Who Cares Wins explains in detail the drivers and best practices of this new dynamic. Jones does a masterful job of explaining in very clear terms, why business success in the future will be driven by the authenticity, transparency, and accountability of brands and their ability to react quickly and consistently with these three qualities. In fact, he makes a compelling case for why the successful brands of the future will be those that are most meaningful in the lives of their media-savvy and socially connected customers.

On the flipside, Jones explains why those brands that ignore the impact of social media and these new customer expectations do so at their peril.  In only the last few months we’ve seen the consumer push-back against Netflix and Qwikster, against the Bank of America Debit Card Fee, on Bank Transfer Day, against the Verizon Online 2$ payment charge, and most recently the backdown of Congress over SOPA in the face of online activism.

So what Jones is talking about in this book is not conjuncture, wishful thinking, or projection, but rather a business reality that is already here. As such, he rightly positions social responsibility as an invaluable opportunity for brands to build their bottom lines while also becoming a force for good in the world. In order for this shift to gain traction and pace, large brands and entrepreneurs need case studies and proof points to justify their shift in priorities and practices. Who Cares Wins provides this in spades, and rightly positions this shift in the marketplace as one of great opportunity, rather than cause for concern. No doubt this is an educated risk that every business leader must take, and that spirit is captured in the title “Who Cares (rather than ‘Dares’) Wins.” But the risk of not engaging with this shift in business practices is far greater. Who Cares Wins is your guidebook on how to negotiate the social business marketplace in a way that builds your business and a better world for all.

To order your copy of Who Cares Wins click here, and you can follow David Jones on Twitter at @davidjoneshavas.

There are so many people I want to thank for their continued support. From insightful thought leaders like Brian Solis, Beth Kanter, Mari Smith, Valeria Maltoni, and so many friends on twitter that kindly shared the information.

I want to to thank the sponsors whose contributions have ensured that this will be a very special event. They include the UN Foundation, CauseCast, Hewlett Packard, SocialVibe Radian6, CSR Wire, and PR Newswire. We’d also like to thank  Success Magazine, GOOD Magazine, Project 7 and Chico Bags who are giving every attendee valuable and meaningful gifts.

I want to thank my We First  team, led by Morgan, that has worked tirelessly for the last four months. Natalie, Devin, Bill, Jason, Catherine, Bryan, Cameron, David and Cole. This would not have been possible without you.

And thanks to everyone in the We First community who has tweeted or retweeted the information, posted it on their Facebook profile, shared it on Google+, or passed it on to colleagues on LinkedIn.

Perhaps the most meaningful way of saying thank you is to let you know that the event is supporting over 40 non-profits that were either brought by other guests for free, or received a very special non-profit rate. This includes meaningful causes as far-ranging as pregnancy clinics, environmental groups, children’s education, and cancer research.

We are so excited about Wednesday and having a great two days at the wonderful Marina Del Rey Marriott hotel in Marina Del Rey that has been a wonderful host throughout the event.

To those of joining us on Wednesday, we’re so excited to spend these two days together building your brands, businesses, and positive social impact. If you couldn’t make it this but but are interested in the next We First Seminar, just visit www.WeFirstSeminar now, enter you name and email, and we’ll make sure you get the information about the next one first.

Image: Absolut/Fader

I had the pleasure of speaking at the San Diego Ad Club last week after Dan Burrier, the Chief Innovation Officer at Ogilvy and my former boss on the Motorola account. Not only is Dan a friend and someone I greatly admire, but he said something that evening that struck me very deeply. He said that branding is now more about the “doing” than the “telling.”

I think Dan is absolutely right. For too long, branding as practiced by advertising agencies has been focused on the Big Idea that, well told, will connect emotionally with a customer and motivate them to buy a product or service. But in this new era of transparency, characterized by Wiki Leaks, the activities of Anonymous, and the revelations about corporate practices that have filled the newspapers over recent months, a brand can no longer afford to simply trade on an idea of what it stands for. Instead, in this era of radical transparency, a brand must be willing to tell the story of what it’s actually doing.

That’s why the purpose of a brand is so critical to its bottom line success in the social business marketplace. That purpose not only informs how leadership steers the company and the satisfaction of its employees, but it also defines what actions the brand takes to improve the lives of its customers. For if a company wants their customers to grow their business by buying its products and services, that company must be meaningful to its customers lives. Such meaningfulness is found in the concrete actions a brand is taking to better the lives of its customers and the world at large in alignment with its core values.

