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Consumers Now Have A Voice. And The Fact That Consumers Can Be Creators, Producers And Distributors Means They Can Push Back Against Brands To Punish Them For Their Socially Irresponsible Behavior Or Reward Them For Their Responsible Behavior.

-Simon Mainwaring

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Consumers Now Have A

Simon Mainwaring

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Consumers Now Have A Voice. And The Fact That Consumers Can Be Creators, Producers And Distributors Means They Can Push Back Against Brands To Punish Them For Their Socially Irresponsible Behavior Or Reward Them For Their Responsible Behavior.

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Ultimately, It's Possible That Social Media Platforms Will Be Designed As Templates That The Users Themselves Customize In Terms Of The Best Way To Express Their Community And Experience Of Life, And Brands Will Have To Simply Follow Suit.

Perhaps The Most Powerful Lesson Other Brands Can Learn From Nike Is The Need To Act In Accordance With The Reality Of The World We Live In. In A Mutually Dependant, Intimately Connected Global Community Facing Several Major Crises, Brands Need To Operate With An Expanded Definition Of Self-interest That Includes The Greater Good.

Non-profits Must Become Deeply Engaged In The Ways That Their Donor Communities Are Using Social Technology.

Social Media Is Not An End In Itself. It's Just Another Tool To Reach People.

A World In Which Government Is Burdened By Historic Debt, Philanthropy Has Limited Resources, And The Private Sector Is Only Interested In Its Own Personal Gain Is Simply Unsustainable.

Limited Resources

Make The Customer The Hero Of Your Brand's Story.

The Most Impactful Way Consumers Can Assert Their Power Is To Become Mindful Shoppers, Giving Their Dollars Only To Socially Responsible Companies. In Today’s World Of Social Media And Smart Phones, This Is Easy To Do.

Define What Your Brand Stands For, Its Core Values And Tone Of Voice, And Then Communicate Consistently In Those Terms.

In Today's Social Business Marketplace Facebook Is One Of The Best Places For Nonprofits To Be Discovered And Connect With A Larger Audience On The Basis Of Shared Values. So To Get Started, A Non-profit Should Launch A Facebook Page And Invite Your Existing Real World Community To Connect Your Cause And Their Networks.

We Now See Numerous Examples Of Brands Working Together To Address Issues Such As Environmental Degradations, Climate Control, Pollution, Poverty And Disease.

Working Together

What Today's Business Reality Makes Clear Is That Brands Cannot Survive In A Society That Is Failing Economically, Socially, Ethically, And Morally.

There's An Adage That Is An Apt Description Of The New Dynamic At Work Between Brands And Consumers Connected Through Social Media: People Support What They Help To Build. But Now That Many Brands Are Launching Community-driven Cause Marketing Campaigns, The Challenge Becomes What To Do Next?

Companies, To Date, Have Often Used The Excuse That They Are Only Beholden To Their Shareholders, But We Need Shareholders To Think Of Themselves As Stakeholders In The Well Being Of Society As Well.

There Are Many Individuals, Companies And Even Countries Operating In What I Call A 'me First' Mentality, Which Is Effectively A Purely Competitive Approach To Life, Treating The Planet As If It Has Infinite Resources And Pitting One Country Against Another For Supremacy.

If A Brand Genuinely Wants To Make A Social Contribution, It Should Start With Who They Are, Not What They Do. For Only When A Brand Has Defined Itself And Its Core Values Can It Identify Causes Or Social Responsibility Initiatives That Are In Alignment With Its Authentic Brand Story.

Integrate Purpose Into Your For-profit Business Model Through A Long Term Commitment To A Cause That Is Aligned With Your Core Values And Those Of Your Community.

Without Question, Ceos, Executives And Employees In Companies In The United States And Around The World Have Rallied To Face The Challenge Of A Social Media Marketplace.

Executives Can No Longer Hide Behind The Corporate Veil. They Need To Be Accountable For What Their Companies Do, Because Entities Are Responsible For Socially Irresponsible Behavior.

Social Media Companies Must Combine Their Mastery Of The Latest In Real-time, Location Based Or Augmented Reality Technologies In The Service Of Clear And Consistent Storytelling.

