Green // Current

The top ten most unhealthy foods in your supermarket

Margarine; Breakfast cereals; Refined Vegetable Oils; Doughnuts; Soft Drinks;... more

lookatmypix
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Revealed... the 515 chemicals women put on their bodies every day

Excerpt: "Many of those are also used in products such as household cleaners, and... more

lookatmypix
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4 hours ago
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On Thinner Ice: New photography project provides stark proof of melting glaciers on the roof of ...

Hover your mouse into the picture to see the difference. Excerpt: "Global... more

lookatmypix
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Power HotSpot for 12 volt 'noncritical' electronics and the survivalists who love them

Companies have been trying to get the ball rollin' for a few years now, but we haven't... more

lordsbassman
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6 hours ago
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Plane Stupid ad: Polar bears falling from the sky

Airline pollution activists Plane Stupid have made this brilliant, hard-hitting ad to... more

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12 hours ago
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First test for record solar plane

The prototype of a solar-powered plane destined for a record round-the-world journey... more

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21 hours ago
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How Your Small Business Can Grab the Green Business Spotlight

This blog is written by a member of our expert blogging community and expresses that expert's views alone.

The green entrepreneurs I speak with every day have great stories to tell about their phenomenal work saving resources, cleaning our energy, and creating a better world. These stories do more than entertain; they get attention and bring in business. Telling your story is one thing, but making sure that it’s heard is another. Tools ranging from PR to Twitter can deliver your message, each with their pros and cons, and services like 3BL Media can amplify your story to reach more eyeballs and get noticed.

The first step is paring down your message to be crystal clear, making it as short and simple as possible. The value of clarity is often overlooked; clarity helps the message to stick, and also helps entrepreneurs to better understand their own business.

The next step is finding tools to deliver the message to the right eyes and ears. The tools to boost your business visibility include:

1. Blogging – Blogging doesn’t cost anything and can connect you to large numbers of people, but it does take time and it’s not for everyone. For blogging to attract an audience you need to post frequently, probably at least once a week. This may not sound like much, but the entrepreneurs I know are incredibly busy people.
2. Social networking –Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube are free and potentially powerful ways of making connections, but they are also full of noise. The great hope is that your post will go viral, taking on a life of its own, but your content will usually need a big push to stand out and get noticed.
3. Partnering with media distributors – If you already have content and want it to reach more people, services like 3BL Media amplify your message through high profile distribution to a big chunk of the CSR world.
4. Ads – Ads on the internet can be highly targeted based on demographics of websites. An ad campaign does cost money, and the time to keep an eye on what is working, and not working.
5. Public relations – PR can be immensely powerful; getting others in the media to talk about you can provide credibility. It usually takes connections and time to make this happen, and the efforts of a paid professional.

For entrepreneurs working on tight budgets, free tools like blogging, YouTube, Twitter and Facebook can be very attractive. Small businesses are often so focused on their business and so cash strapped these days that they have little money for marketing. Free social networking tools can accomplish a lot and should be used as much as possible, but they can’t always do the whole job on their own. Public relations efforts provide a big boost with the right investment of time and money, although some businesses find it’s more than they can invest today.

http://www.fastcompany.com/blog/glenn-croston/starting-and-growing-green-businesses/how-your-small-business-can-grab-green-busiThis blog is written by a member of our expert blogging community and expresses that... more