Wisdom worth sharing, words worth remembering.
Ultimately it's possible that social media platforms will be designed as templates that the users themselves customize in terms of the best way to express their community and experience of life and brands will have to simply follow suit.
Corporate America cannot afford to remain silent or passive about the downward spiral we are undergoing. It cannot turn a blind eye to how difficult the experience of life is for so many of their customers.
The simple act of saying 'thank you' is a demonstration of gratitude in response to an experience that was meaningful to a customer or citizen.
More and more companies are reaching out to their suppliers and contractors to work jointly on issues of sustainability environmental responsibility ethics and compliance.
We now see numerous examples of brands working together to address issues such as environmental degradations climate control pollution poverty and disease.
Brands must have a point of view on that purposeful engagement whether it's directed towards the environment poverty water as a resource or causes such as breast cancer or education. Merely declaring your commitment to a category or cause will not be enough the distinguish your brand sufficiently to see a return on these well-intended efforts.
It is time for corporate America to become 'the third pillar' of social change in our society complementing the first two pillars of government and philanthropy. We need the entire private sector to begin committing itself not just to making profits but to fulfilling higher and larger purposes by contributing to building a better world.
When people align around shared political social economic or environmental values and take collective action thinking and behavior that compromises the lives of millions of people around the world can truly change.
With the never-ending stream of new social technologies apps and platforms rolling out every day its easy to get lost in the minutiae of social media. Yet for there to be effective change especially within large top-down hierarchical institutions a company must have an over-arching understanding of the new role it has to play.
Brands must empower their community to be change agents in their own right. To that end they need to take on a mentoring role. This means the brand provides the tools techniques and strategies for their customers to become more effective marketers in achieving their own goals.
The creative destruction that social media is currently unleashing will change more than technology or the leader board of the Fortune 100. It is driving a qualitative shift in the nature of relationships between brands and their customers.
The question remains: which brands will commit to creating a private sector pillar of social change and which will become casualties of their own outdated thinking?