More Than Ever Before, Consumers Have The Ability To Unify Their Voices And Coalesce Their Buying Power To Influence Corporate Behaviors.

As A Speaker, Business Leader Or Marketer Of Any Type, The Onus Is Now On Each Of Us To Become Equally Capable Of Communicating Very Personally With A Seemingly Endless Number Of People Connected By Social Technologies.

Refuse To Accept The Belief That Your Professional Relevance, Career Success Or Financial Security Turns On The Next Update On The Latest Technology. Sometimes It's Good To Put The Paddle Down And Just Let The Canoe Glide.

Everyone Living Under The Social Contract We Call Democracy Has A Duty To Act Responsibly, To Obey The Laws, And To Abandon Certain Types Of Self-interested Behaviors That Conflict With The General Good.

Democracies Have

Done Correctly, Everyone From Individual Speakers To Large Organizations Can Inspire Citizens And Customers To Spread A Message Using Their Own Social Channels, And In So Doing, Inspire Countless Supporters To Build Their Reputation, Profits And Social Impact.

The Private Sector Must Play A Role In Ensuring The Prosperity And Health Of The People Who Comprise Its Market. It Is Time For The Private Sector To Become A Proactive Partner Contributing To The Efforts Of Governments And Philanthropies.

If A Brand Wants To Build Social Communities, Capital And Influence, It Must Become The Chief Celebrant Of Its Community, Not Its Celebrity. This Simple Shift In Approach Unlocks Enormous Transformative Potential For Brands.

When Something Works For You Or Another Brand, Ask Yourself, 'why?' Then Don't Copy It But Think About What You Can Do That's Unique To You And Better.

The Theory Of Social Contracts Extends As Far Back As Plato. However, It Was The Great 18th Century Social Philosophers John Locke, Thomas Hobbes, And Jean-jacques Rousseau Who Brought The Concept Of A Social Contract Between Citizens And Governments Sharply Into Political Thinking, Paving The Way For Popular Democracy And Constitutional Republicanism.

For A Truly Effective Social Campaign, A Brand Needs To Embrace The First Principles Of Marketing, Which Involves Brand Definition And Consistent Storytelling.

More And More Companies Are Reaching Out To Their Suppliers And Contractors To Work Jointly On Issues Of Sustainability, Environmental Responsibility, Ethics, And Compliance.

Some Critics Have Challenged What The Return On Investment Is For Engagement In Social Media. Others Have Complained That The Metrics Don't Exist To Demonstrate Value.

Often Motivated By A Desire To Maintain The Existing Status Quo, Sloth Almost Cost The U.s. Its Auto Industry, As It Refused For Decades To Build Fuel-efficient Cars To Compete With Japanese, Korean And European Imports.

Maintaining The Status Quo

And If You Look At The Reality In The United States, Where You Have More Than 40 Million People Below The Poverty Line And 42 Million On Food Stamps, And Then You Look At Poverty Around The World, Clearly The Way We're Running The Engine Of Capitalism Is Not Serving Us Well.

Accept That The Moment You Buy Your Latest Ipad, Iphone, Tablet, App Or Game It Will Be Promptly Followed By A Vastly Improved And Sleeker Looking Version.

What Is Sure Is That Technological Change Is Accelerating In All Directions And, Like Children Playing In A Fountain, Consumers Are Reveling In The Experience.

Technological Change

Radical Transparency Has An Enormous Impact On Our Personal Lives. We Can No Longer Share Thoughts, Quips, Photos Or Personal Opinions Anywhere On The Web Without Being Mindful That They May Turn Up Where We Least Expect It (notably Job Interviews, Divorce Proceedings Or Public Media).

Consumers Want A Better World, Not Just Better Widgets.

It Is Time For Corporate America To Become 'the Third Pillar' Of Social Change In Our Society, Complementing The First Two Pillars Of Government And Philanthropy. We Need The Entire Private Sector To Begin Committing Itself Not Just To Making Profits, But To Fulfilling Higher And Larger Purposes By Contributing To Building A Better World.

Non-disclosure In The Internet Age Is Quickly Perceived As A Breach Of Trust. Government, Corporations And Each Of Us As Individuals Must Recalibrate How We Live And Share Our Lives Appropriate To The Information Now Available And The Expectations Of Others.

