Corporate Social Responsibilty

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) refers to the ethical self-regulation of a company. Most big companies already use CSR and more and more small and medium-scaled ones follow by taking up Corporate Social Responsibility actions. CSR concentrates and aims on positive social and environmental issues and interests of a company in relation to its employees, consumers, stakeholders, local communities and in general members of the public.

Companies using CSR spend money on local communities but also donate to organizations in developing countries. An example of CSR being used directly in a business is the endorsement of Fair Trade like it is used by tea and coffee companies.

Companies using CSR try to build a positive image among the public. They want people to know that they care for their staff, their costumers and the impact they have concerning the environment and social sectors.

However some companies using CSR are not always praised but rather not taken serious. McDonald’s as well as British American Tobacco both face public allegations that they only use CSR to distract the public from their actual image and doings.

CSR is a good activity for organisations to use. It will shed positive light on the company, raise awareness and also improve staff and costumer satisfaction. Still CSR needs to be used and communicated right so no misunderstandings or misperceptions occur and the company is recognized for its actions and for what it wants to stand for.

To use or not to use: Political campaigns and online media

One of the most innovative, memorable and most of all successful political campaigns the world has seen so far was during the United States presidential election in 2008. The winner, current president Barack Obama, made his way into the White House not only because he had a strong team behind him but most of all because his team – for the first time in the history of such elections – based a large part of their tactics on the use of online media.

The way Obama’s campaign was played out was until that time unique and revolutionary and not only gained massive attention from the US citizens but also from around the world. With this new and fresh way of doing a political campaign, Obama not only aquired the status of a potential president candidate but it seemed that within seconds he became a global politcal superstar.

The Obama team indeed kept to the usual strategies used in potlical campaigns but besides that they also gave power to the people by targeting them online on platforms like Facebook, Twitter, MySpace or YouTube. Obama had his profile that people could access anytime, get updates from, comment and post information and most of all had the opportunity to engage in this election themselves by spreading messages. The Obama team communicated with the citizens on a constant level and gave them the feeling of being directly involved in the decision and process of the future president.

Many sceptics might have expected this tactic of using online media to fail as they thought that it might be a mistake to involve the public that much into the process of the elections. Obama and his team however were able to prove all the critics wrong by giving control to the people, gaining worldwide support.

On 2 February a viral video was published online, showing various celebrities singing or speaking parts of a speech that Obama held on January 8, 2008, following the New Hampshire presidential primary elections. Obama’s team was not involved in the production of this video but published it on the official website just one day after its release, noticing how successful it was. Within a week the video reached over four million views on YouTube, gaining Obama huge media coverage – national and international, being distributed by his supporters. This again shows the power and opportunities online media offer to the people.



UK’s current Prime Minister David Cameron and his team were very well aware of the successful strategies used during the Obama campaign and decided to take a similar road. He and his team targeted their audience a lot through social media and making similar appearances as Obama during his campaign. Sometimes it seemed however that Cameron did not present something new but rather emulated the US president. With this he became a mock for the media and the opposition Labour Party. Although Cameron was not able to tie in with Obama’s success, he did win the elections in the end.

Online media offer a perfect opportunity to reach a large audience and engage with the people directly. However this has to be planned well and political communicators need to be aware that when concentrating on the internet this also means to let go or give up a part of their control.

GOOGLE - Someone's watching you!

One could say that using Google today is something that belongs to our life like grocery shopping – but it is much easier and most of all we use it so much due the fact that is doesn’t cost us anything…. But is this really true? We may not have to pay cash indeed but we pay something that is actually much more valuable for us – our privacy. No matter what our interest is in, we spend a lot of our time searching on Google for pictures, articles, books, forums and anything informative about our topic of interest not realizing that every single one of our moves on the World Wide Web is happening under constant observation. 

In the “Cost of Free” Dr. Aleks Krotoski has investigated for the BBC series “The Virutal Revolution” how Google, Facebook, Amazon and Co. make billions of money by creating a very profitable advertising system. These organisations pay for the right to “secretly” or rather unnoticed tailor potential consumers who are using the Internet, targeting them according to their interest and activities on the net.  

People and their personal data therefore get more and more available on the Internet without being aware of it. Emails, Likes, Interests and Activities are all browsed which means that what we actually find so great about the internet – its ‘free’ service – is in reality everything else but free. 

 

In an article for the BBC today Jo Wade who is the Assistant Producer of the “Virtual Revolution” put it this way:

Every day in Britain millions of searches are carried out on Google for free. Every month we spend millions of hours on Facebook for free and read millions of articles from free newspapers.

But now look at it the other way round.

Every day Google gathers millions of search terms that help them refine their search system and give them a direct marketing bonanza that they keep for months.

Every week Facebook receives millions of highly personal status updates that are kept forever and are forming the basis of direct advertising revenue.

Every month free newspapers plant and track a cookie tracking device on your computer that tells them what your range of interests are and allows them to shape their adverts and in the future, even content around you.

So you’re not just being watched, you’re being traded. The currency has changed!!!!

So with this change in society we need to think about where this trend is heading and urgently need to ask ourselves how much of our personal life’s we are willing to share with the whole public in the future…..

