The subject of this post asks that you to be green. No, this is not a casting call for the next installment of the Hulk movie. "Being green" means having a conscience when it comes to preserving the environment, and this may mean devising imperatives to take your business along the path to an environmentally sustainable future. Why is "being green" so important?

Mostly because its a good idea to think about a sustainable future. And also because when the web-audiences have made up their minds about whether your business is a friend or foe of the environment, it helps to understand every aspect of their reasoning.

This means knowing more about the ecological footprint of your own day-to-day operations. It may also mean being dilligent in understanding what your business partners, affiliates and competitors have or haven't done to make themselves friends or foe's of the environment.

Let's consider the following impacts and risks associated to ignoring the need to initiate eco-smart practices for a moment. How does your workforce perceive your business? Do your workers think your company is a friend or foe to the environment? If they have any quips, addressing those issues will have a direct effect on improving the workplace culture and will also have a direct effect on workers considering applying for jobs being offered by your company. Consumers and your customers will also feel they are doing their part by supporting a business that has a clear direction on an environmentally sustainable future.

A past post touched on the impact the "eco-graph" continues to have on brands and reputations, and the web-based evidence would suggest that there is just as much reason to think carefully about your approach before making any changes. Equally harmful to a company perceived by web audiences to be a "foe" of the environment is any effort perceived to be a "greenwashing" attempt or a sham - web audiences will see right through any scheme to monetize on the "green" cause.

As the subject of this post suggests,"being green" implies taking the appropriate steps to embark on the eco-iniatives that make the most sense to your business. Simple but positive changes to day-to-day operations that could have an enormous impact over time. Being eco-smart also means keeping an eye on the eco-graph and making it part of your online brand and reputation monitoring strategy. Below I have included some keywords that can be combined with your current keywords, or which can be rearranged as keyphrases to enhance current online monitoring strategies:

- friend
- foe
- green
- environment
- eco
- greenwash
- green sheen
- sham

The eco-graph has already become an important metric within our platform of Reputation Measurement™ products and services. Both our RepuTrace™ and RepuTrack™ online monitoring tools offer sentiment scoring and your business with the tools to quickly determine eco-topics which can make or break brands. Advanced warnings on discussions which require immediate attention, and real-time graphing and trending to reveal the location and type of discussions which mention your business, its products, services, or maybe even recently launched campaigns, and why they may be falling out of favour with web audiences.

You may also use both as real-time trending and graphing tools to keep a pulse on competitors who are being discussed in important eco-topics to help understand why your company and its efforts are being overlooked, and to determine whether it is vital for your company to be included in the dialogue. And when a previously negative dicussion begins to take a positive turn in the form of web audiences approving of your changes, the scoring within these online tools will reflect that shift in online sentiment.

In case you missed parts one and three:

Be Keen On Reputation Monitoring - Part 1

Be "Ad-Keen" - Reputation Monitoring Part 3

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