Lorna Li | Green Marketing 2.0

I was reading Steve Rubel’s blog Micro Persuasion and came accross his article “The Geek Marketer“.

I realized his blog post totally described trajectory I’m currently on and it put into perspective some of the challenges and triumphs that come with this hybrid role.

What I observe most frequently in my job are the tensions that arise between my company’s Marketing Department and our Internet Group. At the heart of the matter is the fact that these departments speak different languages, and the ensuing head-butting is “all very Mars and Venus” indeed.

According to Steve:
From www.micropersuasion.com:

With CEOs demanding accountability and time spent online climbing, chief marketing officers are on a push to embed technology into every facet of their strategy. But marketers and technologists are not exactly two peas in a pod. They speak different languages. Marketers like GRPs (gross ratings points). Geeks like APIs (application protocol interfaces). Dilbert mercifully pokes at these differences. It’s all very Mars and Venus.

Enter Geek Marketers. These cross-trained specialists are fluent in both worlds and bridge them. They are marketers by trade, yet they also have a hard-core interest in technology and social anthropology. As curious individuals, they are constantly studying how digital advances are changing our culture and media. Armed with these insights, they regularly apply them in a marketing context by working closely with brand teams to codify new best practices.

Geek Marketers create competitive advantage through rapid-fire testing and learning. The people I know in this role are shepherding the development, testing and measurement of all kinds of groundbreaking marketing programs. Their pilots span from the simple, such as building RSS feeds, to the complex, creating multifaceted community programs. Often they are paired with people like me, who are in a similar role on the agency side.

What Kind of Skills or Knowledge Sets do Geek Marketers Possess?

I ruminated on this question, came up with a list, and then posted the question on LinkedIn. I have to bow out to Marshall Clark Director of Search at FirstRanked for coming up with a far better list than mine.

Here’s the list that includes Marshall’s 8 year expertise and my “getting there” experience - it’s by no means cumulative. Feel free to add any additional skills you feel should be included.

Geek Marketer Marketing Skills:

• Search Engine Optimization
• Search Engine Marketing (PPC)
• Viral Marketing
• Social Media Marketing
• Guerilla Marketing
• Internet Strategy & Development
• Interactive Market Research
• Website Analytics
• ROI Tracking & Analysis
• Website Conversion Optimization
• Affiliate Marketing
• Community Development
• Online Reputation Management
• Website Development
• Blogging
• Web 2.0 Syndication
• Podcast/Videocast Production

Geek Marketer Technical Skills:

• HTML
• CSS
• PHP
• JavaScript/AJAX
• MySQL
• Apache Server Administration
• Java Administration

What Do Geek Marketers Read?

Gosh, the list of geek-centric internet marketing blogs out there seems endless, but here are some top picks:

• eWhisper
• Graywolf’s SEO Blog
• Inside Adwords
• John Battelle’s Searchblog
• Mashable
• Matt Cutts Blog
• Occam’s Razor by Avinash Kaushik
• Pronet Advertising
• Read/Write Web
• SEOmoz
• Seth’s Godin’s Blog
• Stuntdbl
• TechCrunch
• Unofficial Google Analytics Blog
• Web Analytics World
• Web Strategy by Jeremiah

Analytics Geek Marketers

Of course we mustn’t forget the analytics geeks, who are a special breed of their own. They are hard-core number-crunchers who use their mathematical expertise to understand consumer behavior, such as Satnam Singh, from the Consumer Insight Group of Avenue A/ Razorfish. Their knowledge of Excel will make you cry.

If you are an analytics geek and data makes you hot, Satnam recommends you check out Avinash Kaushik’s list of Top Ten Web Analytics Blogs.

Technorati Tags: steve rubel, the geek marketer, search engine marketing, sem, search engine optimization, seo, social media marketing, web analytics, marshall clark, satnam singh, lorna li

The social media news release, also known as SMR, is a next-generation news release that integrates traditional and emerging forms of communications. SMRs incorporate social media features such as hyperlinks, social bookmarking, multimedia, comment and trackbacks.

Social media news releases are a powerful way to generate enormous buzz and create engaging dialogue among journalists, bloggers and other readers across the participatory web about your company and products.

Furthermore, SMRs offer all kinds of SEO benefits through viral linking.

This video from webitpr give a fantastic overview of the social media news release.

Technorati Tags: social media news release, social media release, social media press release, smr, smpr, smnr, search engine optimization, seo, social media optimization, social media marketing, lorna li

Burning Man’s Green Man theme for 2007 inspired environmental art that was far more symbolic than sustainable. For example, the Crude Awaking installation was blown up in a giant mushroom cloud in order to ‘dramatize the worshipful relationship and dependence modern man has toward oil’. I can only imagine the amount of fuel it took to haul, install, and blow up a 99 foot oil derrick.

