The Question Remains: Which Brands Will Commit

The Social Business Marketplace Is Effectively Forcing Brands To Engage With Consumers On The Basis Of Something That Is Meaningful To Them. More Often Than Not, This Takes The Form Of Some Core Value That Finds Expression In A Non-profit Cause.

Consumers Now Have A Voice. And The Fact That Consumers Can Be Creators, Producers And Distributors Means They Can Push Back Against Brands To Punish Them For Their Socially Irresponsible Behavior Or Reward Them For Their Responsible Behavior.

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 Launch Of Google+ Apps Sends A Powerful Signal - The Personalized Web Has Begun. What This Means Is That The Way Information Is Structured And Accessed Will Turn On The Individual, Or Rather Their Personal Profile Which Is A Composite Of All The Data Collected On The Basis Of What They Have Searched For And Shared.

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.