The Social Business Marketplace Is Effectively Forcing Brands To Engage With Consumers On The Basis Of Something That Is Meaningful To Them. More Often Than Not, This Takes The Form Of Some Core Value That Finds Expression In A Non-profit Cause.

By Linking With Friends And Ultimately Strangers And Building Those Relationships, Social Media Is Reweaving The Social Fabric That Can Then Be Used To Scale Your Non-profit Efforts.

The Keys To Brand Success Are Self-definition, Transparency, Authenticity And Accountability.

Gluttony Might Be Innocuous Were It Not For The Fact That Gluttons Tend To Disregard Whether Their Self-serving Behaviors Harm Anyone Else. We Don’t Need To Look Far And Wide To Find Examples Of Gluttonous Behavior, As They Are Numerous Throughout The History Of Capitalism.

Consumers Around The World Are More Aware Of The Multiple Global Crises We Face Than Ever Before, Thanks To Information Found On The Internet.

The False Separation Between Living And Giving Must End.

Your Computer Needn't Be The First Thing Your See In The Morning And The Last Thing You See At Night.

Not Since The Digital Revolution In The Early '90s Has Technology Placed Such A Comprehensive Burden On Business, Employees And Individuals To Reinvent Their Business Plans, Services And Products, And Themselves To Keep Pace With The Changing Marketplace.

Digital Revolution

Brands Must Have A Point Of View On That Purposeful Engagement, Whether It's Directed Towards The Environment, Poverty, Water As A Resource Or Causes Such As Breast Cancer Or Education. Merely Declaring Your Commitment To A Category Or Cause Will Not Be Enough The Distinguish Your Brand Sufficiently To See A Return On These Well-intended Efforts.

Perhaps The Most Effective Way To Describe The Approach A Brand Must Take Is To Think Of Themselves As Social Cartographers. By That I Mean That Brands Must Simultaneously Inspire, Engage And Maintain A Series Of Conversations Taking Place Within Certain Cultural Landscape Specific To Their Business Goal.

Move Your Personal Investments And Retirement Funds To Socially Responsible Investment (sri) Funds That Support Only Those Corporations That Uphold Higher Standards Of Behavior. Returns On Sri Funds Are Usually Equal To, If Not Better Than, Many Of The Well-known Traditional Mutual Funds.

We Need To Develop And Disseminate An Entirely New Paradigm And Practice Of Collaboration That Supersedes The Traditional Silos That Have Divided Governments, Philanthropies And Private Enterprises For Decades And Replace It With Networks Of Partnerships Working Together To Create A Globally Prosperous Society.

Working Together

Social Media Is Not About The Exploitation Of Technology But Service To Community.

The Companies That Make Meaningful Contributions While Also Listening To The Voices Of Others Are The Ones That Will Genuinely Engage Their Community, Who Will Then Go To Work For Them.

The Currency Of Universal Values Make Brands Innately Sharable.

Transforming A Brand Into A Socially Responsible Leader Doesn't Happen Overnight By Simply Writing New Marketing And Advertising Strategies. It Takes Effort To Identify A Vision That Your Customers Will Find Credible And Aligned With Their Values.

How Well You Tell Your Story Determines How Well Your Customers Tell Your Story.

The United States Is At A Critical Juncture In Time. Our Government Is Riddled With Historic Debt, And The Limited Resources Of Philanthropic And Non-profit Efforts Cannot Meet The Scale Of Social Challenges We Face With Necessary Force.

The Advent Of Google+ And The Emergence Of The Personalized Web Means This Is More True Than Ever. Brands, And Their Advertising Partners, Must Wake Up To This Challenge And Define Themselves With Clarity, Consistency And Authenticity. Otherwise They Just Might Find Themselves Shouting In A Ghost Town.

Companies And Their Brands Need To Reach Out And Speak Directly To Consumers, To Honor Their Values, And To Form Meaningful Relationships With Them. They Must Become Architects Of Community, Consistently Demonstrating The Values That Their Customer Community Expects In Exchange For Their Loyalty And Purchases.

Let's Hope Brands Recognize That The True Power Of This Technology Is Not Its Reach But Its Ability To Communicate Substance That Adds Meaning To Our Lives. Otherwise, Brands Will Be Investing In Technology That Consumers Simply Won't Buy.

