Green messages: How do green brands use social media?

The main purpose of this study is to find out how the brands in Interbrand Best Global Green Brands list use social media platforms to practice corporate communication about their sustainability activities. The population of the study is composed of 50 brands in Interbrand Best Global Green Brands. Unit of analysis in the study is Facebook posts and tweets in the official Facebook and Twitter accounts of these brands in Turkey. These brands are analyzed in line with their green messages in official Facebook and Twitter accounts in Turkey as chosen social media platforms. Content analysis was used within the context of the study. Results of the study show that brands use social media generally to give coverage to their environmentally friendly products and services, to announce their environment-friendly, wildlife supportive activities, to share about related special days and weeks and to communicate with customers. Ranking based on green messages of green brands on official social media in Turkey does not show parallelism with Interbrand Best Global Green Brands list. Green messages of the brands on Twitter are more than the ones on Facebook. Generally, using visual is very common when giving green messages on social media. Beside highlighting their products and services while giving green messages, brands also have seen this as an opportunity to make publicity and advertisement. It is identified that the green messages on social media have significant differences according to sectors. Keywords: Green Brand, Sustainability, Social Media, Twitter, Facebook.