A favorite installation of mine was the wondrous Big Rig Jig by Mike Ross, which featured 2 oil tanker trucks in perfect acro-yogic balance.

The highly interactive swinging monkeys installation was another favorite of mine.

A troupe of child-sized monkeys were suspended from a merry-go-round wheel, at the base of which a set of congo drums was placed, inviting visitors to beat upon them in reckless abandon. Surrounding the merry-go-round was a ring of bikes. With several people rapidly peddling, the wheel begins to spin, and rapidly flashing strobe lights create the illusion that the monkeys are swinging overhead from bar to bar.

Of the art cars I saw this year, 2 are dear to my heart.

Photo courtesy of Duane Flatmo

Duane Flatmo’s latest Kinetic Sculpture, the pedal-powered Armored Carp, is made entirely of welded baking pans and other pieces of scrap metal also shoots flames.

The solar-powered Daisy (owned by the Cunninhams and friends) was an oversized tricycle with sails and a horn that sounded like a loud, drawn-out cow-fart provided an afternoon of entertainment and photo opps.

Elena Cunningham

John Cunningham

To see more Burning Man photography, visit my Green Man 2007 Set on Flickr.

Technorati Tags: burning man 2007, green man 2007, eco-art, crude awakening, big rig jig, mike ross, daisy, elena cunningham, john cunningham, duane flatmo, armored carp, kinetic sculpture, lorna li

Burning Man, the annual arts festival that takes place in the remote Black Rock Desert, attracts approximately 40,000 participants, and is Nevada’s tenth largest city, for one week. As a 4th year Burner, I returned to Burning Man after a hiatus of 3 years, with high hopes that Burning Man was finally evolving out of its flamboyant and hedonistic paradigm into a model of eco-conscious social engagement, embodied by its 2007 theme “Green Man.”

I must say that, while I had a blast, I was disappointed by the Green-ness of Green Man. But, having arrived at Black Rock Desert in a gas guzzling RV with 4 other friends, I will be the first to admit it ain’t easy making Burning Man Green.

Comparing notes with other eco-conscious Burners, it seemed that the Green element seemed to be somewhat weak.

The 30,000 square foot Green Pavilion showcased emerging Green technologies in a manner much like a high school science project, rather than a “World Fair” of clean technologies. Artistic models and interactive displays were explained by billboards that most were too hung-over or ADD in the highly distracting Burning Man environment to read.

An alternative solution to greenhouse gases - use bags of bubbling CO2 absorbing liquid algae.

Gas guzzling art cars tore around the Playa much like any year. Art installations that required enormous resources to haul out to Black Rock Desert and assemble were symbolically torched, emitting clouds of toxins into the atmosphere.

Eco-camps were few and far between - it appeared that most camps consumed and threw away mounds of plastic bottles, cups, utensils, and other refuse much like any other year. Camp art, sofas, carpets, dome cushions and junk costumes received their final applause on the Playa before making their inevitable journey to eternal rest in landfills. Face it, who wants to spend hours washing Playa dust off junk or pay to store it for next year?

Battery-operated lights on your bike are cool and create less garbage.

Environmentally unsustainable, single-use, disposable glow sticks were as de rigeur as ever. I found myself using plenty of these, as it was important to me to find my bike in the dark and not be run over by art cars at night.

Overall, the carbon footprint of Burning Man seemed to be no different than any other year. According to Cooling Man, the event is estimated to give off 28,000 tons of carbon emissions.

Leave No Trace

Burning Man’s motto, for years, has been to “Leave No Trace“. Burners are told to pack all out all their waste and refrain from wearing feather boas and glittery things that easily shed. Camps that use large quantities of water, such as Astral Headwash, are asked to evaporate their runoff in large, shallow, evaporation pans lined with sheets of black plastic rather than forcing the arid Playa to absorb unnaturally large quantities of water. For weeks after the Burn, the Black Rock City clean up crew comb the desert for detritus that might have blown away.

I’ve often thought that “Leave No Trace”, while truly commendable, still falls short of minimal environmental impact to the desert. Face it, burning giant structures of metal, plastic, and fluorescent lights can’t possibly be good for the environment.

2007 Green Initiatives at Burning Man

In 2006, Burning Man took a Green step forward by issuing an official environmental statement.

In 2007, that intention evolved into the following initiatives, such as:
From www.worldchanging.com:

A festival-wide composting program will manage food waste from the Café, Commissary and 50-100 theme camps. The organizers have also instituted composing in the San Francisco Burning Man office. All plastic utensils are also being replaced by corn-based products.

