Archive for the ‘eBay Ink’ Category
All,
This morning I joined a round table discussion entitled “The Death of Trust in Social Media” hosted by Val-Pierre Ganton of “the grilling” blog. Panelists included:
Richard Brewer Hay, Chief Blogger at eBay
Michael Brito, VP of Social Media at Edelman Digital
Michelle Broderick, Marketing Director at Yelp
According to a survey by Edelman, just 25% of consumers say they trust their friends to give them good information about a company, compared with 45% in 2008. Social marketing is built on the idea that people trust their friends more than they trust official voices so what does it mean for the future of social media? Our discussion was aimed at providing insights on how we’re using and trusting social media today and what the future holds for this space.
We tackled the following questions:
** Is trust in social media dying?
** Do social media platforms need to change in order to adapt to peoples’ behavioral evolution on the web? How so?
** Is there a difference in the community’s trust when we compare transactional and non-transactional social networks?
** Is the future of trust likely to be the migration towards official voices or your friend’s recommendations?
Here is an archive of our conversation. Apologies for the poor sound quality at the beginning… I’ll be getting a cleaner version shortly. For now…

eBay launched the Green Team Challenge earlier today and, in doing so, committed to saving up to a quarter of a million acres of rainforest for consumers who choose to reuse. For the first 250,000 people that pledge to reuse on eBay, an acre of rainforest will be protected in their name through a new collaboration with Team Earth, a unique coalition of NGOs, private sector companies and individuals convened by Conservation International (CI).
“We are delighted that eBay continues to demonstrate their strong support for the environment by becoming a member of Team Earth,” said Julie Blackwell, Senior Director of Team Earth at Conservation International. “eBay’s passionate community has changed the way we shop and we have no doubt that they can change the way we consume. They are a perfect partner to rally collective action around some of the most pressing environmental issues of our day.”
eBay also introduced its new green shopping hub – green.ebay.com – designed to help consumers access the millions of green products available on the marketplace. The hub encourages consumers to follow three simple guidelines: first, choose items that are pre-owned, vintage or refurbished; second, check whether an item is made from sustainable materials, such as those featured on WorldofGood.com by eBay; and third, choose energy and other resource saving products.
I became an eBay Green Team member shortly after I joined eBay back in 2008 and it now boasts over 150,000 members!
Throughout March and April, eBay will additionally leverage its powerful eBay Giving Works program to generate funds for a variety of environmental organizations in an effort to extend the impact of the campaign further. A series of high-profile charity auctions will offer consumers the opportunity to bid on a variety of one-of-a-kind items and experiences that will benefit green nonprofits and causes, including The Nature Conservancy, Make it Right, and The Uniform Project’s beneficiary organization, the Akanksha Fund.
Related Reads:
NY Times: EBay Highlights Conservation as a Benefit of Buying Used
Cheers,
RBH
Met with folk in Trust & Safety today, then saw this article. Pretty timely to say the least. A very good read: Online Advertising Recall
Shopping Cart and eCommerce News | Will New USPS Plan Affect Your Ecommerce Business? http://ow.ly/1pIp5u
@rksmythe You want the whole face? I’m thinking about adding the red shoes to the foot of the blog. Thoughts?
Heading off to a meeting with the Trust & Safety team. Wonder if they have any info nuggets for Ink.
From left: John Donahoe, Srivathsan Canchi, Anand Gangadharan, Pierre Omidyar
Demos in the Social Media & Finding and Internal Tools tent
Demos in the Mobile App room
To see all the photos from the event, click here. To view the video of the kickoff with Pierre and John, click here.
Cheers,
RBH
RT @Wes_From_VRG: 25% of America’s vc-backed, publicly-traded co’s (Google, Yahoo!, eBay and Intel) have been founded/co-founded by immigrants #StartupVisa
I need to force myself into the habit of making all updates via the Ink API rather than Seesmic, etc. otherwise conversations get lost. Already messed up twice today.