Corporate Executives Need To Re-frame Their Responsibilities To Include The Interests Of All The Stakeholders In Society At Large; Not Just Shareholders, But Also Employees, The Citizens Of Our Communities, And Those Who Care About The Environment.

One Of The Greatest Challenges Companies Face In Adjusting To The Impact Of Social Media, Is Knowing Where To Start.

When People Align Around Shared Political, Social, Economic Or Environmental Values, And Take Collective Action, Thinking And Behaviour That Compromises The Lives Of Millions Of People Around The World Can Truly Change.

For Decades, Media Companies Have Largely Controlled The Tools Through Which Consumers Were Told What To Buy, Wear Or Think. Now Consumers Possess The Same Ability To Produce, Distribute And Curate Content And Distribute It To Their Peers In Real Time Across Social Media Platforms.

Like All Technology, Social Media Is Neutral But Is Best Put To Work In The Service Of Building A Better World.

Business Practices And How We Treat The Planet Are Also In Desperate Need Of Re-humanization.

Brands Are Faced With The Daily Challenge Of Massively Scaling Their Outreach In Order To Build Personal Relationships. While This May Seem Like A Contradiction In Terms, It Becomes Much More Possible When Brands Shift From Push To Pull Dynamics In Their Marketing.

As More People Use Social Media To Tell The Story Of The Future, The Wants And Needs Of More People Will Be Reflected.

Brands Are Facing A New Competitive Landscape In Which Self-definition, Core Values And Purpose Will Increasingly Define Their Ability To Reach Customers That Only Allow What Is Meaningful In Their Lives To Pass Through Their Filter.

The Leverage And Influence Social Media Gives Citizens Are Rapidly Spreading Into The Business World.

Consumers Now Have A Voice. And The Fact That Consumers Can Be Creators, Producers And Distributors Means They Can Push Back Against Brands To Punish Them For Their Socially Irresponsible Behavior Or Reward Them For Their Responsible Behavior.

Concerned Consumers Are Realizing That They Can Use Social Media To Organize Themselves Around Shared Values To Start Effective Movements. Social Media Gives Them A Sounding Board To Share Ideas, As Well As A Means To Punish Irresponsible Corporate Behaviors.

Social Media Demands A Lot Of Us On Top Of Our Already Demanding Lives. So Let's Disconnect As We Need To And Renew Our Interest And Ourselves.

If Capitalism Is To Remain A Healthy, Vibrant Economic System, Corporations Must Participate In Taking Care Of The Society And The Environment In Which They Live.

In The Social Business Marketplace, Brands That Hope To Build Loyal And Growing Communities Do So Most Effectively When They Demonstrate Their Core Values And Allow A Community To Build And Engage Around It.

The Way Customers Relate To Brands And How Profit Is Generated Has Changed So Dramatically Almost Every Professional Is Being Challenged To Reconsider What They Do In Order To Stay Relevant.

Millions Of People Are Falling Out Of The Middle Class Into The Ranks Of The Poor.

Consumers Desiring A Better World Have Already Achieved Some Successes In This Regard, Helping To Transform Several Industries From The Ground Up.

The Framing Of How We Relate To Each Other Within And Across Social Media Platforms Will Continue To Become More Sophisticated And Nuanced In Their Expression Of How We Structure Our Relationships In Our Real World Lives.

The Most Potentially Transformative Impact Of Social Media Is Its Ability To Encourage Brands To Marry Profit And Purpose. The Reason Brands Participate Is That Such Outreach Earns Those Companies Social Currency Enabling Them To Start Or Participate In Conversations That Connect Them To Consumers In Meaningful Ways.

Brands Must Be Very Specific In Their Choice Of Social Media Platforms Through Which To Communicate Their Csr Or Cause Messaging.

Ensure Your Employees Understand What Your Brand Stands For So They Can Be Your First Line Of Word-of-mouth Advertising.

Many Corporate Leaders And Employees Have The Right Intentions, But It Can Be Overwhelming When You Consider How Everything Is Affected From Leadership Styles, To Organizational Structure, To Employee Engagement, To Customer Service An Marketplace.

