3
June
The Perils of Saving the Planet with Social Media
What a sinking feeling.
Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think I’m addicted to Twitter, I just know what a powerful tool it is for bringing like-minded people together. I also know how many hours it takes to attract 25,000 followers and I know how it feels to have people reach out from the twitterverse to say, “I’ve been following you on Twitter for a while, I read your blog, can I interview you for an article?… would you consider guest blogging on our site?… what do you think about this… what do you think about that?”
I have now proven to myself that “it works” and I am incredibly optimistic that we can harness this technology to help steer the future of the planet.
Those are bold words but I’ll stand behind them.
#EcoMonday is the place for greenies of every persuasion to meet. #FollowFriday is the way to recommend legitimate sources of information that you find meaningful to your followers. The list goes on-and-on of the potential that twitter holds.
My love for Twitter may be a little idealistic but in order for “we the people” to take control of our society we have to acknowledge that we have the power to do so. I know it’s cliché to say, “We vote with our dollars.”… The truth goes much deeper than that.
One of the biggest gripes about one of the key aspects of my business is whether the carbon offset dollars are really doing any good. Social Media gives us a near- perfect system for finding out. If you ‘re thinking about buying anything from anyone… google them… set a filter on your TweetDeck for a few days. You’ll find out who they really are.
This power at our fingertips comes with responsibility though. Now if we see something that we know isn’t right, if a company or individual isn’t congruent with their marketing message we have an obligation to speak up, and systems to do it anonymously if we’re more comfortable doing it that way.
One of the perils is complacency. Some people will look at all the good that some people are doing and think, “They’re taking care of it… I’ll just keep doing what I’m doing, everything will be OK.” That’s simply not true. Our modern society simply isn’t sustainable. If we expect to leave a comfortable planet to our children and grandchildren we have slow our consumption of the planet’s finite resources.
The second peril is the fact that these social media systems are still frail. Two nights ago, as I was deleting inappropriate followers from my @TreeBanker account, Twitter locked me out.
A little research has shown that this is not unusual… there may be some sort of virus or technical problem… who knows for sure?
I’m hopeful that Twitter can restore my account and its 25,000 followers but you know what? If they can’t I’ll just rebuild with a goal of attracting 25 million followers.
The point is we have the tools at our fingertips to create a world we can all be proud to leave to future generations. It’s up to each of us to decide to use those tools.
Follow me at @TreeBankerII and watch us create your grandchildren’s world.
June 3rd, 2009 at 1:50 pm
You are so so right. It is up to us. It is up to us to demand these changes and then to provide the energy to make them happen. And I have no doubt that your account will be found, and I am glad to see that you are forging ahead. I got you back and I am there to help do the heavy lifting. Onward and upward.
June 5th, 2009 at 7:21 am
Hi Dan, well said! Social media is a “two-sided sword”. As much as there are benefits to it, so there are perils, as you have rightly summarised in your post. Its good to see you back!
June 7th, 2009 at 5:51 am
“What you do speaks so loud I cannot hear what you say!” Emmerson We have to do something…now! I agree regarding the power of social media.