Learned On...

What do I do?  I socialize sustainability wisdom.

I didn’t get to this work in any linear way. Instead, it was my years of experience and research in the field of marketing to women that brought me here.

Early on in my marketing career, I saw that gender roles and stereotypes influence consumer behavior and affect the way businesses see and respond to their customers.  As well, there is a strong connection between the way women tend to think as leaders and more sustainability-oriented decision-making.

As I put it in a piece I wrote for the Solutions Journal (March 2011):

The crucial move toward sustainability may not come easily for either huge corporations or the average consumer, but we can hasten this evolution by identifying and nurturing the personality traits that most naturally drive sustainable living. Those qualities that we’ve long called “feminine” could be the answer.

Sustainability is a movement interwoven with gender and consumer behavior truths that only the most innovative businesses will notice. And, because I’ve gotten very good at using social networks and engagement to leverage thought leadership over the years – and am so passionate about sustainability – I love helping sustainability-focused innovators do the same.

My services include:

1) Social engagement workshops and coaching. The keys to my success with social media in the sustainability community has been understanding engagement and relationship building.  My 2 hour workshops cover the theory and practice of making connection and building trust in a deliberate and strategic process. Following similar thinking, I also conduct one-on-one coaching with communications managers to improve their social engagement building effectiveness on both Twitter and LinkedIn (they are often enabled to teach their interested colleagues in turn).  Workshops for up to 30 people start at $3500. Coaching is billed at $150/hour with a 3 hour minimum.

2) Content strategy. As relationships grow and trust is built on social media, clients have the opportunity to share their thought leadership by creating and curating their own blog posts, videos, podcasts and image galleries for sharing with their already engaged audience. I work with clients to evaluate their capacity and their audience’s comfort level with various content forms. I also advise on ways to proceed – including referrals for additional partners for videos, photography, podcasts and the like. Fees for this work are project based, with a $1000 minimum.

3) Twitter account partnership.  I handle your account with a business to business focus.  This involves engaging and building relationships with both sustainability influencers and prospective customers. To do this, I identify and share content that will help educate them in both your industry and in the broader sustainable business realm. To leverage the reputation I’ve built over my years as an active participant in Twitter’s sustainability and CSR community, these Twitter partnerships are done transparently.  Since account management is a continuing project, this work is conducted on a monthly retainer, which starts at $2000 and depends on overall communications goals  and whether content strategy is included.

A fall 2012 workshop participant had this to say about my approach: “Most of us have attended Social Media sessions many times before; yours was the clearest and most informative so far. You went beyond the bells and whistles to the theory and practice of social media. That was refreshing and educational.”  My coaching is similar, in that I share the theory and engagement-building experience that I’ve gained in my years of participating in sustainability-focused social networking.

I was recently honored (March 2013) to be included in the TriplePundit.com list of Top 30 Sustainability Bloggers Who Tweet, and sincerely love to share what I know.  If you are ready to discuss the possibilities of working together, please email me at: andrea at learnedon dot com or call: 734-358-0779.
[I will be co-presenting at the April 24 Seattle GoGreen Conference, and would love to meet you there!]

***

More on my background, including my marketing to women expertise, and my speaking and blogging background :

In 2000, I co-founded ReachWomen and began regularly writing for online publications. I co-authored Don’t Think Pink: What Really Makes Women Buy – And How To Increase Your Share Of This Crucial Market (AMACOM) a few years later. The feedback from readers continues to be great, and it was a true honor to get glowing reviews from the likes of Harvard Business School, as well (“[Don't Think Pink]” is rich in practical suggestions and interesting stories, with an easy-to-read style.”). In 2006, another of the book’s greatest fans, Soundview Executive Summaries, included an excerpt of DTP in their own compilation for Penguin, The Marketing Gurus: Lessons from the Best Marketing Books of all Time.

I’ve contributed to many industry-leading blogs, and online and traditional publications over the years including HuffingtonPost.com and my own Learned On (Formerly Learned On Women). Over the years. I have also contributed sustainable business content to Greenbiz.com, MatterNetwork.com and HuffingtonPost, and have shared audio commentary on Vermont  Public Radio.  As well, I’ve been quoted in, or interviewed by, Ad Map, The New York Times, AdWeek, public radio’s Marketplace, and the Los Angeles Times among others, and I have written a number of eBooks including:

My presentations have been delivered to audiences that include the Pacific Coast Builders Conference, the Urban Land Institute, the Photo Marketing Association, the Gulf Marketing Review (Dubai) conference, and the American Gem Society.

I have a BA from the University of Michigan and a Master’s in Sustainable Business and Communities from Goddard College.  I choose to live in incredible, outdoor active places.  I moved to lovely Seattle in early 2011, after 7 fantastic years in the cold of Burlington, Vermont.  (And, the extent to which I ride my bike now that I’m in Seattle has given me yet another topic to be passionate about: urban transportation.)