There Is A Growing Awareness Among Brands That In Order To Participate In Conversations That Are Taking Place Across Social Networks, They Must Join These Discussions On The Basis Of Something That Is Meaningful To Their Customers.

When A Positive Exchange Between A Brand And Customers Becomes Quantifiable Metrics, It Encourages Brand To Provide Better Service, Customer Service To Do A Better Job, And Consumers To Actively Show Their Gratitude.

As We Approach Each Of The Great Social Challenges Of Our Time We Must Acknowledge That Old Thinking Will Not Provide The New Solutions We Need. These Solutions Will Be Uncomfortable, Hard To Sell And Risky To Execute. But The Cost Of Not Doing So Is Even Greater.

As Any Speaker Will Tell You, When You Address A Large Number Of People From A Stage, You Try To Make Eye Contact With People In The Audience To Communicate That You're Accessible And Interested In Them.

As We All Know, Lasting Relationships Can't Be Rushed.

Lasting Relationship

Brands Must Empower Their Community To Be Change Agents In Their Own Right. To That End, They Need To Take On A Mentoring Role. This Means The Brand Provides The Tools, Techniques And Strategies For Their Customers To Become More Effective Marketers In Achieving Their Own Goals.

Corporations, Consumers, And Citizens Must Begin Acting In Concert To Create A Powerful Third Pillar Of Social Transformation If We Hope To Meet The Social Challenges We Currently Face With Equal Force. This Begins With Corporations That Choose To Alter How They Practice Capitalism In Two Ways To Serve The Greater Good.

Social Technology Gives Leaders A Vital New Platform With Which To Connect Their Companies To The Myriad Stakeholders Who Have An Interest In Their Well Being.

Since Most Corporate Competitors Have The Same Problems With Sustainability And Social Reputation, It's Worth Trying To Solve Them Together.

Creating A Better World Requires Teamwork, Partnerships, And Collaboration, As We Need An Entire Army Of Companies To Work Together To Build A Better World Within The Next Few Decades. This Means Corporations Must Embrace The Benefits Of Cooperating With One Another.

A Social Contract Is The Way Out Of This Dilemma For Corporations That Want To Lead In The 21st Century By Showing Consumers How Seriously They Take Customer Loyalty And Goodwill.

When Thinking Through Who To Bring Together To Generate New Ideas, It Is More Effective To Combine Specialists From Very Different And Unrelated Disciplines Rather Than A Variety Of People With Different Skills Sets In The Same Field.

The New Dynamics Between Brands And Consumers, Driven By Social Media, Are Proving To Be A Powerful Impetus For Change.

As A Function Of The Easy Access To Information Provided By The Internet, And The Ease With Which It Can Be Shared Thanks To Social Media, Consumers Are Now Better Informed As To The Behavior Of Brands And The Multiple Global Crises We Face.

Work With Your Competitors When The Interest Of The Community And Planet Are At Stake.

There Is An Overwhelming Amount Of Information Available To Us All On The Web Each Day, Not To Mention What Is Shared With Us By Our Family, Friends, Fans, And Followers. This Necessitates The Need To Filter Through All That Information And To Decide For Ourselves Where To Put Our Attention.

Corporations Often Partner With Government After Natural Disasters, As Many Companies Did In The Aftermath Of Hurricane Katrina In 2005. As A Rule, However, Long-term Civic/corporate Partnerships Are Still Rare .but This Need Not Remain The Status Quo, As Many Opportunities Are Available For Such Partnerships.

Today's Consumers Are Eager To Become Loyal Fans Of Companies That Respect Purposeful Capitalism. They Are Not Opposed To Companies Making A Profit; Indeed, They May Even Be Investors In These Companies - But At The Core, They Want More Empathic, Enlightened Corporations That Seek A Balance Between Profit And Purpose.

Greed Has Increasingly Become A Virtue Among Wall Street Bankers And Corporate Ceos In The U.s. Nowhere Else In The World Do Ceos Insist On Receiving Compensation As High Compared To What Their Employees Earn.

Too Many Brands Treat Social Media As A One Way, Broadcast Channel, Rather Than A Two-way Dialogue Through Which Emotional Storytelling Can Be Transferred.

In The Coming Years, If Not Sooner, Social Media Will Become A Powerful Tool That Consumers Will Aggressively Use To Influence Business Attitudes And Force Companies Into Greater Social Responsibility - And, I Suggest, Move Us Towards A More Sustainable Practice Of Capitalism.

