Be nice. Do good. Care. Three simple but perfectly profound ideas shared with us by new friends and client Andy Sernovitz and the team over at Social Media Business Council.

I love these simple ideas. They are great filters for whether or not a marketing action is worthwhile.

Andy shared a story with us while we were in Chicago that stuck with me – about Goodwill delivering a really tall cardboard box to his office one day. He went to pick it up and discovered it was completely empty. Inside the box was a note instructing him to fill it up with things he no longer needed. All he'd have to do is send the full box back to Goodwill. So he and his team did just that – brought stuff they didn't need to the office and filled up the box. Goodwill got some needed donations and the team at Social Media Business Council got the enjoyment of helping out a worthy cause. Double win.

This is the kind of idea that is so easy to overlook. The really simple one. Bigger more complex ideas can sound smarter and seem more innovative. But many times in their complexities they loose a bit of humanity.

Alina Wheeler refers to this as the "Blinding Flash of the Obvious" – insights or ideas that are right in front of you; so close to you that when realized seem too easy to be right. The irony is these simple ideas can be some of the most transcendent.

Thanks Andy.

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