Businesses cannot continue to focus on the profit motive alone. These days that sort of dogged determinism will come back to bite them.

Simon Mainwairing, an Aussie brand consultant now living in the US, says social media is the game changer. Your actions, good or bad, can be exposed more easily and talked about through social media channels. That means, not only do businesses have to behave, they also have the opportunity to win respect by actually doing some good.

His ‘We First’ consultancy helps organisations to use social media effectively, so they build their brand, maximise profits, but also bring some positive change to the world. Simon says this transition is totally necessary, as the world is steeped in debt and poverty is rife.

“The overall engine of capitalism is not serving enough people,” he says in this edition of BTalk. From a business perspective, increased poverty creates a dwindling customer base. So companies have a self-interest in ensuring the well-being of society at large.

First published on CBS News