I was recently meeting with my friend Bryan who handles marketing at Lush Cosmetics, and we were talking about ways our companies could harness social media. We were thinking up some really good ideas to further our brands, both of which are well immersed in corporate social responsibility.

At some point Bryan pointed out the elephant in the room: Most companies point to banks and soap as THE two boring verticals that couldn’t possibly engage community around their brands. It just goes to show that engaging community has more to do with your positioning and activism, having something real to say, than the industry you’re in.