SEVEN THINGS YOU CAN DO TO LEAD A GREENER LIFE
Green Thing Groups are not much different to groups anywhere else on the Web. Namely, it’s a way to connect a bunch of people around a common interest. Flickr groups are about photos. Facebook groups are about, well pretty much anything. On Green Thing, you’ll find groups of people doing the Green Thing.
Groups are spaces on the site which are created and managed by Green Thing members who want to invite other people to do the Green Thing with them. They are particularly useful for companies who want to engage employees and others within their sphere of influence to take action against climate change and then measure the impact made by everyone in the name of their brand.
A Group home page works much like a personal Green Thing Profile page but applies to the Group as a whole. So you can see the name of the Group, how much CO2 everyone’s saved in total, how many members the Group has, and when it was started. Those with admin privileges can edit the Group settings.
Here's a quick tour of 5 Things To Know about finding your way around a group on Green Thing.
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1. Quick links to find your way around
Click any of the links in the orange navigation on the right hand side of the page or use the drop-down menu below to select a useful link to an outside site.
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2. Finding your way back to the Group homepage
a. Wherever you are in the site, just click the name of your group on the orange navigation bar at the top of every page.
b. Clicking Home in the orange navigation links or clicking the main logo on your Group header always takes you back to the main group page
c. You’ll also see a ‘breadcrumb trail’ at the top of every page. The greyed out text at the end always tells you where you are, and if you click any green links they will take you back the way you came.
(Of course you can also click the “back” button on your browser to get back to whatever page you came from).
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3. Reading stories from other members and adding your own stories
a. At the top right of all Group pages you’ll see a list of “Top Stories” – click on any of those to see what people have shared. You can also click the “More Stories” link underneath that to see all Group stories.
b. You can also click on any of the stories you’ll see changing regularly on the Group map lower down the page
c. To add your own story just click the Add a story button in the right hand menu on Group pages.
(You can also click the Add a story link on the orange navigation or at the top of every page).
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4. Reading and adding your own comments
You’ll see a list of the latest five comments from people in your Group on the right hand side of every Group page.
If you want to add a comment (about a story or video or anything) just type it into any box like this you see and click “Post Comment”.
(If you want to incude a link to a photo or video with your comment then click “Add a video, picture... >>” and enter the link address).
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5. See the other Group members
You'll see a list of top members on the right hand side of every group page.
Click “Show All Members” underneath the Top Members list to see a list of everyone in your group plus a map of where in the world they live.
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If you need any other help with the Green Thing site, you can visit the main site Help section at anytime if you’ve got any questions about how things work. Or just e-mail us at help@dothegreenthing.com.
You can easily create a new group by following the step by step instructions.
Some companies use Groups to promote one thing a month their staff can do at the office which fits with the Green Thing’s focus that month. For instance, Plug Out could prompt everyone to switch off computers at night. Stay Grounded could mean cutting back on any unnecessary flights and video conferencing with Skype instead. All-Consuming could remind people to use double-sided paper printing and re-use / recycle office paper in general.
Group information is also easy to use internally via RSS feeds or a simple web-window for an Intranet. A dedicated Group URL can be used to promote to all stakeholders both on and offline.
If someone sends you an invitation or URL to join a Group, then just follow the instructions. Or you can browse to find a group you like and click ‘Join Group’ when you do. Some Groups are private which means you can only join if you have an email address for that particular company.
