Quick Study: Consumers on Green Products: We Must Know the Score; Social Links and Buttons on Web Sites Drive Mentions

â–¶ Public Demands Green Product Clarification: A September 2011 study conducted by Ryan Partnership Chicago and Mambo Sprouts shows health and eco-consumers want one universal green score to help them make sustainable-product buying decisions. The findings suggest consumers would increase sustainable-product spending if only they could easily determine which products were truly green, and which had been simply greenwashed. Related study findings include:

• 80%+ want a product sustainability score. Even the majority (55%) of those who are not committed to buying sustainably would welcome such a score.

• At least three in four consumers prefer an independent organization to create the score.

• Over half of consumers prefer that sustainability info be displayed within the store: packaging, labels and signage.

Source: Ryan Partnership/Mambo Sprouts

â–¶ Share Buttons Increase Exposure: According to BrightEdge, a September 2011 analysis of more than 4 million tweets shows that Web sites that display Twitter share buttons get seven times the social media mentions than sites that do not. Furthermore, while 53.6% of the largest 10,000 sites on the Web display some social links or buttons on their front pages, almost half do not display any. The study analyzed a representative data stream of tweets that were selected at random to determine which tweets carried shared information. Other findings include:

• Facebook plug-ins are seen on homepages of more than 50% of the world’s largest sites.

• Twitter buttons/links are seen on 42.5% of the top 10,000 sites.

• Google+ continues to grow, but is still only used by about 8.5% of the largest 10,000 sites.

Source: BrightEdge