Don’t be afraid of talking about Corporate Social Responsibility March 4, 2010
Posted by Tom Murphy in : CSR, He would say that, Public Relations , 3 commentsPartly in response to my post about the growing importance of appropriate communications on a company’s Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) efforts, the Textifying blog over at Arizona State University (sorry there’s no bio page and the post was written by ‘tburns’ – and I tried to leave a comment but couldn’t) published a post entitled: Socially Responsible Communication Methods.
Among other things, the author expresses their conflict at the idea of an organization communicating or promoting its CSR work:
In a way, the idea of “promoting” the good a company does reminds me of people who only do generous things so they can brag about it later and create the image of a genuinely nice person. This defeats the purpose of giving and destroys the definition of a true “kind soul.”
First off let me say that I am delighted that they wrote this post. As I mentioned previously there’s far too little discussion on the PR implications of CSR, so it’s great they took the time to share their views.
However, I should also point out that I disagree with their sentiment, and let me explain why.
Every commercial organization, regardless of its location, business or size has a social responsibility. Why? Because every business, whether directly through its operations or indirectly through its staff is part of the local community and broader society.
In general, good CSR means aligning corporate responsibility to the organization’s business strategy. This is important for a number of reasons. If CSR is aligned, then it can have a positive impact for the business – it will therefore create value and will be sustainable over the long term – that’s how CSR can deliver real measurable impact.
Today stakeholders; from investors, to customers, employees and investors want to know what companies are doing in the community and society at large. If we can agree that it makes sense to align CSR efforts to the core business, then it becomes a central element of what that business does. That’s why communication is important.
CSR is about more than philanthropy – albeit that’s an important element. CSR is about being a responsible business. It’s about good corporate governance, ethics, being a great employer, reducing environmental impact and many other elements. But let’s focus on philanthropy for a moment. In my experience, the value a company brings to a non-profit organization is three fold. The first, and most obvious is financial support, but in many cases the expertise and resources a company can bring to bear through a strong partnership is often more important.
Companies can often help nonprofits broaden the reach and impact of their communications – raising awareness and helping them increase their effectiveness. Of course, that communication should be appropriate and transparent, but companies should not be embarrassed to tell people how they are constructively being a responsible citizen. Indeed companies, in my view, should be up front about their commitment to CSR, about how they are measuring their efforts and how they are tracking against their commitments.
There are risks.
We live in a far more transparent world where companies need to be wary of sacrificing goodwill for short term publicity.
But doing well by doing good, is not only accepted as good business practice, it’s becoming an imperative. That’s nothing to be embarrassed about.
Now given that I work in communications for Microsoft’s Corporate Citizenship efforts, you should expect me to be an advocate. But then I see the incredible work that we and other companies do every day in partnership with nonprofits – work that positively impacts people and communities all over the world.
Communicating a company’s commitment to CSR or Corporate Responsibility or Corporate Citizenship is not only a good thing, it’s a vital thing.
Agree or disagree?
Leave a comment or ping me on Twitter at @tpemurphy.
PR + CSR = Just Good Business February 26, 2010
Posted by Tom Murphy in : CSR , 3 commentsThere’s no question that Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has hit the mainstream for companies of all sizes. The last five years have seen an explosion of interest in CSR (or Corporate Citizenship), driven by our changing society, pressure from employees, interest from customers and often a company’s own desire to have a positive impact.
While CSR has become increasingly popular and arguably important from an image perspective, you don’t find a lot of content or discussion online about how companies should be thinking about how they communicate their commitment to CSR. Of course it goes without saying that we’re talking about appropriate communication here, but the reality is that many companies don’t share the great work they’re doing – and they should.
Last week I had the good fortune of meeting with Kellie McElhaney, Corporate Responsibility Faculty Director at the Haas School of Business in UC Berkeley. She is a passionate advocate of CSR, but more importantly of CSR being aligned with a company’s core business strategy and of the need for companies to sensibly measure and promote the impact of their CSR efforts.
I have just finished her book: Just Good Business and I would strongly recommend it. Kellie takes a real world, pragmatic view of CSR and how it can and should be connected and delivering value to your business – while also having a positive impact in society.
The book doesn’t get lost in the theory but instead provides excellent real-world insights and examples of how companies are (and are not) effectively implementing CSR programs in their business. She also looks at the measurement and appropriate promotion of CSR efforts.
As valuable as CSR is, it is not the panacea to all that ails companies – lousy products, overpriced services, poor branding, or inadequate customer segmentation – let alone all that ails the world. Similarly, I want to be clear that telling your story always holds an element of risk, although I would argue that the risk of telling your CSR story is likely significantly less than not telling your CSR story.
If you’re working in PR and your employer or client is making an investment in CSR (and I’m imagining that if they aren’t they are in the minority) then do yourself a favor and buy the book. How we manage and communicate CSR is becoming more important and if you’re not already thinking about it, your probably should be – regardless of your industry or location.
This is a subject I’ll come back to again…
The “power” of the PR embargo..
Posted by Tom Murphy in : Humour, Public Relations , 3 commentsFunny take on the effectiveness of the PR embargo (adult language warning)…
Pining for the Six Nations February 5, 2010
Posted by Tom Murphy in : Personal , 3 commentsThis time of year means one thing for me (and it doesn’t involve the weather), it’s Six Nations time.
This is the time of the year when the excitement starts to build. When thousands of Irish, English, French, Welsh, Scottish and Italians criss-cross Europe following their teams. When town centres are crammed with supporters, colour and excitement.
