Greentweets

I'm not gonna lie. I'm what you'd call a "couch activist," (a term I just invented.) I see things show up around the 'net and I click the reblog button on my tumblr dashboard appropriately. "How dare they!" I say as I hit the 'like' button before moving on to laugh at the lolcat of the week.

But sometimes campaigns stand out. If you're going to use social media, you need to know how to reach social media's largest demographic: the young adult. With every teenager and college student plugged in to some form of electronic device almost 24/7, following twitters and tumblrs and facebooks alike, you need to learn how to speak the language. Greenpeace has it down pat.

Back in 2011, a scandal surrounding Barbie erupted when it was discovered she supported deforestation, a habit picked up from Mattel who purchased products from an Indonesian company known for trashing Indonesia's natural environments. A campaign was launched in which Ken announced it was over between them, while Greenpeace spread the word via their own tweets similar to a gossip-loving teenager, complete with a gratuitous use of 'OMG'. It worked, and plenty of people were responding via all sorts of electronic media, supporting Ken and Greenpeace.

What some companies need to learn is that it's not just about having the method to reach this generation of plugged in youths, it's learning how to connect with them. Anyone can hold a megaphone, but not everyone's a public speaker.

And no, getting your tweets screencapped and posted on facebook or something because your attempt at being hip was laughably bad does not count as reaching the youth of today. Contrary to popular belief, there is in fact such a thing as bad publicity.

This has been another lesson in selling stuff.