 

 

 

Social Marketing - changing society's behaviour

The term Social Marketing was first mentioned in public in 1971 by Philip Kotler and Gerald Zaltman who published an article called „Social Marketing: An Approach to Planned Social Change“ in the Journal of Marketing. The two men found that the same methods of marketing that were used to sell products of any kind could also be applied to attitudes, ideas and behaviour.

Social Marketing refers to the systematic conceptualisation, transformation and evalutation of various strategies that are aimed to achieve a behavioural change among society. Social Marketing aims to promote positive behaviour, attitudes and values for a long period of time and counts on decision and acts made by choice.

Social Marketing is used for campaigns for:

- Educational institutions
- Health institutions
- Environmental protection (Recycling/ Energy-saving campaigns)
- Health education (AIDS campaigns/ Anti-smoke campaigns)

When using Social Marketing it is very important to consider the 4 P’s:

Product: ideas, practices, services – whatever should be „sold“ to the audience
Price: what people need to do to gain these certain ideas, practices and
services
Placement: where and when this product is best available for the audience/
when it is best fort hem to change their behaviour
Promotion: which communication channels are the most useful and effective
ones

One could say that the success of Social Marketing in a large part depends on how well and effective several media channels are used.

When planning a Social Marketing campaign there are several things that need to be considered beforehand. Here are TOP 10 Social Marketing Tips:

1. Know the problem inside out. Prepare with in-depth research for the problem you
    want to point out.

2. Know your audience. Who are they, what are their interests, what ideas, messages
    appeal to them.

3. How can you best reach the audience? What media channels are the most effectful
    ones?

4. Identify the threats/ disadvantages but also the benefits for the audience. What 
    will they get out of their behavioural change?

5. Identify key influencers and decision makers – who can help you best deliver
    and „sell“ your message. Who is a credible spokesperson that appeals to your audience.

6. Frame your message!!!

7. How can you make sure that your campaign has an impact in the long run and not
    only for a short period of time.

8. Be realistic about the fincancial conditions.

9. Consider co-operations with institutions/ organisations that stand for or support
    the same interest your campaign is aimed at.

10. Be prepared in case some strategies don’t turn out in the expected way.

Webcast: Social Media and its effects on Public Relations

Check out my newest presentation on Social Media

Spinning - a threat to the profession of PR

People working in PR often have to face a rather negative reputation being associated with the act of spin. The PR practitioners that mostly have to cope with this image are probably those in position of the communications director of a political person. It is their duty and responsibility to change, kill, cover up or weaken negative stories about the person they are working for and ensure that these people are shed in positive light in front of the public.

Although ‘spinning’ is viewed as a highly unethical act “it is the most common form of PR as electoral politics and is political news management between political parties, government and the electorate.” (Moloney, 2000, p. 105). Moloney continues referring to Freidenberg (1997), pointing out that within the last few years, political consultants have achieved a status other than their actual position implies – being hyped by the media as celebrities themselves (Moloney, 2000, p. 106). One of these very “well-known celebrities” is Alistair Campbell who used to be Director of Communications and Strategy for former Prime Minister Tony Blair. Campbell is officially known and called “Spin doctor” among the public, especially after the scandal of the “September Dossier” in 2002 and the “Iraq Dossier” in 2003. These two documents were intended to gain great support by the public containing falsified and misleading information that “justified” the invasion of Iraq.

Spin used to be and will continue to be ethically wrong. Spin will never be approved of but will always be used – especially in politics. It is questionable if those people using spin will ever set themselves or stick to certain simple ethical boundaries instead of doing whatever they (in their eyes) have to do to achieve a certain goal – like Alistair Campbell who made the whole public think that going to war is the right thing to do.

The issue of spinning will always be a “hot topic” and a worry to those PR practitioners that operate in other sectors. They might do everything else but spinning and if there is not a drastic change, the image of a “spin doctor” will probably always be glued to their job, damaging the overall reputation of the profession Public Relations.

NGO's - Frenemies to Corporates?

NGO’s and non-profit organisations are usually not connected with negative thoughts. They stand, work and fight for good causes, call attention to these causes and educate the public about them and how they can actively get involved in doing something good for a cause. When a corporate company joins together with an NGO, it is usually intended to give the corporate company a positive image.

However it is often not considered that a collaboration with an NGO also can turn into a negative situation for the corporate company. This could be the case when the individual interests and activities of the two collaborators don’t coincide or just clash. The NGO will not be ashamed to make these internal discrepancies public, while the corporate company might fear a negative image and damaging reputation among the public.

In cases of a conflict, NGO’s often use the following tactics to draw public attention to the problem that exists with the corporate company intending to make it change its ways of operating and behaving:

1.    Non – violent  Direct Action (NVDA)
2.    Rogue websites
3.    Surveys
4.    Reports
5.    Mass Events
6.    Stunts
7.    Letters to officials
8.    Soundbites
9.    Social Media (YouTube, Twitter, Facebook)

When deciding on a collaboration, corporate companies need to carefully select the NGO’s they want to join together with and need to be aware of their common interests and the possible conflicts that could arise during the partnership. If there are no problems at all, a co-operation with an NGO will most likely help shed positive light on a corporate company’s name and image and build a positive reputation among the public.

