Green marketing meets Social networking....

There is an interesting marriage occuring between green marketing and social networking, that looks to develop into a long and prosperous marriage.

The market for green, eco-conscious products, materials, homes and even holiday destinations is rapidly growing alongside the amount of better informed consumers, and finding these products is not as easy as one might think, obviously the more obscure your green desires are, the further from the mainstream market place they are.

Until now, the blanket media used by the small amount of corporate giants that manipulate not thousands, not millions, but billions of individuals acts as a very effective barrier between you and your green ideals. Now however, instead of going through the big in your face doors of the Obvious, getting lost in the never ending corridors of the mass produced mundane and ending up in the same unsatisfying place, you can enter into the cyber backyard where people are still talking to each other, and find personal recommendations and directions to backdoor urls.

This is great for small businesses, website owners and therefore web designers. Those whose marketing budget does not, and will likely never, match those of the all encompassing CEOS, can slip cheerfully to the front of the google qeue, just by putting in 'alot of social networking hours' being friendly , communicative and interested, introducing yourself to 'friends' and 'friends of friends' telling them about yourself, what you do and why you do it.

The internet has created an environment of social inhibition, you don't wait to be introduced, you introduce yourself; through blogging, video, joining like minded groups on like minded networks, saying Hi, not only to your niche circles, but to the millions of people visiting some of the busiest places on the web today.

The internet has a habit of mimmicking the real world, in big ways; global communication and the interconnectedness of all things, and in smaller ways; the highstreet,the superstore and the directory. Here, websites became your shop front, and visitors passed by...if you were lucky, or if you paid for them to? Now it's imitating the social domain; the swaree, the gathering, and the cafe. Your website is more like your business card and a word or two on a social networking site is like handing someone a friends telephone number scribbled on a scrap of paper.

So now there is a place for small but vital, world changing and important businesses, and eco conscious people to meet and exchange... and the propogation speed is fast and rambling, like planting strawberries in your vegetable patch, only to find that next season, they are popping up all over your herb and flower garden too.

Jeannine Lewis http://www.outtheredesign.com