This Thursday, April 22, we celebrate Earth Day, the anniversary of what many people consider to be the beginning of environmental awareness. The first Earth Day took place on April 22nd, 1970. I remember it well because we walked to school in order not to use the gas from Mom’s car. We also had the opportunity to buy recycled green paper notebooks.
In a day when students and “hippies” participated in massive anti-war protests, Earth Day was seen as a day when people from all walks of life could come together to support a cause that was for the benefit of all.
I’m pretty environmentally conscious but like most, am a work-in-progress. I have cut down on purchasing “things” and try not to purchase items with non-recyclable packaging (refuse); I buy earth-friendly products; use all fruit, grain and vegetable scraps to either feed our chickens or to add to the compost bin. White paper towels, waxed paper and napkins (white) go in the compost bin, as well. We recycle anything that we can. We have been able to cut our trash can usage to 1 can full every 3 weeks. I still have a long way to go though.
Refuse. Reduce. Reuse. Recycle. Rot (compost)
I’m sure you’re familiar with reduce, reuse and recycle but having read the book ‘Zero Waste Home’ by Bea Johnson, I encourage you to add refuse and rot to the mix.
Here is how the Refuse, Reduce, Reuse, Recycle and Rot concept relates to social media.
Refuse to waste time on social media
Don’t waste time on social channels where your potential clients do not dwell. If you use platforms such as Pinterest or Instagram for your own personal joy, then schedule a personal time slot for those platforms, rather than using business time.
Refuse to engage with negative Nellies on social media (or elsewhere). If there is a productive way to interact with them or solve an issue for them, then by all means do it as quickly and kindly as possible, but don’t become engaged in a battle.
Reduce the amount of time you spend on social media.
Maximize your social media time by focusing on what’s important. Try not to get involved in reading every post and following every link. If there’s an article mentioned that you find interesting, save it to Evernote, Feedly or your bookmarks and read it later. Using a timer can also help.
Reducing your exposure to the computer can decrease the amount of eye strain you suffer, can help keep you more active by not keeping your bum attached to the chair all day and can help to keep your mind uncluttered.
Reuse your content.
On Twitter, retweet other people’s awesome content as a kindness and in order to encourage them to retweet yours. Join a tweet ring, Triberr or Social Buzz Club where you can submit your content and members of your group (or tribe) may share it. (You will share theirs too.)
Link your social media platforms together when appropriate. We really don’t recommend this because all social channels are different but for the sake of time, some items can be shared at the same time. When pinning something on a Pinterest board, it can be immediately shared in a post to Twitter, as well. Photos placed on Instagram can be shared to Facebook, Twitter (by using an IFTTT recipe), Posterous, Flickr, and Tumblr simultaneously. By using a recipe from IFTTT, you are able to perform some other workarounds, as well.
*Don’t share your tweets to your Facebook profile or pages and don’t share your FB posts to Twitter because they won’t make sense as written.
Recycle your content.
Submit your content to article directories. Change about 30% of your article and use it as a guest blog on other sites pertaining to your area of interest. Consider posting the article on Medium with a call-to-action that draws folks to your website (which is what I had done with this one). Add MORE content to your article and create an eBook to sell on your website or to use as an outline and host a teleseminar. Make a Slideshare. Create mini-podcasts. Grab some of the content from a blog and make a quote graphic to share on social media. Have your YouTube videos/lives and/or your Facebook Lives transcribed into a blog post (we use Rev.com) or again, extract snippets and use them on quote graphics.
Rot
Periodically, go through your website and get rid of items that are no longer relevant. What worked previously, may not be working anymore. Check to see that the links in your articles are still working as some may lead to items that are no longer available. (Keeping your content fresh will also help with your Google rankings.)
Social media and Earth Day use the same principles, just in different ways.
Happy Earth Day everyone. Go out there and get some fresh air! And if you’re socially distanced, ditch the mask!