Social media trend report produced by Wholesome Media in May 2011. Compares the social media activities of 11 solar energy companies in Australia.

1. The Solar Energy Industry
Social Media Trend Report 2011

2. Key players reviewed:

3. Clear Solar
www.clearsolar.com.au
@ClearSolar 1742 followers
166 likes
104 items
16 members on corporate group
14,000 views + vimeo
Blog: No
Online community engagement: High
Offline community engagement: High
Score: 9/10
REVIEW:
Clear solar appears to be an experienced user of social media with one YouTube video gaining thousands of views. Their campaigns
are having a real impact on community engagement and they integrate the tools with the website. The next phase should make social
media efforts business accountable through incorporation into KPI’s. There are also possibilities for internal engagement - Are there
savings to be made in customer service or employee retention? Recruitment or research?
With 10,000 customers, word of mouth is a strong differentiator and driver of their product offering.

4. Solar Shop
@solarshop 3352 followers
525 likes
118 members on corporate group
97,662 views on 27 uploads
Blog: Yes
Online community engagement: High
Offline community engagement: High
Score: 9/10
Review:
Solar Shop clearly has a solid understanding of social media tools/principles and has internal resources in place to ensure regular
and quality content updates. Users testimonials are on YouTube and the LinkedIn group is widely connected. They are in touch with
the community both on and offline and support different initiatives on facebook and twitter.
Next phase might be to use the power of their employees on their social channels as a dedicated group of brand evangelists to
enhance brand advocacy, boost google ranking, increase loyalty and reduce churn.

5. Sun Empire
www.sunempire.com.au
@SunEmpireSolar 13 followers
17 likes
1 member on corporate group
3025 views on 4 uploads.
Blog: Yes
Online community engagement: Low
Offline community engagement: Low
Score: 5/10
Review:
Sun Empire is using a number of social media platforms, but with little or no engagement shown. This may be due to a lack of clear
goals to engage and measure impact. A successful social business strategy will determine the brand’s voice, develop a content
plan and recruit the right resource for the job. The strategy should also determine key KPI’s and business objectives for using
social media, aligning these efforts with traditional media.

6. Energy Matters
www.energymatters.com.au
@energymattersau 836 followers
903 likes
45,342 views on 49 uploads
Blog: No
Online community engagement: High
Offline community engagement: Low
Score: 5/10
Review:
Energy Matters has been very successful at engaging the online community through their YouTube channel and facebook page. This
has been tremendously beneficial to their Google ranking. It will be good to see a long term plan and commitment as the group has
tremendous potential in the social space. Using their traditional media and website to increasingly support community-building efforts
will make their advertising dollars work harder and keep feeding their existing social capital. Installing relevant KPIs and measurable
business goals will help make the medium accountable.

7. Premier Solar
www.solarenergymelbourne.com.au
@PremierSolarAu 1396 followers
275 likes
5 members on corporate group
164 views on 1 upload
Blog: No
Online community engagement: Low
Offline community engagement: Low
Score: 4/10
Review:
Premier Solar is focused heavily on social tools without a clear community engagement strategy. This is evident by the fact the
facebook group updates are ‘liked’ only by Premier Solar - demonstrating low value posts and lack of readership. Absence of
direction and minimal resources behind the online effort at this stage are not contributing to gains in social capital. Instead of using
online media as a traditional marketing tool, Premier Solar needs to consider how social media fits into their organisation’s
community as a whole and how it can add value to their audience.

8. Solar Juice
www.solarjuice.com.au
@solarjuiceco 14 followers
unknown
4,500 on 3 uploads
Blog: Yes
Online community engagement: Low
Offline community engagement: Low
Score: 4/10
Review:
Solar Juice is in the infancy stage of their social media journey. They have achieved a cheeky brand attitude and this will make them
well suited to succeed in engaging the community. To enable such development they will need a social business strategy with real
metrics in place to measure ROI. An initial suggestion might be to link social tools to their customer service to achieve cost savings
by diversifying touch-points. The “off the wall” nature of the brand will allow campaigns to differentiate and attract strong audience
following.