A comprehensive recycling program including drive-thru recycling in neighboring cities for burners to dispose of recyclables on the ride home. Proceeds raised from the recyclables will be donated to support environmental initiatives and education through the Gerlach High School.

87% of the main festival generators will be run on B100 biodiesel (11,000 gallons) and the remaining generators (not including festival participants) will run on B10.

Over 50 theme camps are using biodiesel because Burning Man negotiated with local vendors to lower entry barriers for biodiesel use.

A Burning Man sponsored installation of a 120 kW solar array in Gerlach, Nevada and a 60 kW solar array in Lovelock, Nevada. A 30 kW solar array will be used to help power the festival and will be gifted to Gerlach after the event. This project will generate $3 million of electricity over the next 20 years at no cost to Gerlach/Lovelock residents.

A Burning Man sponsored a CFL project in Gerlach (the closest town to the festival, population 500) updating all town light bulbs from incandescent to compact fluorescents.

1000 shared yellow bikes (funded by a generous burner) painted green with red flames. This gift will help create the highest per capita municipal bike use in the United States (1 bike per 35 people).

Burning Man 2007’s Green Footprint Baby Step

While efforts to reduce Burning Man’s environmental impact has been steadily growing, in 2007, Burning Man broke new records in its Green initiatives:
From www.burningman.com:

The wood recycling set a new record: 56 units of lumber loaded down 4 flatbeds, all donated to Habitat For Humanity in Reno.

The composting project with the City of San Francisco loaning out their curbside green bins was a huge hit–we loaded out an entire 30 yard dumpster of gooey wet green waste, and sent it off to Full Circle Compost down in Minden.

Also Cooling Man set a new record - 600 tons of carbon emissions offset in 2007

Finally, according to the Burn Clean Project, Burning Man 2007 collectively replaced 8,000 gallons of petroleum with biodiesel.

How Can Burning Man Get Greener

According to Dr. Jonathan L. Gelbard, Ph.D. conservation biologist, sustainability expert, and Burner, Burning Man has a long way to go before it can be considered a “bright green event.” His recommendations are:

Improve Greener Transport and Power

1. Energize Black Rock City via the power of sun and wind! If a few pilot solar and wind-power stations can be set up to help start powering RV’s and sound systems so they don’t need to burn gas for generators, it would be a huge coup.

2. Or, use biofuel-powered vehicles and generators.

Reduce, Re-Use and Recycle More

Burning Man’s organizers can more actively discourage waste, and encourage the use of re-usable water jugs, bottles, cups, and cutlery, as well as biodegradable plastics. Paper used by the festival should be a high percentage of post-consumer recycled content, including toilet paper in the porta-potties.

Use Sustainably Harvested Wood

A lot of wood is used at Burning Man, including to build The Man, himself. Burning Man (1) should absolutely set a good example by using sustainably-harvested FSC certified wood, and (2) can provide resources on its web site to help connect burners with sources of sustainably harvested wood - as well as sustainable products in general.

Keep Building Awareness About Sustainability

Burning Man can and should maintain and improve upon 2007’s Green Man-type sustainability component. Perhaps fun contests can reward the greenest burners, creating financial incentives that encourage sustainability. Burning Man has been the seed for many a good idea, and the event’s coordinators can and should continue to do their part to actively lead the way towards a more sustainable future.

Technorati Tags: burning man 2007, green man 2007, burning man green initiatives, leave no trace, Jonathan L. Gelbard, lorna li

Images from Burning Man 2007 are up. Here are a selection of my favorites. To view more of my photography visit my Flickr profile.

Technorati Tags: burning man 2007, green man

Last Friday I made TopRank’s BIGLIST of SEO Blogs. Not quite sure how that came about, as I’ve done minimal promotion of my site, but yes, Lee Odden, a recognized expert on search and blog marketing and CEO of TopRank Online Marketing found my blog worthy of mention.

I’ve been reflecting a lot about the somewhat schizophrenic content of my blog, how to make it work, and how to achieve the ever elusive perfection of my web site. While I am passionate about search marketing, Web 2.0, Green activism, environmental sustainability, and indigenous culture - I ask myself how it may be possible to integrate these disparate themes under one roof. And I ask myself, is there a market for this rather specialized perspective?

The majority of social activists I know are lamentably tech-impaired. When will this audience be mature enough to find value in leveraging the power of search engines and social media to promote their causes? How many of them are out there that already do?

I’m pleased to see that Lee Odden thinks my blog is at least worth the mention.

Technorati Tags: TopRank, BIGLIST, Online Marketing Blog, Lee Odden, SEO, search marketing