Grunig's situational theory

One of the most important aspects companies have to deal with and pay great attention to are stakeholders. Today there are various models suggesting the best ways on how to deal with them. One of the most well known Public Relations theorists James E. Grunig has developed the situational theory which concentrates on changing publics. Its concept involves non – public, latent public, aware public and active public.

Non – public refers to the public that is not affected by an organisations decisions, behaviour or problems. They might be recognized but don’t play a very important role for a company. The latent public applies to the public that might unconsciously be aware of a company’s or organisation’s moves but does not recognize them. The aware public is a public, which is aware of the effects of an organisation’s matters and recognizes them. The active public refers to the public that recognizes a company’s or organisation’s moves in full context and wants to react and act in response and organise to do something about the problem or situation.

Grunig’s situational theory can well be applied by companies and organisation as it is but continues to be developed.

Crisis Management

There is a time when every company or organisation may find itself in an uncomfortable situation facing a more or less dramatic crisis. With such an easy accessible tool like the internet it is getting more and more difficult to prepare in cases of a crisis. Anyone with a camera (mobile, camcorder, or digital camera) can make “undercover” films and post them on platforms like YouTube, Facebook and similar ones. Confidential or damaging material can therefore easily be distributed causing a great harm in a company’s reputation.

In such cases, crisis management is needed more than anything. New trust needs to be established among the public and the responsible parties need to be able to respond to the high pressure they will then be under. However a crisis is always an opportunity to show how well structured and prepared a company is in such situations. When videos of employees working at Domino’s Pizza were leaked on the internet showing disgusting actions they did while preparing the food, the company faced the problem immediately and dealt with it in an excellent way (Case study below).

Today companies, organisations and governments need to be prepared for a crisis any time. The need to have prepared strategies, already planned out before a crisis’ outbreak – and most importantly they need to be prepared any time as the internet never sleeps! That means they need to analyse potential risks and crisis situations and causes beforehand. Most importantly they should prepare and have and eye on their employees as these people are the greatest risk. They are the closest to confidential information and have access to all or almost all areas in a company. Furthermore great attention should be paid to the Internet and how to use it and several social media platforms in cases of a crisis. With the Internet the largest number of people can be reached and updates can be posted every hour or even every few minutes.
     
Here are my the Top 8 Crisis Management Tips:

1. Face the crisis!

2. Have clear roles on who is doing what in a crisis
    (who speaks to the media, who is responsible for communication on the internet)!

3. Identify the four W’s (who what when where) before facing the media!

4. Prepare and rehearse your crisis management plans!

5. Don’t hide – be accessible for the media and the public
    (on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, TV etc.)!

6. Train your employees!

7. Have guidelines for the employees how to use social media
    (they should know how to make regular updates giving a positive image)!

8. Get third parties involved that have a positive influence and
    support on your image among the public!

Case Study Domino's Pizza

In 2009 the international fast food chain Domino’s Pizza faced a crisis when a video was leaked on YouTube showing two employees preparing Pizzas while doing pretty disgusting and unhygienic things to the food. The video is now no longer available but had almost 1 million clicks before it was put down.

Domino’s dealt very well with that crisis concentrating on social media to overcome this situations. First a video on YouTube was published showing the President of Domino’s Pizza facing the incident, apologizing, telling where the incident happened and how Domino’s will deal with it and thanking for support and trust. Also a Twitter account was created on which Domino’s kept contact with costumers, updated on a regular basis about the incident and promoted positive coverage. Also they apologized for what had happened and did not stop to thank their loyal costumers for their ongoing support. 

The employees seen in the video were identified and lost their jobs.

This case shows how quick a company can be put into a crisis and how easy information that is not intended for the public or better kept within a company reaches a large audience.


Apology Video of Domino's President Patrick Doyle

PR in times of War - where is the truth?

In the first class of Contemporary Theory and Issues in Public Relations, we watched the BBC documentary “War Spin” that reveals some of the PR strategies the US and UK governments used during the Iraq War in 2003. It is unlikely to change that any country that goes to war will give out only certain information to justify its action and maintain a positive image among the public.

Although it is one of the tasks in PR to keep, save or establish an image of an organisation, a company, a government or a single person, it is questionable where the moral boundaries in such critical situations like war lie. In the case of the Iraq war only selected bits and pieces of information were given out to the public by the US government. Most of the information were misleading and leaving the public with a complete wrong impression of the overall situation and a wrong image of the United States.

Most probably any government during times of war will always use war spin. However if we can’t trust our governments in cases of such difficult situations, who can the public rely on? It is important for PR to be kept in mind that the public has a right to information and the media have the duty to inform. What is needed is a strict moral standard for PR practitioners they have to be obliged to.

Here is a part of the BBC documentary footage that revealed the PR strategies used by the US government during the Iraq War in 2003. 

References: Jowett, G. and O'Donnell, V., (2006). Propaganda and Persuasion. 4th ed. Sage Publications Inc.