STATS: Anecdotal Evidence for Social Conversations

How Green Is My Marketing

from Research Brief by Jack Loechner

Nielsen Online recently released findings which finds that protecting the environment has become increasingly important to consumers, with online buzz around sustainability growing 50 percent in 2007. While early in the year discussion was dominated by the topic of global warming, bloggers progressively addressed a wider variety of green-related issues, with a particular emphasis on personal action such as recycling, avoiding excess packaging, and carpooling.

Jessica Hogue, research director, Nielsen Online, said "…consumers are becoming increasingly vocal online about the  issue of sustainability… Blogger attention to… issues like pollution, toxins and sustainable agriculture reveal an important intersection between personal health and environmental wellness."

Top 10 Sustainability Topics for 2007
Topic	Buzz Trend: Increasing or Declining
Global Warming/Climate Change	-
Renewable Energy/Alternative Fuels	+
Resource Conservation	+
Recycle/Reuse	+
Carbon Emissions	-
Pollution	+
Organics	-
Toxins	+
Packaging/Plastic	+
Transportation (hybrids, carpooling)	+
Source: Nielsen Online, BuzzMetrics
Note: Topics are ranked by number of messages among sustainability bloggers from 1/1/07 to 12/31/07, with the Buzz trend reflecting change from 1/1/07 to 12/31/07.

Discovery Channel's TreeHugger led the top sustainability blogs for 2007

Top 5 Sustainability Blogs for 2007
Blog	Sustainability Messages
TreeHugger	4,612
Worldchanging	738
Biopact	722
The Oil Drum	706
The Alternative Consumer	698
Source: Nielsen Online, BuzzMetrics

Not only are consumers looking for practical steps they can take to reduce personal  environmental impact, but they are also holding corporations accountable for  action and results, says the report. Bloggers are quick to condemn "greenwashing" - when they  suspect companies misrepresent their environmental impact with aggressive PR  campaigns - as spurious attempts to be "green."  Consumers expect consistency  in action and authentic and transparent messaging. 

Top 5 Greenwashing Topics
Greenwashing Topic	Percent of Discussion
Contradictory Actions	25%
Incongruous with Company/Industry	21%
False/Misleading Comments	19%
Seek Regulated Oversight	18%
General Suspicion	17%
Source: Nielsen Online, BuzzMetrics

The Nielsen Online analysis showed that similar environmental initiatives can provoke  different consumer responses depending on a company's reputation and history. In the retail sector, says the study, while Wal-Mart and Target both introduced  reusable shopping bags, some consumers voiced skepticism towards Wal-Mart because  of its association with environmental, labor, and health care issues.

American Airlines Cancelled Flights and Social Networks

from Hitwise Intelligence - Analyst Weblogs by Heather Hopkins

Last week, American Airlines was forced to cancel thousands of flights for maintenance to comply with FAA safety inspections. As a result, visits to www.aa.com reached their highest peak of the past twelve months, up 9% week on week and up 25% compared with a year earlier.

Yesterday, I looked at Hitwise clickstream data to see where people were going after visiting AA.com. My hunch was that people would visit other airline websites to look for alternate flights. My hunch proved wrong. We actually saw a decrease in traffic from AA.com to Commercial Airlines, Travel Agencies and Destinations & Accommodation websites. Instead, consumers were going from AA.com to websites for Email Services, Social Networks and News and Media.

While we saw a 12% decrease in downstream visits from AA.com to Travel websites, we saw a 19% increase in visits to News and Media websites, 13% increase to Email Services and a 74% in visits to Social Networking and Forums.

The American Airlines website asked customers who were inconvenienced by the canceled flights to send an email to request compensation. This likely accounts for the increase in visits to Email Services.

The increase to social networks is most interesting. MySpace was the #15 website visited after AA.com last week, up from #30 the week before. Last week 1 in 30 visits to AA.com left to go to a social network. This serves as a good reminder that customers broadcast their experience to friends. How American handled the cancellations and how they continue to handle claims is sure to be broadcast online - and affect their brand.

Ed: Shifting landscape of keywords.

Google Local Business Center Allows Free Form Categories Now

from Search Engine Roundtable by barry@rustybrick.com (Barry Schwartz)

You can now enter any category that you feel is best for your company in the category section of your Google Local Business Center listing. In the past, you had to select a specific category that was in Google's database....