Spreading the word to the global village

Online social networking sites may be the ultimate marketing medium for social responsibility causes such as sustainability and world issues like genocide, according to the Marketing & Strategy Innovation Blog.

As major brands like Wal-mart struggle to appear "genuine" to social networkers, cause marketers have the advantage of congenital street cred.

M&SI also notes the following reasons why green marketers can thrive on MySpace and similar sites:

• Emerging product category: Emerging products and brands provide the opportunity to exploit the “novelty” factor that motivates viral marketing.
• Social cause: Many consumers are linking to sites or sharing content if these sites or content support an underlying cause.
• Lifestyle brand: Social network users express their online identities, in part, through the connections that they make online. Links to lifestyle brands (or social causes) are ways for consumers to express this identity online.