This blog post was written as part of Blog Action Day 2009. People all over the world — no, bloggers all over the world — are posting their thoughts on one topic today: Climate Change. How cool is that?
I often ask my students and clients, “How would you leverage the power of millions of readers?” (If you had them?) The folks at Blog Action Day figured out a way to do just that. They helped more than 7,000 bloggers combine forces for a cause and help deliver a message related to climate change. Or, for those of you who are old-school, “Global Warming.”
It’s a topic that tends to polarize a lot of people. If you’re like me, it will even divide the ones you love into opposing camps. I found this out the hard way during a rather normal family barbecue. It all started when I asked my brother-in-law where the recycle bin was.
“We don’t do that,” he said. And then jokes ensued about the Great Hoax of Global Warming.
I don’t often lose my cool, but as this conversation progressed, I learned that even my son had been dissuaded about the truth of climate change. He (who, in his own words, is a huge ally of the planet) learned from a college professor that global warming isn’t really a threat — and that there is no concrete evidence that what we as human beings have been up to since the dawn of industrialization is in any way causing climate change. To say I was shocked doesn’t begin to explain my reaction.
For a brief moment, I caught a glimpse of what my very conservative Mormon father must feel when he looks at his left-wing granola daughter (yep, me). Kind of sad. And hurt. Maybe even abandoned. And then I felt sorry for him.
Funny how you can stand in one place and experience something from multiple points of view. But I digress.
The whole point of this short story is that just about all of us — unless we have actually studied the stuff up close – have built our beliefs about climate change around information that we’ve been given by other people. For example, Nobel Laureate Al Gore and his documentary “Inconvenient Truth” played a huge part in spreading the message about climate change to a mainstream audience. And there are folks on the other side of the debate quoting competing scientific studies as evidence of an entirely different reality.
These messages and ideas have gained power over time. Much of which is compounded by what we see happening around us. We tie what we hear from others to what we see and experience.
Which brings me to the heart of my point: Word-of-Mouth is the most powerful marketing tool we have at our disposal. And when it’s backed up by experiences that align with the message, there’s no stopping the spread of that message. Businesses are not the only ones who can leverage this to their benefit. We all spread messages. Sometimes our own. But most of the time, the messages belong to someone else. Usually we’re spreading those messages because of good intentions. Because we believe them to be true. And because we want to help those we love live better, make better choices, and gain a better understanding of the world.
How can you use that knowledge for your own (good!) purposes? First, understand that humans are primarily motivated to avoid pain; then to seek pleasure.
Avoiding pain doesn’t have to mean scare tactics or hyperbole, though. In fact, I highly recommend you steer clear of using any fear-based message in your marketing. (This is one reason why people stopped saying “global warming” and switched to “climate change.”) Yes, we do tend to act when scared. But only in the short-term. Long term, scare tactics get old and stale and actually turn people off. If you doubt this, just remember what happened to George W. after he took the country to Orange and wouldn’t shut up about his war on terror. If something had actually happened two years after 9/11, it might be a different story. But it didn’t so we all began to roll our eyes at the very mention of a color code.
Helping your prospective clients find pleasure is actually a much better marketing strategy. When you do something good like provide a remarkably helpful product or service (a valid experience that matches the message), the word can’t help but spread. And there are other ways to be positive and still sell a message of change. Offer hope. Offer solutions. Be thought provoking. Maybe you could even grab people’s attention in an interesting way so they stop and take a look. That’s what this artist did when he made 1000 little ice sculptures melt away on the steps of the concert hall at Berlin’s Gendarmenmarkt, symbolizing global warming and climate change. (Watch the video here.)
It can take a bit longer to pay off, but the effects of a truly positive or thought-provoking message will outlast anything negative and be much more sustainable. The key is to remember that there will always be a select few people who are ready to buy your idea, message, product or service now. The rest of us are actually doing just fine, thank you. We are the ones you want to be talking to and educating so that when we do need you, you can usher us into your service queue without any fuss.
Good ideas can be powerful things when they take hold in a society. An entire community of fans (or readers, believers, allies, etc.) can move mountains. Let’s use that to our advantage. Yes, the idea of protecting our planet has hit mainstream awareness. But we’re not done yet. There are still folks (our political leaders) who need to hear from us.
More than any other country, the United States needs to step into a leadership position and take action to limit greenhouse gases and build a clean energy economy if our planet is going to achieve a sustainable solution to the global climate crisis.
In case you haven’t heard, this December world leaders will gather in Copenhagen to negotiate a global response to climate change. As a reader today, won’t you consider taking action of your own to help drive this message home to President Obama? Click here to add your name to a petition on the Blog Action Day website.
And then go out there and create your own waves of positive change: spread good messages, tell fabulous truths, and inspire those around you to reach for a better world!
