists that include demographics and psychographics. Using the right tool, all that “free” data can create a powerful profile.
• Adjusting the tenor of a conversation. Using the social profile will help the brand determine the best way not only to reach an individual but to speak to them in a way that is appealing, desired and appropriate.

Are you developing social profiles on your social contacts? How are you using those profiles to drive your social marketing?

Image Credit: Hilde Vanstraelen

Even though the economic times are tough, you need to continue to reward and motivate your employees. People are working harder than ever, and there are lots of ways to acknowledge their contributions, to make the work environment more friendly and positive, and to motivate them to continue their efforts towards reaching your company’s goals. Here are a few ideas to help you reward your employees for a job well done!

1. Send a handwritten note. Take time to create a handwritten thank-you to an employee who has gone out of his/her way to attain a goal, to meet a deadline, to solve a problem, or to take care of a customer. Deliver that note to your employee in person and let them know how happy you are with their performance. Make a note of this also in their personnel file so their contribution is noted when performance reviews are being given.
2. Create a fun activity. Create regular fun activities that engage your employees. For example, have a “match the employee to their baby picture” contest and award a prize to the person who has the most correct matches. Let your employees generate ideas for these kinds of activities. As an added bonus, it encourages personal connections between your employees.
3. Treat your employees. As in, give them a treat. Have a monthly birthday party for every employee with a birthday in that month. Treat them to cake, ice cream and time with the CEO. Knowing that top management cares about them is a great way to motivate your team!
4. Hall of Fame. Create a space where you can post pictures and short stories of employees who have been recognized for outstanding service or effort. Create a nomination process and a regular recognition process. Have it be in a public area where not only employees—but your customers—can see the great accomplishments of the people in your company.
5. Reward effort. While success is important, ideas and innovation are just as important. Make sure you have a way to reward ideas and innovation as well concrete results. Create an “innovation award” as part of your recognition system. It will encourage your employees to think outside the box.
6. A little food goes a long way. As a special reward, bring in coffee and breakfast breads to recognize a milestone, a job well done, a large customer win, etc.
7. Create an outside recognition system. Your customers, partners, suppliers and visitors are a great source of reward and recognition. Give them an opportunity to fill out a recognition form for someone in your company who has gone out of their way to help them. Make these forms available in person, online and in other ways to ensure an easy process. Share the comments with the employee and the HR department.

At JitterJam, we relax every Friday afternoon with some snacks and beverages. It’s a great way to unwind after a week of hard work. We named the day Fun Stuff Friday!

How do you you recognize and reward your employees?

This Idea Spark blog post is the result of the discussion during our Friday morning Creativity Coffee. If you’d like to join us (in person or via web/phone conference), please sign up here. There’s no charge or obligation. We just love ideas and open discussion!

Last week’s Creativity Coffee focused on Social Marketing Business Objectives. One of those objectives was to identify and develop advocates. A large part of that group of social advocates are the influencers—those people whom others follow, engage and seek out for advice, information and even entertainment. A mention, endorsement or positive review from an influencer can go much further than an advertising campaign; this kind of endorsement is seen as more credible, spontaneous and genuine by the social public. Brands are trying to bring those influencers into the fold—to engage them with their brand and to provide them with a positive brand experience. But how do they identify which individuals are key influencers? We originally touched on core characteristics of influencers in an earlier discussion and blog post, but we wanted to dive deeper into the subject. That was the topic of this past week’s Creativity Coffee, and here are some ideas that came from that discussion.

