����Ӱҵ

Last week in Virginia, we were 90 percent through a terrific panel discussion on the changing nature of charity, corporate social responsibility, and society. There was a lot of discussion of generational change and what today’s corporate workers want from a career (after a steady paycheck, that is). And my fellow panelists and I covered collective impact, community partnerships, and story-telling in public causes.But as the final questions wrapped it up, I realized there was one topic that hadn’t been discussed much during the session, and it surprised me. The topic was social media.

The panel was entitled “,” it was co-hosted by ����Ӱҵ’s Charities and the Fairfax County Chamber of Commerce. My fellow speakers included Debra Snider, vice president of operations for ; Emily Simone, director of global community outreach for , and Steve Greenhalgh, senior advisor to ����Ӱҵ’s Charities and author of the incisive 2013 report, .

In any previous year of the past eight or so, social networks and media would certainly have dominated much of the conversation. Discussions of user-generated content, contests, video, Facebook and Twitter tactics would have been the order of the day. Yet in the foggy early morning of a Tyson’s Corner fall Thursday, social media was secondary.

Why?

In my view, it’s about the ascendance of strategy over tactics – the mark of maturity in any sector – and we’ve seen this shift before.