Social media promised a gold rush, but many brands are still digging in the wrong place. Today, cultural relevance matters more than media budget. FSC’s new white paper, The Power of Social, provides a roadmap for brands to harness social’s extraordinary promise, without falling victim to its equally extraordinary perils.

Social platforms are the most powerful persuasion engines in human history, but they operate on an entirely new set of rules. Brands need to stop thinking in terms of broadcast marketing and start mastering the dynamics of networks, culture and community. FSC’s new white paper, out in September, tells the full story.

Brand communities are typically associated with B2C, but loyalty to a brand is not confined to consumers; business customers have just as much to offer their fellow community members as individual consumers who rally together – and B2B brands have just as much to gain from creating the forum for this to happen. In this article, we talk to Sarah Kelleher, CEO of Nebula, about the myriad benefits of the Salesforce Community.

Living up to your brand values is not just ethically sound, it’s a strategic growth driver. What’s driving the decision on what people are buying, and who they’re buying it from, is not price or quality – but what the product and brand stands for. This is the rise of ethical consumerism, and it’s caused a revolution in customer loyalty.