On the one hand this is a burden on companies, in that brands must work out what they stand for, communicating it with employees, and bring it to life through their actions. This is not a simple or quick process. Yet at the same time, once you’ve done it, storytelling becomes much easier. A brand simply needs to share the story of what it’s doing with its employees, products, services, and cause work to improve the well being of others. It will enable the brand to build a community of customers aligned around shared values and connected by social media that will be happy to amplify the brand’s message using their own social media channels.

So instead of fabricating the Big Idea, and living in fear of the rise of transparency, a brand can put its shoulder behind its purpose and simply tell the story of what it’s doing in the marketplace. It’s this connection between the “doing” and “telling” of a brand’s story that defines success in the new social media marketplace. So if brands want to capitalize on social media to build their bottom line, take Dan’s advice by focusing on what your brand is doing in alignment with its purpose and values and simply tell that story.

If you’re interested in your brand storytelling, I invite you to join us at the We First Social Branding Seminar on the 1st and 2nd of February in Los Angeles at the Marina Del Rey Marriott hotel. Every attendee will be walking through a Social Branding Blueprint that takes them from the definition of their brand purpose through to its social media expression, so you walk out with a Blueprint that offers real value to your business that you can act on. Plus, every attendee gets an extra ticket free to invite their favorite non-profit. This is the last week to register, so visit www.WeFirstSeminar.com now.

The idea behind the seminar is to make sure your brand (whether they’re a non-profit, a start up, a social entrepreneur, social enterprise, mid-size company or Fortune 500 brand) doesn’t get left behind in this fast changing marketplace by learning to use social media in a way that truly builds your business. Too often brands are rushing to social technology but overlooking the importance of storytelling. Or they have a solid understanding of their brand and its story, but they don’t deeply understand how to make social media work for them. Both alternatives are incredibly dangerous to your business and future.

Getting this balancing act between storytelling and social technology right is really hard to do. Most brands are so caught up in the day-to-day of running their business, and so overwhelmed by the pace of change in social technology, that they don’t get the luxury of time or resources to focus on it. So the seminar, and the Social Branding Blueprint created specifically for it, were designed to make this possible in a condensed time frame of two days with the support of three world-class experts.

So imagine an 70-page Blueprint that distills the learning of the speakers into actionable choices, that builds in the most effective strategic and tactical options based on the best practices of the smartest marketers in the world, that leads your through the eight critical steps that every brand must walk through to build and maintain a customer community that builds its business with them – that’s what the Social Branding Blueprint does so that you spend the two days working on creating a plan specific to your business rather than just taking notes you put on the shelf that don’t translate to real value to your business.

So the real value of the two-day seminar includes:

1. Two days focused on creating a specific plan for your business rather than a series of talks.

2. That plan is built around the best practices, cases studies and ROI of the smartest marketers in the world so it mitigates the risks you take for your business.

3. An intimate environment limited to 80 people so that we can work directly on your business.

4. World class support including myself, Robert Tercek, (former President of Digital Media at Oprah’s network OWN), and Carol Cone, (Global Practice Chair of Edelman Business + Social Purpose).

5. 1 on 1 time with the experts and additional mentors to ensure you get the personal attention your deserve.

6. Networking with the experts, sponsors (including UN Foundation, HP, Causecast, SocialVibe, Radian6, CSRWire, PRNewswire, Social Media Monthly and GOOD magazine), and fellow attendees from some of the biggest brands in the world, the smartest social enterprises and start-ups, and most progressive non-profits.

7. You get an extra ticket to invite a non profit for free. So you get to make an important contribution just by attending.

8. Taking action by investing time in yourself, your business and building a better world is the thing that will set you apart from your competitors and give your the greatest fulfillment.

We have around ten spots left and obviously registrations have to close this week as it only a week away. We’re super excited to work on your business together so register now.

I wanted to share this video with you that features David Kirkpatrick, the author of The Facebook Effect, talking about the impact of social tools and technology on the way consumers and citizens around the world are demanding change. He does a wonderful job of articulating how the internet has heightened awareness around the world of economic inequality, and how social media has given citizens and customers all around the world an unprecedented platform to have those grievances heard. Specifically, David does a very effective job of framing a series of questions that every brand must answer today if they want to survive and succeed in the future. Those questions include:

- What is the purpose, mission, and vision of your company that could make it meaningful to distrusting citizens and customers?

- As citizens and customers around the world vent their grievances over economic inequality and demand greater social responsibility from brands, how do those companies respond using the very same tools?

- Given this inequality, how do companies themselves not only build their bottom lines, but shore up the well being of the society on which their own survival depends?

