Do you knOH Julia Rosien?

On July 13th, Cargill’s BiOH polyols division, (my client) kicked off a video commenting campaign on their business to consumer social media site: www.experiencebioh.com called “Soy Style-Did You KnOH?”Julia Rosien is the communications director for www.naturaworld.com (not my client but my friend!) a manufacturer of organic, natural and green mattresses. Maybe some of you are friends of ours on Twitter. We are @juliarosien and @tkpleslie there. You may also know @LeslieNewby, CEO of Brand Communciations and maybe even some of you know @BiOH4ALLjk-Marketing Manager for BiOH polyols.

Now, back to Julia. Julia is a star in the world of social media. Why? Because she is the first person in our ENTIRE industry that has been hired INTERNALLY by a mattress manufacturer, Natura World, to focus on building brand awareness and generating leads and website clicks using social media tools. She has been extremely successful at it for @NaturaWorld’s owner: @MrNaturaWorld.

She and I will be co-presenting at the upcoming WITHIT Leadership Education Conference in Charlotte, NC in August. Julia will be presenting specific analytics to show attendees how social media has impacted her company’s website clicks, retailer relations and brand awareness -all the while helping to drive revenue. ( To sign up for it: www.withit.org)

What does Julia have to do with BiOH’s video commenting campaign?

First, let me share with you a bit about who is using foams made with soy and other sustainably sourced materials in the furniture industry: A partial list includes the following. For a more complete listing, please visit www.BiOH.com’ s partner link on their B2B site.

www.la-z-boy.com’s new Eco-Comfort collection, La-Z-Boy’s www.bauhaususa.com division, www.broyhillfurniture.com, www.lanefurniture.com www.leeindustries.com, www.americanleather.com, www.bkind3.com, www.crlaine.com, www.harden.com, www.ciscobrothers.com, www.willemsmith.com, www.precedent-furniture.com, www.comfortdesigns.com, www.naturaworld.com and www.serta.com, amongst others.
Outside the furniture industry, too, foams made with soy are being widely adopted-even Ford’s 09 Escape uses foam made from BiOH’s soy ingredients!

Given the use of soy foams and other sustainably sourced products being used by these well known brands, we asked ourselves three questions:

1. “How can we educate consumers about the major impact they can have on lowering their carbon footprint and reducing the use of petroleum in foam by asking for foam made with soy when shopping?
2. How can we help the manufacturers who are investing in sustainab;y sourced materials get their furniture and bedding out in front of consumers AND have FUN at the same time?
3. How can we help consumers see the styles and know where to find the furniture and bedding that empowers them to make better choices for themselves and their families?

The answer: a video commenting campaign! And, best of all, ANY of you can do something similar if you start (or are) using social media tools as part of your marketing mix.

Here’s how it works: Every day from July 13th through July 26th, the www.experiencebioh.com site will feature videos of the CEO’s and senior executives (like Julia Rosien) of most of the manufacturers listed above showing consumers their eco friendly furniture.

This is a wonderful “behind the scenes” view of many of our industry’s best sustainably sourced products and is sure to be of interest to both consumers, interior designers and architects who want to be able to buy and source eco friendly furniture for their own homes and those of their clients.

The contest part is simple. Every day, the person who makes the most insightful, creative and/or educational comment on the blog at www.experiencebioh.com will win a 100.00 Visa gift card. There are no strings attached. All it takes is the best comment.

We hope by keeping the contest simple and connected to learning (watching the very short videos is the only way to make an insightful comment) that we can bring an awareness to consumers and interior designers of how many style and price options there are for them to choose from those in our industry committed to supporting sustainability.

Now, back to Julia. Julia will appear in a video on Wednesday. I hope you watch it and comment. I hope you get to know @NaturaWorld on twitter. I hope, if you’re a retailer, you visit Natura World’s showrooms in Vegas and High Point and place an order and/or buy a mattress that’s just right for you! I hope you visit Julia’s blog at www.naturaworld.com. Julia “gets” social media, “gets” why she needed to participate in BiOH’s video commenting campaign and is helping many of Natura World’s dealers understand how to use social media at the local level to help them stay in business. (I do this for a living which is how Julia and I met in the first place! )

But, most of all, I hope you email, forward and SHARE this blog post with everyone you know.

If you are a retailer reading this and carry several vendors using soy foams from BiOH, please feel free to contact me. They are often sold under the brand names, Preserve and Renew.

Working together, we have a real opportunity to help those manufacturers in our industry who are committed to supporting sustainability. Help them see we appreciate what they are doing by commenting on www.experiencebioh.com every day from now through July 26th and, if you want to buy one of the products you see, use the retail locator on www.experiencebioh.com to find the retailer closest to you who carries the line you like.

And, if you are interested in hearing the results of this contest, please join myself and Kathy Ireland as we co-present on: Social Media ROI-Case Studies at the World Market Center Las Vegas on Sept. 17th at 10 am. Kathy is on twitter as @KathyIreland. She can’t wait to help YOU understand how to use social media tools to help save money and save jobs! See you there!