1. How do influencers emerge in a group?
• Teamwork dynamics. Taking an analogy of teamwork exercises, leaders naturally emerge from a group based upon their characteristics that make them a fit for specific roles. The organizer. The leader, the idea person. The doer. Typically, people are drawn to the roles they play in other aspects of life in which they have skill and recognition.
• Personal characteristics. A role is most effectively filled by the person whose intrinsic characteristics—charisma, attention to detail, sensitivities, intellect, ability—are the best match with the requirements of that role.
• Influencers in the digital social community are like those in teams. Online communities are made of loose associations of people talking about common interests. How do influencers emerge on the Social Web? Similar to the team dynamic, natural leaders emerge. Charisma, expertise, organizational skills, problem-solving skills, diplomacy, engagement and involvement of others, and even humor help the natural leader drive the growth and health of a digital community.
• Presence is also key. Involvement, presence, frequency of participation, value of content and persistence within the community also drive people to emerge as the core leaders and influencers in the digital space.
2. How do you identify the influencers on the Social Web?
• Look who’s talking. Which individuals are the most vocal in a specific community? But that shouldn’t be the only measure. Just because someone talks a lot doesn’t mean that others see value in what they say.
• Engagement is key. Do others respond to an individual? Are they engaged in conversation? Do they comment on the person’s posts, links, content, questions, comments? Does the person’s style have an appeal to your target audience? Is that appeal appropriate for your brand? You’re looking for someone who resonates with your target market.
• Don’t discount charisma, personality and ethics. Trust and influence go hand in hand. Even though someone may be engaged and vocal, they can be so in a way that may be more controversial than productive. Make sure to evaluate how the individual’s personality has a positive or negative influence on others. Are they engaging or are they complaining? Do they “play nice” or are they trying to stir the pot? Jerks may attract people due to their controversial nature, but is this someone you want engaged with your brand?
• Your personal experiences can guide you. Think about the communities in which you are engaged personally. Which individuals are the key positive influencers—that emerge to organize the group, that you go to for information, whose opinion matters to others. Ask yourself why that person influences you. Now think of another leader or active member of that organization that is less influential; while engaged, that person’s opinion has less weight because of their personality, ethics or lack of positive impact. We all know how to identify those influencers to target and those to avoid. “Everything you need to know, you learned in 4th grade.”
3. How do you find these influencers?
• Search and Listen. Make sure you’re searching across Twitter, Facebook, blogs, email lists, and other social communities for people talking about your product, your brand, your market or items related to your target customer (events, topics, people, news).
• Evaluate Influence. Look at the depth and breadth of reach—friends, followers, blog subscribers, etc.—as a first indicator (JitterJam’s Jitterater does a great job at this). Dig deeper using some of the characteristics mentioned above to determine potential fit with your brand’s identity. Look further than the last few postings; see how long they’ve been in the social space, how often they engage others and how others respond.

So now that you’ve identified an influencer, how do you start a dialogue? We’ve posted some ideas on Starting a Dialogue with a Consumer that might help you. Have you identified the key influencers in your market? How have you done so, and how are you engaging those individuals? Let us know!

Image Credit: svilen001

In social media, personal connections inspire trust whether in an individual or in a brand. Connecting personally helps brands to develop relationships with consumers and promote advocacy. The challenge is identifying potential advocates. One effective solution is utilizing user-generated content, which allows willing advocates to step forward and help promote your brand. This can be much cheaper for your business, and it will be fun for your customers.

The most common method for gathering user-generated content is asking users to share brand testimonials or a specific brand experience through a video. Consumers are inclined to trust the opinion of customers more than the voice of the company, because consumers are unpaid and don’t have their own agenda. A consumer taking time out of their day to share their positive experience with others is an endorsement of the brand in itself.

A recent video campaign using this strategy was the Ten Second Challenge from Aflac, which asked fans to explain what the company does in only ten seconds through a creative video. While these videos are funny, they also communicate the brand’s message through the credible voice of a consumer. This is a main strength of brand advocacy, and user-generated content accomplishes this and more.

Another campaign leveraging user-generated videos is Tillamook Cheese, who gathered similar videos and used them as the basis of a TV advertising campaign. Since the video campaign, they have expanded their efforts and are now asking their fans for notes that  “Share the Loaf.” This new campaign builds upon existing relationships and fosters new connections through engagement.

User-generated content is beneficial to businesses because the value it adds to a company far exceeds its cost. This campaign strategy can be implemented on social networks like Facebook for almost no cost, while simultaneously identifying the best potential brand advocates. The connections formed with these users give your brand the opportunity to build loyal customer relationships through engagement, which is the first step towards developing brand advocacy.

If you have time, spend a few minutes of your Friday watching these videos or checking out Toyota’s campaign, and see how user-generated content campaigns can be successful and fun at the same time! If your company has used this strategy before what were the results, what worked and what didn’t? And how would you recommend other companies implement their own campaigns?