Welectricity Launches New Facebook and Twitter Sharing Features

Press Release

New social media integration allows users to share updates across their extended social networks

KINGSTOWN, ST VINCENT & THE GRENADINES – Welectricity, an innovative, award-winning social network that helps users track, compare and reduce their electricity consumption at home, is extending its reach into the expanding social graph of internet users.

In an update that represents the first phase of a key strategic move for Welectricity, its  users can now connect their Facebook and Twitter accounts to Welectricity so that Welectricity updates can be automatically posted to their network feeds.  So for example, a user whose latest bill shows reduced energy consumption automatically has the good news shared on her Facebook wall, where her friends can see, comment on and react to it.

Users can also ‘Like’ Welectricity directly on the app itself.

Last October, Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg opined that the “opportunity is there in the next 5 years… to pick any industry and re-imagine it in the social web”.  Welectricity’s founder Herbert Samuel notes that this idea of a world increasingly powered by social interactions is fundamental to Welectricity and is summed up in the trademarked tagline “Welectricity. Energy Efficiency, meet Social Networking^TM ”.

Description of Welectricity

Welectricity, a free web application (at www.welectricity.com) that allows users to track, compare and reduce their electricity consumption at home was launched on April 22nd 2010 (the 40th anniversary of Earth Day) and in 9 months had registered users from 66 countries worldwide.

Welectricity is based on principles of behavioural economics – it incorporates behavioural nudges to motivate people to reduce their consumption.

The first of these nudges is the provision of information.  People need information to allow them to understand and, if necessary, adjust their consumption.  But it is now well-established (though not widely recognized) that information, on its own, does not motivate people to change their consumption behaviour.  Consumers also need regular feedback, they need to be able to set consumption-reduction goals (and to make plans to achieve those goals) and, most importantly, they need to be able to able to compare their consumption with that of similar others – a condition psychologists refer to as “social proof”.

Samuel notes that “psychologists and behavioral economists have found that social proof is one of the most fundamental and powerful factors that influence people to take action, and this is one of Welectricity’s key features.”

Welectricity packages these specific behavioural factors into a social network that incorporates the normal functions of social media – users sign up, set up profiles, invite and interact with friends on a simple, twitter-style messaging interface.  On the Welectricity dashboard, a bar graph of the user’s electricity consumption (based on information entered from actual bills) is displayed and the consumption graphs of similar users can be superimposed and directly compared.

A key feature of Welectricity is that it is a low-carbon solution that only requires access to an internet-connected computer and some information from existing utility bills.  No smart meters or other in-house monitoring devices need to be manufactured, packaged, shipped, purchased and installed for Welectricity to work. This Samuel sees as an important point. “After all,” Welectricity’s blog notes, “what’s the point of using a whole lot of energy and carbon emissions to bring you a bunch of new stuff that’s meant to help you use less energy and emit less carbon?”

More information on Welectricity

A video on how Welectricity works is available online, and more information on Welectricity is available at the following links.

§  Article on the intellectual underpinnings of Welectricity

§  Press release on launch of Welectricity

§  Article on Welectricity in New York-based EcoHearth

Welectricity is a winner of a 2009 IDEAS Energy Innovation Contest award, which was sponsored by GVEP International, GTZ, the IDB and the Korean Government.

For further information please contact:

Welectricity Inc
P O Box 2096
Kingstown
St Vincent & the Grenadines
Mob +1 (784) 528 6974
Fax +1 (784) 482 6974
Skype: hazbert
Email: haz@welectricity.com
Web: http://welectricity.com
Twitter: http://twitter.com/welectricity