I just finished reading the book “We First: How Brands and Consumers Use Social Media to Build a Better World” by Simon Mainwaring (@simonmainwaring). I first learned of the book when GM brought Simon to Detroit, where he gave a presentation to 313 Digital members. Prior to attending this event I had already met Lars Lewander (@springwateram) of Spring Water Asset Management who helps people manage their assets while making a positive impact on their community and the world and took an interest in Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR).

While I already believed in the power of  CSR and Socially Responsible Investing (SRI), this book gave me further insight and strengthened my beliefs. It is full of amazing facts and solutions. I recommend it to anyone who is interested in sustainability, philanthropy, social media, investing or business management.

Here are some of the astonishing facts detailed in the book:

• Ethisphere found  that 100 corporations it selected of it’s list of the World’s Most Ethical Companies have outperformed the FTSE and the S & P indexes delivering  a 53% ROI between 2005 and 2010.
• Corporate donations from CRM have risen exponentially, from zero in 1983 to $125 million in 1990, and have skyrocketed to $1.52 billion in 2008. (International Events Group study)
• Currently there are 4.6 billion cell phones in use, with 10 billion expected by 2015. Mobile technology is opening up formerly impoverished areas in many of the least developed countries.
• Nearly 800 million people in the world are illiterate.
• 1 billion children live in poverty worldwide, roughly 1 out of every 2 children.
• It is estimated that by 2050 there will be 9 billion people on Earth. If all 9 billion people satisfied their self interests like us consumers in the developed world, the world’s resources could not support it.

The book also brought the iPhone app GoodGuide to my attention, as well as many other handy apps, sites and indexes. I especially enjoyed Chapter 9 which included many insightful examples of how contributory consumption can be applied to the real and virtual marketplaces, both on- and off-line, through social and mobile transactions and games.

Simon urges us to join the We First movement and put each other first by changing capitalism.

Many thanks to Simon and Lars for opening my eyes to CSR. What a fantastic time we live in. Let’s each and all make a difference simply by making smarter choices as consumers to preserve our precious resources for future generations and help solve the world’s problems!

Watch the We First video produced by Troika

When you set up a page on Facebook, it can be quite confusing. Why does Facebook have 4 different types of pages?

For the purposes of authenticity, profiles on Facebook should represent real people and only real people. A person is only allowed to have one user profile on Facebook. But a single user can administer and become a fan of multiple pages, become an administrator or member of multiple groups and community pages and also claim an official Facebook places page for a business location and create Facebook deals.

Facebook Pages: Facebook (fan) pages enable official businesses, organizations, public figures, and other entities to create a public presence on Facebook. Although similar to personal profiles, Facebook pages are different because Facebook Pages are visible to everyone on the internet by default (unless only available to admins) and are indexed by Google. Any Facebook user can become a fan of these pages. After becoming a fan, they can receive updates in their Facebook news feed. Only the official representatives of a public figure, business or organization should create a Facebook Page. New page features allow you to use Facebook as a page instead of a user/profile. This allows you to like and post to other pages on Facebook as a page instead of a user.

Facebook Groups: Facebook Groups are dedicated to group discussion on topics of common interests. Facebook group pages can be made public, where anyone can join, closed or secret. And can require administrator approval for new members. Similar to Facebook fan pages, new posts by members are included in the news feeds of its members. Due to their security features, and size limitations (only groups under 5,000 members can send email blasts), Facebook Groups are set up for more personal interaction. When you post something as a group administrator, it appears to be coming from you and is attached to your personal profile. Note: Facebook does not currently allow custom apps and landing pages for groups.

Both Groups and Pages allow you to create related Events, which show up under the users’ Request (and later in the upcoming events page on the sidebar of their dashboard if they’ve RSVPed). Neither have any added functionality beyond the generally available Facebook Events application.

If someone posts spam or unwanted comments on your Group or your Page, you have to remove it manually, and you can also remove/ban specific members.

Community Pages: If you want to set up an unofficial Facebook page for a general topic that’s more ambiguous, something like “I love pickles” or “ races in Detroit ”, a Facebook community page is a good option. If a page becomes popular enough, administration will be handed over to the Facebook community. In other words, Community Pages become a whole lot like a wiki once they reach a certain threshold.

Facebook Places: brings location-based check-in functionality to mobile users for you business’s location. Places can only be claimed by official representatives. Verifying a Place claim requires uploading some kind of official document. Once you’ve claimed your place your can set up location-based deals for your business. Such as check is three times to receive a special offer. Here is a great blog post on Facebook Places by Basil C. Puglisi.

It should be noted you can have a page, places page and group for the same business, but beware you are dispersing fans to multiple which can complicate your marketing efforts and separate your audience. However, taking advantage of each of the page type features can be beneficial.

Custom Apps and Pages

Facebook pages and community pages can have custom apps and landing pages (formerly tabs) such as fan gated offers, group deals, contests, games and other custom branded pages. Groups cannot have custom apps/pages. Facebook pages, groups and community pages all have similar wall updates, posts, photo and video content features that appear in the news feed.

Managing Permissions

Many organizations are concerned about profanity and unapproved posts appearing on their page. Manage permissions settings allows you to allow users to post updates and links, upload photos and videos to your wall or not. Moderation blocklist allows you to block certain keywords you don’t want to appear in posts such as competitor keywords or other terms. And there is an automatic profanity blocklist that you can set to none, medium or strong. Page administrators can delete comments made on posts and you can receive email notifications when a users comment on your posts. The whole purpose of creating a page on Facebook is for engagement and the like and comment features for posts are the same for all page types.

If you found this post helpful or have questions not mentioned here, please leave a comment.

More Facebook resources:

NEW! The Ultimate Guide to Facebook Marketing
Facebook Pages vs Facebook Groups: What’s the Difference?
Facebook Introduces Community Pages
A Field Guide to Using Facebook Places
How to Set Up A Deal for Your Facebook Place
Facebook Groups – A Walkthrough of Group Email, Docs, Chat, and More
How The New Facebook “Places” Feature Can Be Used As A Marketing Tool