Last night, Emily (a Haas alum) and I attended the Haas School of Business 9th annual celebration at Gap's San Francisco headquarters and listened to a panel discussing the use of social media for good.  Dr. Kellie McElhaney, founding faculty director of the Center for Responsible Business (and my fellow former national Net Impact board member), moderated the discussion.  The panel consisted of Danae Ringelmann, co-founder of IndieGoGo; Siddharth Sanghvi, General Manager of WorldofGood.com by eBay and co-founder of its predecessor; Victor d'Allant, Executive Director of Social Edge; and Erin Carlson, Senior Director of Yahoo! for Good (the company's CSR department).

The gems of the night came from d'Allant (complete with French accent):

"It's not about the tools; it's about the story you want to tell."

"Information tells; a story sells."

"You've got to get into the conversation."

Carlson told us to get rid of the warm fuzzies when talking with our companies about doing social good.  Sanghvi told us to think before we buy, and Ringelmann added to think before we invest.  Finally, Kellie reminded us that social media is just another tool and one that has inherent issues to be considered (e.g., stalking, narcissism, ADHD, slacktivism, apathy).

Nice event, great people!  And I LOVE the four key principles associated with Haas:  question the status quo, confidence without attitude, students always, and beyond yourself.  

Thanks also to Dean Rich Lyons (Top 5 B School Deans Who Tweet, Poets and Quants) and Jo Mackness (Executive Director of the Center for Responsible Business and current Net Impact Board Chair).  And if you guys ever need a guest lecturer on nonprofit/social enterprise law …