Blog Essay

For my final paper, I looked at how social media is encouraging people to be environmentalists.
Through hashtag campaigns, photo and video posts, and expanding social media involvement to sites like Pinterest, environmental NGOs, corporations, and government offices are creating buzz about caring for the environment and convincing people that they should care too.

I first looked at how various social media campaigns have garnered followers who may not have previously been interested in environmental issues. Campaigns such as #NoKXL, #ActOnClimate, #FindYourPark, and #KilltheKCup (which I discussed further in my online strategy report) have been extremely successful in spreading environmental ideas to the general public.

I also investigated how the use of Pinterest has contributed to these efforts. Especially among moms, Pinterest is helping to encourage DIY personal and cleaning products in an effort to reduce the amount of toxic chemicals in the house. Additionally, Pinterest helps to spread the beauty and ease of home gardens, thereby promoting the local food movement. The popular boards on Pinterest encourage a more sustainable lifestyle, without polarizing the issue.

Another important aspect of the digital environmental movement is the ability to hold corporations accountable for their actions. The ability to leave comments on a company’s Facebook page for all to see requires that companies respond and address concerns in order to retain customers. Furthermore, full-blown hashtag campaigns have the ability to bring attention to inappropriate actions by a company. For example, the #KilltheKCup campaign has brought attention to the mass amounts of waste generated each year by Kcups. The campaign is still young, but Keurig has responded by announcing plans to research a more easily recyclable Kcup option. Many Keurig users have made the switch to reusable pods as well.

I currently work for an environmental education nonprofit as the Communications Specialist and Social Media Manager, so this research is particularly relevant to my work. Our organization is active on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram, but was previously only present on Facebook. We’ve noticed drastic increases in engagement in our campaigns by extending our reach to Twitter. Through Pinterest, we’ve developed resource boards for educators to encourage the integration of environmental education with other subjects. Instagram has allowed us to share photos of our conference locations, and we’ve been able to drive traffic to our events. We’ve introduced a mobile app to our annual conference, and improved technology throughout the event through mobile polls and surveys and live Twitter stream and Instagram feed displays during presentations.

It’s really interesting to see which of our posts receive the most interaction from our followers—posts with photos or videos are often the most shared. Facebook and Twitter’s analytics are really helpful tools for adjusting our social media campaigns to ensure we get the most engagement possible.