Last Updated on 26 March 2007

Do The Right Thing Logo

Because of my recent chatter about Starbucks, I received a note from the folks running Do The Right Thing.com. It is a social media site about “people changing business.”

People can share information about companies and others rate the relative social importance – positive or negative – of that information. The ratings are aggregated and an overall DoTheRightThing score is given for that company.

Do The Right Thing Scale

For example, someone posts a story stating Wal-Mart provides free parking space in their parking lot for people with recreational vehicles (RVs) to park overnight. It makes RVers better customers and helps keep the area safer. If I think it important, I could rate that fact very positive (PIONEER) to very negative (SEVERE). If I don’t think it matters, I don’t vote at all. So only ‘hot’ issues get discussed.

The site has been compiling ratings for a couple of weeks for Wal-Mart, Starbucks Coffee and Whole Foods Market. In fact today these companies have their first “DoTheRightThing” Index posted. More companies are being rated and added. Here’s the

“DoTheRightThing” Index

  • Whole Foods Market – 125
  • Starbucks Coffee – 95
  • Wal-Mart – 85

Here’s what DoTheRightThing say about themselves…

Dotherightthing is the place where you can learn and share information about how companies impact the world.

All are welcome – people who buy the stuff, who make the stuff, who live in communities where the stuff is made, and who have transcendent abilities to speak on behalf of that which cannot speak (like wildlife and the environment).

On dotherightthing, you can:

  • Share information that you discover about companies’ impacts on people and the world
  • Learn about the activities of companies directly from people and rate the impact of the important ones
  • Track the “social performance” of companies in real time

We’re changing the way companies earn our interest, as consumers, employees, and/or investors, by recognizing those that do the right thing.

You can see in the clip below… An article is accompanied by a rating… And you can see how many people have voted.

Do The Right Thing Clip

As this site takes off it may provide a gauge for companies to measure their own perception. While reality is one thing, consumer perception is another.

What’s nice is that DoTheRightThing encourages folks from the companies listed to have company representatives participate and offer insight, corrections, and/or answer questions directly.

A flaw with the site (or is it a flaw in humans) is that the site is based on what people post and say. While something posted maybe erroneous, if enough people find the story important and rate it fiction can become fact.

It will be interesting to see how the site takes off! Visit the site and leave your reactions here.