Sungevity Names Social Media Leader Patrick Crane as Chief Marketing Officer

OAKLAND, Calif., Feb. 23, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Sungevity, the nation's fastest growing provider of residential solar installations, announced today the hire of social media leader Patrick Crane as its new Chief Marketing Officer (CMO).

Crane, who most recently served as LinkedIn's Chief Marketing Officer, will look to develop ways to make the peer-to-peer connection between Sungevity and its customers more robust. This includes developing web and smart phone applications that will enhance the customer experience of going solar.

Crane's hire signals Sungevity's intention to spread its unique solar installation process through social networks and its broader "online sunshine" approach to delivering solar energy. The company sees this form of communication as an effective means to convince potential customers to make the switch from dirty fossil fuel energy to clean, cost-effective solar power.

Crane and Sungevity founder Danny Kennedy spoke about this shift in a video shot from Crane's roof and posted to the company website. You can take a look at the video here.

At LinkedIn, Crane helped the company emerge as one of top three social networking platforms in the world. He founded the marketing group and helped develop the company's go-to-market strategy and its brand to the position it enjoys today as the largest professional network in the world.

"We are excited to have someone with Patrick's track-record of success building social networks," said Kennedy. "He is the right person to help us spread Sungevity's easy, online process for going solar."

"Sungevity allows customers to create a social network around going solar," said Crane. "When you become a Sungevity customer, like I did, you also become an ambassador for solar energy, and an active advocate for Sungevity's service. As Sungevity continues to grow, its customers will become part of a passionate online community, sharing how much money they save and how much CO2 they continually suck out of the air. It's all about growing the network through word-of-mouth from current users."

Mr. Crane's hire comes on the heels of Sungevity's hiring announcement of SunPower's Mac Irvin to serve as the company's CFO. In December, the company announced it had secured $15 million in Series C funding to continue expansion to the East Coast. This expansion will occur in the spring. The company also recently rolled out Sungevity.org, a program that helps non-profit organizations and schools raise money while getting homeowners in their local communities to go solar.