Rate A Brand’s Social Responsibility

I recently attended the Los Angeles #140conf with Jeff Pulver and one of the speakers, Simon Mainwaring, discussed one of the “trends transforming the web.” Simon mentioned some mobile applications for smartphones and how they relate to business. The applications will allow consumers to scan barcodes of two or more similar products and check to see the ratings of the company’s social responsibility. This includes how the company treats employees and other pertinent information to a socially conscious consumer.

Here is the link to watch the video with Simon Mainwaring at the Los Angeles #140conf discussing tech trends that will impact business: http://simonmainwaring.com/twitter/140conf-la-meet-up-social-media-inspiring-social-change/

In Simon Mainwaring’s speech, the first company he mentioned was Barcoo. Here is a link for additional information: http://symbianworld.org/1466-barcoo-scan-products-and-get-further-information/

Here is the second company Simon mentioned: Brandkarma. “Brandkarma’s mission – ‘to help everyone make better brand choices and influence brand behavior for good’.” http://www.brandkarma.com/

Simon was kind enough to provide the following links for this post:

A mobile barcode application for iPhone or for non-iPhone users there is a text applications to check social responsibility of a brand/product.
http://www.goodguide.com/about/mobile

A website called Socialbrite…Social Tools for Social Change. I liked the post about “10 Mobile Apps for Social Good.”
http://www.socialbrite.org/2010/04/01/10-mobile-apps-for-social-good/

You can find Simon Mainwaring here: www.twitter.com/simonmainwaring

I really liked hearing about all the great options being developed for consumers. I know I care about the products I’m buying as well as the companies that are selling them to me.

An important note – I attended the LA #140conf but didn’t get a chance to meet Simon Mainwaring in person. I was lucky enough to get the information I needed for this post from Eric Greenspan’s Make It Work website. Then I got even luckier because Eric offered an introduction to Simon Mainwaring. Here is a picture of one thing Eric does (photo credit goes to me!) http://twitpic.com/1on1t5 and you can find more about him and his work at http://blog.makeitwork.com/ http://twitter.com/ericgreenspan http://www.twitter.com/makeitwork