Companies who miss the importance of the social media ship may actually risk the same fate as companies who thought the Internet was a fad. That sounds extreme, but over half the nation is already on a social network. They upload photos and videos or share shopping reviews. Customers are changing how they want companies to interact with them. The more that happens, the more companies will be left in the dust.

Since many if not most companies only have a hazy idea of how social media works and why in the world they should jump into the fray, some are slow to take the plunge. This is perhaps less true of new and old media companies. You can find Ecopreneurist and Green Options on Twitter, along with the New York Times, CNN and The BBC.

Besides Twitter, there are of course a whole host of ways to reach out to your customers and engage them on a one-to-one basis. There is Facebook and Myspace as well as a fast growing selection of newer sites. There are blogs and blogger networks, as well as, shopping social networking sites. There are community forums for a variety of topics and there are media sharing sites like Flickr and Youtube.

All of these should be considered for a social media campaign, but not all should be used. Why? This depends a lot on the company and product.

For example, as a social media marketing consultant, I focus on green products and on women’s products. I know the Mommy and female blogger and The Mommy and female social media market. I know the green market. What tools they use and where one can find green consumers. I recommend tools that make sense for my clients. Not all of the tools that Liz Strauss or Jeff Pulver suggest do that, though I follow and admire them both, but they often serve different markets.

One thing on which we all agree, though is Twitter. Though less than 2 years old, Twitter is rapidly becoming the go to place for both questions and answers. Have a question on organic food? Direct message @WholeFoods, an early and excellent user of social media. Follow Seventh Generation and find updates answers on a variety of green topics.

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As my friend, Sustainable Lifestyle Guru and Karmakonsum founder Christoph Harrach states, the Green Fashion movement is a web2.0 movement. He calls it “Eco2.0″. Weather it’s true or not globally, in Germany most cool green fashion labels available are sold online.

Some labels go even further and let their customers be part of their communities deciding over styles, models, and where the money spent for charity goes to. Fair Trade clothing sold over music labels, online design contests, innovative ideas are getting so normal that we don’t even react. But isn’t it great to not only decide for wearing great clothes with a conscious feel, but also being able to connect to your clothing labels within social communities? In the end social fashion is starting to mean more than organic cotton, it can meanwhile mean that you as a costumer decide how the new collection looks!

One of my German favorites here are Armed Angels, who have a radical community approach combined with high ecological and social standards of their production and Fairliebt (”Fairly in love”), who sell simple Fair Trade shirts with a strong feeling for a new community of young, conscious buyers with a dedication to great style.

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