Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is a corporation’s commitment to behave ethically and contribute to the society at large. It extends beyond the statutory obligations and sees organizations voluntarily taking steps to improve the quality of life for employees, their families and society.

Today, it’s not unusual for a company to have one or multiple CSR programs and initiatives. So, the question is not whether or not a company should have one, but rather what do their customers expect from these programs and are their CSR initiatives really credible?

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Every time you turn around, people are talking about how they reconnected with a high school classmate on Facebook or caught up with an old colleague on LinkedIn. 

I’ve often wondered if users are positively or negatively impacted by what they post on social networking sites, especially when they go to interview for a new job.

A recent study completed by CareerBuilder.com found that employers have started searching these sites before interviewing candidates. In fact, a recent study found that 20 percent of companies admitted to checking out candidate’s profiles on social-networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace, and that 24 percent of employers had hired an employee based on their social-networking profile. The most shocking finding, however, is that 33 percent of employers decided not to make a job offer after reviewing a profile, primarily due to  drug or alcohol use and photographs deemed “inappropriate” or “provocative.”

So now I’m left to ponder:  How else are social networks being used and by whom?

I recently had my first child enter kindergarten, which was a tear-jerker. Before signing him up for school, I struggled with where to send him. Public, private, charter — so many great options.

In my search, I found schooldigger.com, a great website that ranks over 120,000 U.S. elementary, middle, and high schools based on test scores, district boundaries, ethnic makeup and student/teacher ratios.

Check it out!