Recently, I participated in a conversation with our LinkedIn community on GETideas.org. The crux of the discussion was labels--should there be a universal taxonomy for terms such as Global Education, and would trying to foster global adoption of such terms speed up the transformation of the societal challenges we face today? It got me thinking about all sorts of terms that pop into our language stream. One day you’re talking about the “inequalities of the distribution of wealth and the effects of taxation on global markets;” the next day you’re texting an associate and summing up your thought stream with the word “Occupy”.

In my preparation for a panel discussion called Why enterprise Social Media Loves Social Good?, I poked around online to see if there was any consistency in the meaning for the term “social good”. Almost all the discussions and posts I found connected “social good” directly to its use within the business community. While businesses vary in their approaches to social good, this definition seems to be a common one: “A good or service that benefits the largest number of people in the largest possible way. Some classic examples of social goods are clean air, clean water and literacy; in addition, many economic proponents include access to services such as healthcare in their definition of the social or “common good”. (Source: http://www.investopedia.com/terms/s/social_good.asp) Read More »

Tags: ATC21S, Cisco, Cisco CSR, corporate-socia-lresponsibility, CSR, education, employees, environment, global ed, good, Governance, impact multiplied, Social Good, social media, society, Value Chain

This post was authored by my colleague Jessica Kelly (@JessGoddesse)

If you’re wondering why social media should be an key  part of your communications strategy, just note these current statistics demonstrating the ubiquity of the medium:

• Facebook now boasts more than 800 million active users worldwide, and more than half of these log on to the network on any given day.

• Twitter too is no slouch (and growing), with 200 million registered users, one quarter of whom tweet daily.

Want more justifying numbers? A recent infographic on MediaBistro lists more compelling stats―like, say, the fact that 56% of consumers are likely to recommend a brand to a friend after becoming a fan on Facebook, and 20% of marketers have closed sales using Twitter.

Given that social media networks are timely (if not immediate) communications platforms that are interactive, and therefore― if used correctly (that is, authentically)―engaging, their success in marketing should come as no surprise. Read More »

Tags: corporate social responsibility, CSR, education, facebook, getideas, good, impact, impact multiplied, networking, Networks, philanthropy, red, social media, starbucks, twitter

Did you know that by the end if 2012, videos will account for 50 percent of all Internet traffic?

Online videos are powerful storytelling tools. Many nonprofits are using them to attract donors and volunteers, and to multiply the impact they can have on the people and communities they serve.

As a sponsor of the 2012 DoGooder Nonprofit Awards, Cisco will get a chance to recognize four nonprofits that have successfully used video to create meaningful, positive change. Read More »

Tags: California, case foundation, Cisco, Cisco CSR, corporate social responsibility, CSR, dogooder, impact multiplied, nonprofits, nten, san francisco, see3, usa, video, video awards, youtube