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People are fundamentally resistant to change, argue Chip and Dan Heath in Switch, but there are ways to make positive behavior easier and more likely. One method: shrink the change. It’s easier for people to take a small step like washing the dishes than a large step like cleaning the whole apartment. But once they take that small step and reap the rewards, they’re more likely to continue and expand on that initial behavior.

We’ve already been blown away by the excitement and energy exhibited on campuses across the world. More than 1,100 students are taking actions like riding their bikes instead of driving, getting a dose of inspiration from a Ted Talk, and volunteering with a local nonprofit. They are competing against each other for prizes big and small. The competition feeds the program’s growth, expanding the impact of each small step,

Sustainability, on the other hand, is the more widely term used in Europe and is also my more favored term. And it’s not my favorite one simply because I regularly take “mental vacations” and imagine myself nibbling Parisian croissants by the Seine. Rather, sustainability connotes that a company is truly incorporating social and environmental issues into its business model. CSR or CR tends to be a collection of programs that address social and environmental concerns. Sustainability, however, makes these issues a part of the company’s DNA.  And ultimately, that is what my profession is striving toward: making sustainability “business as usual.”

Thus, Patagonia’s audience trusts the brand, admires its values, and aspires to live by the same principles. Very few brands can compete on quality and price alone. Your brand doesn’t necessarily need to invest in the environment or take such risky maneuvers. However, it can’t be built exclusively through great products and great advertisements. That model is antiquated. Consumers have too much information and too few dollars. They want to invest in brands that have similar values to their own. Perhaps that simply means your product has more advanced engineering, is more user-friendly, or has better customer service. Those are all viable brand elements that create a powerfully rational connection with consumers. Ideally, your brand would also embody behaviors that elicit an emotional connection, such as investing in social, educational, or environmental responsibility. Building a brand platform like Patagonia’s is difficult, expensive, and somewhat risky. But, when brands reduce the amount they spend on paid media, they can invest in building a brand which will help their paid media work significantly better, and more importantly, create brand evangelists.

In recent weeks, college students on dozens of campuses have demanded that university endowment funds rid themselves of coal, oil and gas stocks. The students see it as a tactic that could force climate change, barely discussed in the presidential campaign, back onto the national political agenda.

“Our students are already demanding action, and we must not ignore them.”

But at colleges with large endowments, many administrators are viewing the demand skeptically, saying it would undermine their goal of maximum returns in support of education.

Just like in corporations, setting goals and having a vision proves to be an essential start for cities that want to engage business.

Matthew Lynch, the project lead, said one of the main success factors is the opportunity for direct and open dialogue. “

oversharing and status anxiety, the two great scourges of the modern world.

But that would be to debase the word “information.”

“Crowdsourcing is the process by which the power of the many can be leveraged to accomplish feats that were once the province of a specialized few.” And a lot more will change, very quickly.

In Europe, equity-based crowdfunding allows people buy an ownership stake in your business. That practice is illegal in the U.S., but will likely gain steam in a global marketplace where individuals can use platforms like Symbid to help propel an interesting new business into the marketplace. Social lending sites like LendingClub or Prosper permit you to legally crowdfund your for-profit startup in the U.S., but you’ll have to start paying it back immediately, and you could be left liable for the loan if the business fails.

Crowdsourcing will only grow, and it’s up to you to weigh the risks and benefits of using it to extend your enterprise. It may serve a single, specific purpose, or support a key component of your operating blueprint across your organization, or it may not be the right choice--at least not yet.

Another strong example of the commitment phase of employee engagement is being demonstrated in Cleveland, Ohio, through a community-wide economic development initiative called Sustainable Cleveland 2019 (SC2019).The SC2019 initiative focuses on the strengths of the region and levera

the brand’s fan page “serves as a small, tight-knit community for our very loyal, rabid fans.”

If they are not solely interested in freebies and giveaways, then what fans really want is content that is personally relevant on one hand and a sense of being part of a larger community on the other.

The former requires the brand to post content that is varied and useful to their fan base, while the latter requires the brand to find ways to encourage interaction between fans.

The Facebook fan page of this company offers visitors a virtual tour that interactively explains how to use their product.

Specialized in calls to action, the company has adorned its Facebook fan page with mini games and a web TV program.

Through a clever photo contest, the company gets fans involved in the making of its Facebook fan page.

Threadless also carries over important functionality from its core website, allowing users to vote for t-shirt designs and enter design contests. Threadless does a great job of creating a fantastic user experience that doesn't require the user to leave Facebook

The company also shares a ton of great images on its wall that generate a huge amount of engagement.

It uses social proof and data from Facebook to actually show why people like the Bing page

There’s a new era of social networking that’s taking shape around charitable giving. Younger people are rapidly adopting these new tools, and learning to use them in more and more substantive ways, to go beyond mere socializing and make these tools extremely productive. We’re seeing the sphere of social networking mature in a way that’s very exciting. People who continue to dismiss these social platforms as "a waste of time" or "just social chatter" are missing the boat. This is how people interact with each other and get things done. They share their personal and professional lives online. It should be no different when it comes to their philanthropic lives. More and more, we’re seeing the Crowdrise community share their charitable efforts with their social networks, both as a way to highlight their own commitment to a cause and as a very efficient way to turn their friends and family into new supporters.

They say “time is money,” but time is also an irreplaceable and personal connection to a cause.