The Simple Act Of Saying 'thank You' Is A Demonstration Of Gratitude In Response To An Experience That Was Meaningful To A Customer Or Citizen.

The Creative Destruction That Social Media Is Currently Unleashing Will Change More Than Technology Or The Leader Board Of The Fortune 100. It Is Driving A Qualitative Shift In The Nature Of Relationships Between Brands And Their Customers.

Any Institution Faces Two Basic Choices If They Hope To Spark New Ideas. One Is To Leverage The Brains Trust Within Their Organization By Creating A Special Event Dedicated To New Thinking. The Other Is To Look Outside Themselves To Stimulate Solutions.

It Is A Truly Powerful Phenomenon When A Brand Makes A Stand For What It Believes In.

Through Their Own Actions, Customers Can Hold Companies Responsible To Higher Standards Of Social Responsibility. Through Collective Action, They Can Leverage Their Dollars To Combat The Force Of Those Investors Who Myopically Pursue Profits At The Expense Of The Rest Of Society.

With The Never-ending Stream Of New Social Technologies, Apps And Platforms Rolling Out Every Day, Its Easy To Get Lost In The Minutiae Of Social Media. Yet For There To Be Effective Change, Especially Within Large, Top-down, Hierarchical Institutions, A Company Must Have An Over-arching Understanding Of The New Role It Has To Play.

In Fact, I Believe The First Companies That Make An Effort To Develop An Authentic, Transparent, And Meaningful Social Contract With Their Fans And Customers Will Turn Out To Be The Ones That Are The Most Successful In The Future. While Brands That Refuse To Make The Effort Will Lose Stature And Customer Loyalty.

How Much Do You As A Consumer Value A Positive Experience With A Brand Or Its Customer Service Department? How Willing Are You To Share That With Your Friends? How Inclined Are You To Let That Person Know That You're Interaction With Them Was Positive?

Positive Experiences

The Future Of Profit Is Purpose.

The Role Of Social Media Is Critical Because It Helps To Spread Cognitive Dissonance By Connecting Thought Leaders And Activists To Ordinary Citizens Rapidly Expanding The Network Of People Who Become Willing To Take Action.

Ceos Must Embrace The Role Of Serving As The Public Face Of The Company To Their Customer Community And The Marketplace At Large.

Find The Human In The Technology. The Currency Marketers Trade In Has Not Changed Even If The Methods Have. Emotion Is What We Exchange.

The Evolution Of Social Media Into A Robust Mechanism For Social Transformation Is Already Visible. Despite Many Adamant Critics Who Insist That Tools Like Facebook, Twitter, And Youtube Are Little More Than Faddish Distractions Useful Only To Exchange Trivial Information, These Critics Are Being Proven Wrong Time And Again.

Social Transformation

Brands Must Become Architects Of Community.

More Brands Are Waking Up To Their Social Responsibility And Doing Good Work Through Cause Marketing Campaigns. Yet Too Many Still Go About It The Wrong Way. I Mean 'wrong' In Two Senses. Firstly, They Are Marketing Ineffectively, And Secondly, As A Consequence Their Positive Social Impact Is Not Maximized.

Technology Is Teaching Us To Be Human Again.

The Question Remains: Which Brands Will Commit To Creating A Private Sector Pillar Of Social Change, And Which Will Become Casualties Of Their Own Outdated Thinking?

There Is A Fundamental Shift That Social Media Necessitates In Business Today - The Need To Transition From 'me First' To 'we First' Thinking.

The Launch Of Google+ Apps Sends A Powerful Signal - The Personalized Web Has Begun. What This Means Is That The Way Information Is Structured And Accessed Will Turn On The Individual, Or Rather Their Personal Profile Which Is A Composite Of All The Data Collected On The Basis Of What They Have Searched For And Shared.

Effectively, Change Is Almost Impossible Without Industry-wide Collaboration, Cooperation And Consensus.

Corporate America Cannot Afford To Remain Silent Or Passive About The Downward Spiral We Are Undergoing. It Cannot Turn A Blind Eye To How Difficult The Experience Of Life Is For So Many Of Their Customers.

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