Twitter and Social Media in Green

Today and tomorrow I'm at 140: The Twitter Conference hearing a lot about the history and developments different people from Twitter are planning on. I will be posting thoughts and developments from the Conference as they come to

I've written before about social media and the green movement, especially how they both come down to one thing: community. You can't be green on your own and you can't be social with any media by yourself.

Thoughts on green uses of Twitter.

1. FlashMobs: CarrotMob is part of San Francisco's Virgance network- basically they do focused shopping at stores and restaurants that they find are doing great green things. CarrotMob organized people to go and spend money there en masse. This takes a lot of organizing and emails- why not use Twitter? If someone were at a store and wanted to do this kind of thing impromptu, they could. FlashMob-style politicized green shopping. Yes.

2. Community building: There is already a strong green community on Twitter. #ecomonday is the green version of #followfriday, which starts that ball rolling. Twilight Earth just put out an article called: "What the Hashtag? Navigating the #Green World of Twitter" http://is.gd/FrxD" So, people and publications are making things happen and already building that community. Since green is building from grassroots beginnings and loose national networks and Twitter itself is still growing their site layout and structures- why isn't there a green Twitter app? Are there Twitter community apps? Maybe there should be soon.

3. Backcountry Tweets: Because one of the hallmarks of Twitter is that it can communicate over SMS even when a phone call doesn't work would be a great way to improve safety for backcountry trips- and keep them green.

More later...

Green Shade of Twitter

I use Twitter to connect with other green writers and companies. As a writer, I use it to get leads on interviews and stories, discover what people who aren't in my RSS feed are writing and to get my own articles out there. In short, I add and look for value.
Twitter is part of how I spend my time online. I'm not a "What I ate for lunch" tweeter, and I don't air my emotional laundry there either.
Some people have been asking me lately who I Follow that they should Follow- That's a hard question to answer. That said, here are people I look to on Twitter for consistently great tweets and a little about why:

@GreenOptions: Blog network in San Francisco, now part of Virgance. They have an amazing community of writers (full disclosure: I write for Green Options) that post consistently with engaging articles.

@BlueLivingIdeas: Blog about water issues and water conservation out of San Francisco. (full disclosure: again, I write for them). My passion is water and they have a great looking site with great quality posts from some of the best writers around.

@JerryJamesStone: San Francisco green blogger. He posts a lot and always has great topics, often about new things in the green car/vehicle world.

@SeanDaily: Editor of BlueLivingIdeas. Recently had a great interview with Sam Bozzo, director of "Blue Gold," a movie about worldwide water issues.

@MurrayNewlands: Green online marketer and Ebook author. He is doing some really cool stuff with online green marketing.

@GreenGigs: Twitter account for a green jobs website that is active in connecting green professionals with jobs. Grassroots job search of sorts. Highly recommended for anyone looking for a job in the green world.

@ChrisBrogan: Not focused on green issues, but he keeps a blog at www.chrisbrogan.com that is an essential read for anyone who wants to keep up with social media developments. Fun to read and always industry-leading thoughts.

@Mashable: Twitter account for a social media blog that keeps you up on everything you need to know and more. If you are on Twitter you should follow them.

There are more, but those are folks I love seeing pop up on my Twitter stream because it's usually somehting green and great.

Let me know if you have any suggestions for folks I should Follow!