We find ourselves at a very interesting intersection between economy, which is why David’s film is aptly named “Techonomy.” For social technology is not only empowering citizens and consumers to have their grievances heard, but it also provides brands with an unprecedented opportunity to scale their messaging and play a meaningful role in social transformation. Ultimately, those that adapt and play a role in this shift will not only be the bottom-line success stories of the future, but will be the social architects of change.

It is these very questions that we’ll be addressing and answering specific to your business at the We First Social Branding Seminar being held at the Marina Del Rey Marriott on February 1-2. It’s a two day deep-dive into the specific challenges your brand faces, exploring how it should define its purpose, and tell that story in a community-facing way, that will be meaningful to its customer community and drive social change.

The seminar will be led be myself and Carol Cone (Global Practice Chair of Edelman Business + Social Purpose), and Robert Tercek (former President of Digital Media at OWN: Oprah Winfrey Network). What’s more, anyone who attends will receive an extra ticket to invite their favorite non-profit for free.

The We First Social Branding Seminar is an intensive workshop in which you get world-class support to answer the very questions that will determine those brands that succeed and leverage social media to build their business and positive impact. This is the last week to register, so register now at www.WeFirstSeminar.com

Image: AP

In honor of Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday, I’m sharing the epilogue to We First in which I reference famous words from his ‘I Have a Dream’ speech that still ring true today. Economic equality was an important part of his vision and legacy, and while strides have been made, we still have far to go. It is my hope that enlightened and purposeful brands can help to better share prosperity and create a fairer, more equal and sustainable global community.

I opened this book [We First] by asking the question: Is this the world you want? For the many reasons outlined in its pages, my answer is no. Still, the future has never looked brighter. The challenges we face are enormous, but the opportunity to shape our future has never been greater.

There is no time to waste.

Whether we are corporate executives, entrepreneurs, consumers, concerned citizens, or activists, we must begin working on behalf of our planet and those without power. If we continue to neglect them, their combined impact will permanently harm the Earth and destroy the fabric of our societies. In characterizing the plight of the African American community decades ago, Martin Luther King spoke of “a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity.” Tragically, in today’s global community, that metaphor is still true but it has reversed. Our world is now an ever-shrinking island of extraordinary wealth fortifying itself against a widening ocean of abject poverty and broken dreams.

Yet the shift we seek has begun. Citizen media now competes with media monopolies to tell the story of our future. As more people tell it, the needs and hopes of more people are being reflected. And the stories they tell are being framed around values that unite rather than divide us.

Business is rising to the challenge. Top down, hierarchical, fear-based organizing principles are being superseded by organic, distributed and free-flowing structures. Leading-edge companies are integrating values into their business strategies and embracing their role as enduring custodians of community and planetary well being. Billionaires and corporate leaders are willingly following the example of Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, and Mark Zuckerberg, whose personal successes feed their public generosity.

Slowly, the false separation between economic and moral values is dissolving. As it does, the measure of success is shifting from the gross domestic production of a single country to global human well being.

The great hope for business is to commit to the business of hope.

Technological change is accelerating this shift on two levels – speed and scale. Both must be enlisted if we are to collapse the time it takes to build a better world. The merger of mobile, social and gaming technology portends even greater transformative opportunities that leverage both the real and virtual worlds.

Still, the world we want will not be built by fiber optics, cell phone towers or social media platforms. It will be created choice by choice, in our hearts and minds, and with our hands. That desire for a better world is innately contagious. As Jonathan Haidt explains in The Happiness Hypothesis: “The emotions that promote the meaningful life are powerfully contagious, which increases their chance for propagation, and their encoding into our nervous systems and their ritualization into cultural practice.” New studies by behavioral economists draw the same conclusions. As one of the leading economists studying altruism, Professor Herbert Gintis, states: “It is increasingly obvious that people are motivated by morality; people are motivated by ethics. We may be seeing a possible renaissance of economic theory.”

Given this, the most critical role that social technology plays is to compound this contagious quality and quicken the half-life of change even further. To enable this generation to serve as an example for others in the future, such that we are effectively creating a self-perpetuating, generational cycle of responsibility. The gift we each give our children is the world we leave behind.

Whether or not we realize this potential depends on our choices as individuals. It is our personal responsibility to manage our thinking, behavior and lives so that we bring our best selves to what we want to achieve. Every daily choice, task and commitment represents a chance to shape our future and add meaning to our lives.

We are the ones to build the world we want. Let’s put each other first.

Last week I had the pleasure of joining other guests on This Week in Social Media with host, Robert Tercek. As always, it was a lively discussion ranging from the rise of Google+, to citizen and consumer activism, to the future of journalism. I hope you enjoy it.