9. True Value Solar
www.truevaluesolar.com.au
@truevaluesolar 5 followers
33 likes
Blog: Yes
Online community engagement: Low
Offline community engagement: Low
Score: 3/10
Review:
It appears True Value Solar have only just started their venture into social media and are taking the “dip a toe in first” approach. This is
quite acceptable; it is hoped that they have a solid plan behind it and will adjust their path as further knowledge is gathered and
progress made. A good way to start would be to align their customer touch-points such as their website, newsletter and promotions to
ensure consistent messaging supports their social media growth. Having a social business strategy in place will create a social asset
that will grow in value.

10. Ekoenergy
47 likes
344 views on 13 uploads
Online community engagement: Medium
Offline community engagement: Low
Score: 3/10
Review:
With bright branding and well-viewed videos, Ekoenergy is in a strong position to transition their brand into the social media realm.
Currently with just a facebook page and YouTube videos in addition to a clean and informative website, the company has some
visibility but has not started to engage with their community. At this point Ekoenergy will be wise to choose a strategic direction
treating their social media as assets. This approach will help Ekoenergy to measure, learn and adjust, making sure their social
media efforts contrinute to their bottom line.

11. Home Green
www.homegreen.com.au
Blog: Yes
Online community engagement: Low
Offline community engagement: Low
Score: 1/10
Review:
Home Green is lagging behind when it comes to social media. As a relatively new entrant to the online space, this may be due to the
process of getting social media strategy and resources in place. Because competitors are already strongly established it will be
harder for Home Green to compete for visibility. But on the flip side, starting with a well researched approach will not only help to
avoid beginner’s pitfalls, it may see Home Green leap-frogging their competitors by doing it right.

12. Global Energy
www.globalenergygroup.com.au
Score: 0/10
Review:
With huge potential to lead the market, Global Energy is stuck in the good-old-website days. While this is still acceptable when you
have strong offline markets and sales strategies, it’s important to keep in mind that the demand for information from customers and
how they search for companies is changing. Maybe social media is not on the radar at the moment for Global Energy, but with a
growing number of competitors in this space, Global Energy will need to be very sure of its reasons for not having a social media
strategy or they are at risk of arriving late to the party - particularly when it comes to deciders that are key to customers such as
google-rank, informational leadership and unsolicited customer testimonials.

13. Sunwatt Aust
www.sunwatt.com.au
Score: 0/10
Review:
Social media is considered one of the most efficient and cost effective ways to market products and services so it’s a shame that
Sunwatt Aust isn’t using it. Their website has minimal branding and lacks consistency, so it will be important to work on this first,
before moving into the social media space. They’ve taken the right tack for now; it’s better to do it right or not do it at all. The
website communicates needed information such as contact numbers and the product range, but if customers are harder to find in
post-rebate Australia, Solarwatt may find it has a long way to go to catch up in the marketing stakes.

14. Comparison Table
Online Offline
Twitter Facebook Flickr Linkedin Youtube Blog community community
Clear Solar 1742 166 104 16 14,000 High High
Solar Shop 3352 525 118 97,662 High High
Home Green Low Low
Sun Empire 13 17 1 3025 Low Low
Energy Matters 836 903 45,342 High Low
Premier Solar 1396 275 5 164 Low Low
Global Energy
Sunwatt Aust
True Value Solar 5 33 Low Low
Solar Juice 14 4,500 Low Low
Ekoenergy 47 344 Medium Low

15. How social score is calculated:
Social tools used = 1 point for each tool
twitter, facebook, LinkedIn, flickr, YouTube and blogs.
Online community engagement = 2 points (Low=0 Medium=1
High=2)
This is your brand earned media - are people responding to your
social media communication?
Offline community engagement = 2 points (Low=0 Medium=1
High=2)
Are you successfully engaging in real life via events, training
sessions, customer service, working bees, internal employees, CSR
etc.

16. Wholesome Media is a social business agency
based in Melbourne.
We are an experienced team who have worked with
some of the biggest brands in Australia including:
Nissan, Carsales.com.au, STA travel, Movember etc.
We like to work with like-minded business people
who are positive, focused and innovative.
Let’s meet for a coffee to talk about how social media
is (or can be) working for you.
Call Keren Flavell on 0402 831 228 to arrange.
http://wholesomemedia.com.au