Posts Tagged "social media"

Social Media Overwhelm – One Part of the Solution…

Posted by Larry Pollock on Jul 1, 2011 in Life | 1 comment

We all feel it. The time crunch, The invites to yet another social network. Then the pressure to respond to every comment, thread, question, and topic.

Then there’s email…

I have 3 layers of email filters. Spam Assassin on my server set to 4 (stronger than the average), Apple email junk filter and finally my highly trained Spam Sieve filter I added to Apple Mail. This filter is trained and learns to know what you consider spam and what is good. My inbox is pretty darn clean.

The issue isn’t all the spam for me. I can delete what does land in my junk folder in a few second. No, it’s the inbox and people expecting responses. Don’t get me wrong, I would feel lost and abandoned if my inbox was zero. But I do think we all need to learn ways to keep it under control and learn how to better write and respond to email. Done well and we can get time back. Time is our most precious commodity.

This Email Charter might be the ticket. I suggest you read it and adopt it and share it with everyone on all those Social Networks. Give others a break and a mostly, TIME!

What a gift to give to your friends and coworkers. Simplify, be concise, don’t expect responses or long detailed replies.

Visit the Email Charter and let’s get some time back – CLICK HERE

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Where Social Media Can Make A Difference

Posted by Larry Pollock on Jun 3, 2011 in Social Media | 6 comments

Like any new thing, Social Media is slowly finding way to become tangible and real in our world. Though it exists in a virtual world where much if it is fun and games, sharing ideas and simply checking in with online friends, there is a new set of words popping up related to taking the next step in the evolution of this digital world.

Words like Social Capitalism, Collaborative Consumption and Alternative Currencies are not only making their way into our everyday language, they are part of the next stage of Social Media. Not only connecting people, Social Media can now create new business ventures with a social and environment consciousness and instant feedback from the populous online.

I would like to through a new word into the mix: Social Kickback

I grew up in the 60′s as a young teenager and rallies, protests, sit ins, and many more ways of mostly peaceful non-violent protest where almost the norm. Today with the global instant information and the ability to rally people around a cause in minutes or hours instead of days, weeks or months, with little or no cost, we can influence the way businesses do business, what products they produce and how they are perceived by the marketplace.

Power to the People! (again)

Social Kickback is what I am helping to foster change. Change in how large corporations make decisions, products they choose to produce and how they play in the new “sandbox”.

My latest example is the lawsuit against ChicoBag by the largest manufactures of plastic and plastic bags used in our markets for taking how our purchases. The suit alleges that ChicoBag has irreparably harmed their businesses. Sound like normal capitalism to me, a new and better idea and product supplants the old one…

Here’s an excerpt of the Press Release from ChicoBag:

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Bag Wars | Plastic Bag Giants Sue Reusable Bag Entrepreneur for Loss of Sales (Environmental Community Outraged)

Chico, California. – The ChicoBag Company, a reusable bag company, has announced it is the sole defendant in a lawsuit filed by Hilex Poly Company, LLC, Superbag Operating, LTD., and Advance Polybag, Inc.; three of the largest domestic manufacturers of disposable single-use plastic bags, on the grounds that ChicoBag has “irreparably harmed” their business.

The plaintiffs point to ChicoBag’s Learn The Facts Page which provides well sourced and widely accepted information regarding the consumption and environmental impacts of single-use plastics, accusing ChicoBag of false advertising and unfair competition. The plaintiffs specifically take issue with the following statements in their lawsuit:

• “A reusable bag needs only to be used eleven times to have a lower environmental impact than using eleven disposable bags.” Source: EPA
• “Only one percent of plastic bags are recycled.” Source: EPA
• “Somewhere between 500 billion and a trillion plastic bags are consumed worldwide each year.” Source: National Geographic
• “The world’s largest landfill can be found floating between Hawaii and San Francisco. Wind and sea currents carry marine debris from all over the world to what is now known as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. This ‘landfill’ is estimated to be twice the size of Texas and thousands of pounds of our discarded trash, mostly plastics.” Source: National Geographic
• “Each year hundreds of thousands of sea birds and marine life die from ingestible plastics mistaken for food.” Source: L.A. Times

Interestingly, ChicoBag is not the original publisher of the disputed statements. This information has been used in hundreds of publications, news stories and websites over many years. The ChicoBag Company is one of the few organizations that actually provides documented sources for the facts they use on their website.

Read the Full Press Release Here

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Social Kickback can cause companies, like these large plastics manufacturers, to think twice before taking such and action or even pull back from this if enough people take action and send a Social Kickback message.

How? By first not accepting any more plastic bags, PERIOD!

Second, telling all your online and offline friends to do the same.

Go and Like the ChicoBag and Bag Monsters Fan Pages on Facebook.

Tweet about it, not just once but often.

Social Kickback can hit the large corporation on two fronts, online perception which will effect offline perception and, most importantly, in the pocketbook. If a significant part of the population refuses to use their plastic bags then the stores will get the message too and might stop buying them.

My local store, the Frontier Market in Sedona Arizona, stopped offering these bags this year. My wife an I have a trunk full of reusable bags and take them into the store every time we shop. You should too.

No more plastic shopping bags in this house again, Ever!

Let’s use the Power of the People, both online and offline, to start changing things. Kickback with you online voice, your $ and your actions. We can make a difference!

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