Posted on Tue, May 01, 2012
By Clio V. Rourke | @cvrourke
How did you celebrate Earth Day? Of course one day a year is not enough to make an environmental impact – thank goodness social media is there to help you be sustainable every day (compiled by Mashable).
Live to learn:
1. Green Genie
TechCrunch’s favorite green app was developed by sustainability pros and helps you live green everyday through tips, projects, and resources – “it's like getting a master's degree in sustainability.” The app also connects users with the Green Genie Global Community on Facebook, where you can chat with fellow Captain Planets.
Available on iOS.
The sunny side:
2. Solarchecker
Oh where do you put those solar panels? The SMA Solarchecker can tell you how much solar energy a location provides and how much energy and CO2 you’ll save. You’ll further learn the expected ROI and which solar energy specialists live closest to you.
Available on iOS.
It’s the details that matter:
3. Green Power Battery Saver
How often do you have to re-charge your smartphone? Right. To save power (and the planet), download the GreenPower Battery Saver. This energy-smart app automatically turns off your Wifi, Mobile data, and Bluetooth when you don’t need it and turns it back on when you do, bringing you “many extra hours to your battery life.”
Available for Android.
4. GoodGuide
Scan before you shop. GoodGuide’s barcode scanning feature “instantly reveals whether products are safe, healthy, green and socially responsible.” You can even personalize the app to rate products based on your preferred cause.
Available on iOS and Android.
La vida local:
5. Locavore
Find the closest farmer’s market or, even more direct, the closest farm to make sure your food is fresh and local. Locavore also tells you which food items are or are about to be in-season and helps you find recipes for them. Enjoy!
Available on iOS and Android.
Posted on Tue, Apr 17, 2012
By Clio V. Rourke | @cvrourke
When “Bully” opened nationwide last Friday, the movie’s initial R-rating had been changed to a PG-13 rating. The R-rating, which the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) had defended with the movie’s strong language, had been widely criticized for keeping Bully’s target audience, middle and high schoolers, from seeing it in the theater. That the MPAA eventually agreed to change the movie’s rating, after having denied a first appeal, is the result of a passionate social media campaign by filmmaker Lee Hirsch. Here is how Hirsch and his team achieved their goal:
To create a successful campaign, Senior Vice President of Marketing Bladimiar Norman at The Weinstein Company spent hours on researching the bullying phenomenon. According to Norman’s interview with Mashable, he “quickly realized the alarming level of bullying that occurs every second, every minute and every hour in our schools.”
Because bullying affects such a great number of students, Norman new that in order to turn #BullyMovie into a trending topic on Twitter, he had to base his campaign on the movie’s message that “13 million kids in America will be bullied this year, and 3 million of those kids will be absent from school due to the bullying they endure.” For the social media campaign “Anti-Bullying Twitter Tuesday,” Norman therefore created a call to action in form of the tweet, “RETWEET PLEASE Did u know 13 million kids get bullied every year? I support @BullyMovie. Let’s make it a trend: #BullieMovie.”
In addition to asking especially teenagers to support the campaign, The Weinstein Company reached out to celebrities asking for retweets, thereby creating even greater awareness for the issue of bullying through celebrity endorsement of the campaign. Among others, Ellen DeGeneres, Anderson Cooper and Kim Kardashian showed their support.
Katy Butler, 17 and former bullying victim, saw the potential of Bully to instigate social change when she watched the trailer. To make the movie accessible to younger students, she had started the campaign Change.org when she learned about the Twitter Tuesday campaign. Butler began to support the campaign with her Change.com petitioners, nearly 500,000 at the time, creating additional impact.
At this point, The Weinstein Company sent Bully to the MPAA for another rating round. Thanks to the massive support created through Twitter, Bully finally was rated PG-13.
As Hirsch told Mashable, “It was not just about beating the MPAA — it started the conversation about bullying and gave people a way to talk about it.”
Posted on Thu, Apr 05, 2012
By Clio V. Rourke | @ cvrourke
When employers first requested that job applicants disclose their Facebook logins, they did so based on the premise that an applicant’s Facebook profile accurately represents an applicant’s personality. And when Pepsi recently created a consumer test program for its new low-calorie product Pepsi Next, the company based the program on the premise that a consumer’s Facebook profile can predict how much he or she will like the soft drink – “without opening a can.” Black marketing magic? Big brother alarm? It’s far less serious (though still a little creepy). On the Pepsi Next Facebook page, Facebook users can apply to participate in Pepsi’s Internet Taste Test. Since even Facebook doesn’t have a taste app yet, the selected applicants are then being represented by their “improv self” – comedians from Pepsi’s partner Funny or Die. Using the information found on the applicant’s Facebook profile, a comedian impersonates him or her and acts out the most likely – and probably most funny – reaction to the taste of Pepsi Next. A video of the performance is posted on the Pepsi Next Facebook page and YouTube. So why is this still a little creepy? “We’ll analyze [the applicant’s] Facebook persona,” said PepsiCo Beverages’ Head of Digital Shiv Singh, according to Mashable. “It will be very close to who they actually are.” Will you try it?