So, you’re a green organisation trying to reach out to more people.  You’ve realised that Facebook has millions of people on it.  MySpace is also, whilst a bit more childish, very popular.  But it’s left you with the quandry… what do you do?

Greenbang has been speaking to SRB Marketing, a company that has compiled the top 15 green social sites and looked at the best ways green firms can use the technology.  According to the company’s report the green movement has a lot to gain from social networking and suggests the following tips for those starting out.

1. Create profiles and start groups on existing social networks
   • Akin to the Greenpeace Facebook (49,335) and MySpace (96,693) pages. This should be one of the first steps.
2. Integrate marketing campaigns with wocial network profiles & tools
   • A bit basic, essentially if you’re going to try to get to these people then actually invest your marketing budget into doing it.
3. Associate with celebrities
   • Greenbang’s not so sure about this.  Yes, celebs draw attention but as Ricky Gervais highlighted on Comic Relief, not every celebrity does it for the cause and people are cynical about this.
4. Start your own social network
   • A little more work but sites such as Ning.com allow you to create your own Facebook equivalent.  This also needs to be marketed well as the site already lists over 1,000pages tagged with ‘green’.  Having used it in other roles Greenbang can recommend it if you’re even contemplating creating a blog.
   • A managed social network also needs a leader using 15 minutes per day to encourage conversation.
5. Advertise on social networks
   • Simplistic really but make sure the spend is there and that relevant pages are used.
6. Talk to the various groups that are discussing relevant issues
   • For Greenbang, this would be the number one tip but it is is missing from the SRB list so she’s tacked it on at the end.  It’s not rocket science and social networks are purely about conversation so start chatting and asking questions.