Today’s marketplace is almost defined by a lack, or loss, of trust. This is borne out by research by the world’s largest PR firm, Edelman, whose 2011 Trust Barometer found that trust in US business to do the right thing had fallen eight points in the last year to be only five points above Russia. So nothing could be more important right now than a book that speaks to the architecture of trust with a view to core business benefits that include teamwork, culture change and leadership, all of which drive profits.

Smart Trust, by renowned bestselling New York Times bestselling author, Stephen Covey and Greg Link, is a book that all business leaders need to read. This is apparent from the outset, where the foreword by Indra Nooyi, the CEO of PepsiCo (Fortune’s most influential female business leader for the last five years running), characterizes this book as a renaissance of trust.

Like all hard-won victories, trust needs to be earned, built, and maintained. Steven and Greg to a masterful job of telling us exactly how to do that step-by-step so that we can integrate it within our organizations and take it to market. Not surprisingly, rather than looking at the issue of trust from the outside in, they challenge each of us to build trust within an organization from the inside out. Specifically, it starts by requiring that each of us choose to believe in trust again and builds through 5 key steps:

1. Choosing to believe in trust
2. Starting with yourself
3. Declaring your intent and assuming the same positive intent in others
4. Doing what you say you’re going to do
5. Leading by extending trust to others

As self-evident as these may sound, anyone who’s worked in a large organization knows that the integration of such human qualities throughout a company’s culture requires a delicate and specific set of skills. Using insights from their work with thousands of employees in companies like AT&T, Frito Lay, La Nova, Zappos and Whole Foods, Steven and Greg walk us through the insights learned from hands-on experience in transforming large scale corporate cultures into bastions of trust.

Ironically, it’s these very human qualities that define the interactions between employees, between employees and leadership, and ultimately the profits of a company. Smart Trust is an indispensable guidebook in how you not only create, disseminate, and inspire trust within an organization, but in so doing, unlock all the brand reputation, customer service, and bottom-line benefits for a company that only trust can create. It’s a must read so order your copy now by clicking here, or visit SmartTrustBook.com.

We’re super excited to announce that Robert Tercek is a special guest speaker at ther We First Seminar on February 1-2 at the Marina del Rey Marriott in California. Robert is one of the world’s most prolific creator of interactive entertainment and former President of Digital Media for OWN: The Oprah Winfrey Network, as well as previously serving in executive leadership roles at Sony Pictures Entertainment, MTV: Music Television and several startup technology companies.

So I wanted to share this TEDx talk to give you a little insight into some of Robert’s thinking. At the We First Seminar, he’ll be working on your Social Branding Blueprint for 2012 with a specific focus emerging media and technology so you’re well positioned for success this year and beyond. Specifically he’ll address the following questions:

1. Why social media isn’t just a business modification but a total business transformation

2. How to dialogue with your customers using the latest in social technology and media

3. The skill sets you must possess to keep up with your audience and market successfully in the future

So if you’re interested in what comes next there is no better authority than Robert and along with Carol Cone (Global Practice Chair of Edelman Business+Social Purpose), we’ll be working with you for two days on building your Social Branding Blueprint for this year and beyond. But don’t delay, places  are limited and time is almost up to register. Go to www.WefirstSeminar.com and join us to ensure your success in 2012

You can follow Robert on twitter @superplex

1. How non-profits use Facebook to build awareness, community and fundraising

2. 2011: Facebook puts all brands on notice

3. Sherry Turkle of MIT: The human cost of social technology

4. Zynga: How the virtual world can save the real world

5. Exactly what role did social media play in the Egyptian revolution?

6. Review: Brian Solis, ‘The End of Business as Usual’

7. Why storytelling and social media need each other to survive

8. How brands rediscover the lost art of conversation

9. Egypt: Social media as a life or death proposition

10. Apple: How brands, customers & society benefit when a company shows what it stands for

Thanks to everyone for sharing your comments and these posts in 2011. We all now 2012 is going to be very interesting with the explosion of social business, mobile, gaming, citizen activism, the U.S. Presidential election and so many other issues that will shape our lives. I’m looking forward to exploring them with you.

And don’t forget. If you’re interested in attending the We First Social Branding Seminar to ensure your brand success in 2012, this is the last day of the New Year’s Special that gives you 50% off. Just click here to register and enter the special code NEWYEAR. You leave the event with a Social Branding Blueprint specific to your business that you can act on plus invite a non-profit for free. So click here now as the offer ends this week!