This year, for me at any rate, it means getting up an ungodly hour to support the boys in green – the (ahem) reigning Grand Slam champions (probably the last time in my life time I’ll be able to type that).
Aidan Cunningham from Edelman in Dublin was in touch on behalf of O2 regarding an interesting social media-related promotion they are running for the Six Nations: Be The Difference.
According to the press release:
O2 is giving supporters the unique opportunity to give their words of inspiration to the Irish team by recording a personalised ‘Team Talk’ that they would give to the players before they enter the pitch. All that supporters need to do to show their support is log on to www.bethedifference.ie to record or upload their video.
Before each home game during the RBS Six Nations the Irish players themselves will select their favourite video. The winning video will be played to the Irish team before the game and to the 80,000 people in Croke Park via the stadium’s big screens, ensuring that each winner can truly be the difference.
Any excuse for a Six Nations post.
C’mon Ireland 
PR Miscellany – January 31st 2010 January 31, 2010
Posted by Tom Murphy in : Humour, Media, Public Relations, Social Media , 1 comment so farSo you won’t be surprised to find out I’ve been a little behind on my RSS feed reading. It’s been busy recently.
Slipping through the (PR) feeds, it’s interesting to note that probably 90+% of “PR” posts are actually about social media. Now social media is clearly very important, but to me, the intersection of PR and social media or even business or marketing to social media is far more important.
So what interesting stuff is there this week – at the risk of drawing Valeria’s ire ?
First a surprise, for me at any rate. In the blogs I scanned there is very little commentary on the PR implications of Toyota’s U.S. recall, which I have to say is strange (though I admit I may just have missed some other blogs that did cover it). So kudos to Jon Harmon who has a number of posts covering the developing issue and the company’s response.
It’s amazing just how widely Edelman’s Trust Barometer is quoted in talks, blog posts and meetings. So we should mark the arrival of this year’s report by linking to Mr. Edelman himself I suppose.
Trust in business has stabilized and is trending upward, with a substantial jump of 18 points in the US (from an all-time low of 36% in 2009 to 54% in 2010). Trust in business falls into three categories (High-Brazil, China, India, Indonesia-at 60-70%; Middle-Canada, Japan, US-at 50-59%; Low-France, Germany, Russia, UK, Korea, -at 35-49%).
Interesting piece from TechCrunch, via Andy Lark, on a recent AOL PR snafu around the departure of the company’s chief technology office.. eh there but for the grace of god…
PR is not supposed to be fiction and spin. At least not all the time. Occasionally the communications professionals at companies, particularly publicly traded companies, are supposed to actually tell the truth. And perhaps help journalists and bloggers with a story instead of sending them off on a fake trail.
I am a firm believer that laughter is indeed the best medicine, so via Stuart Bruce, do watch Charlie Brooker illustrating how to report the news.
Valeria Maltoni has a very worthwhile post on developing a content strategy process for your blog. She also has a very interesting interview with Doc Searls revisiting the Cluetrain Manifesto a decade later.
It’s important to remember that Cluetrain in the first place was an expression of rebellion against marketing, and a declaration of liberation from it. Note the voice in "We are not seats or eyeballs or end users or consumers. We are human beings and our reach exceeds your grasp. Deal with it." We were not speaking there as marketers, or as "the audience," or as "consumers," but as ordinary people.
Finally, Morgan McLintic shares my view that we need to focus on making a difference. Speaking of which I have just added Seth Godin’s Linchpin to my reading list. I’m a fan of Mr. Godin’s constant challenge to people to think differently, but I think he’s come off the boil in his last couple of books so it’ll be interesting to see if this one hits the mark. (I have a hardback copy of the book, but if I was reading it electronically, that would be a Kindle before you ask, and I love my Kindle ).
Where’s your pride? January 30, 2010
Posted by Tom Murphy in : Personal, Public Relations , add a commentOn a cold Dublin day in 1985, the Irish rugby team were playing England at Lansdowne Road. The country’s rugby team has traditionally played with a lot of pride and passion, but never had the quality to trouble the world’s best teams on a consistent basis (I am delighted to report that the situation is a little different today). This day they had the opportunity to win the “Triple Crown” by beating the old enemy (well everyone’s old enemy ). It was a tough match and the English team clearly had the upper hand. In fact it was becoming apparent that once again Ireland would come so close, but fail and have to take some consolation in a moral victory.
As time ticked on, there was a break in the game, and the side’s captain, an army officer by the name of Ciaran Fitzgerald, turned to his tired, beaten team mates and roared at them words that have since become a national institution: “Where’s your f*****g pride?”. The words were caught on TV cameras around the ground and broadcast all over Europe.
It won’t be a surprise, given the title of this post, that his team rose to the occasion following his call to arms, drove down the field and a Michael Kiernan drop goal sent a success-starved nation into sporting euphoria.
Pride and passion (as opposed to Pride and Prejudice which is a different post entirely) are incredibly valuable assets in the sporting and business worlds. When I think of all the spokespeople I’ve worked with or observed, it’s those with pride in what they do, and a clear passion that stand out. You can’t fake passion (let’s refrain from the toilet humor now folks), it is addictive, it brings people on a journey.
Of course there are some downsides. People with real passion often go beyond their brief, but I’ll take that issue any day over someone droning on with no passion.
Working with passionate people is easy, and it’s enjoyable.
Back in December I wrote about the importance of loving (and having passion) for what you do:
It amazes me how many people hate their jobs. They dread the sound of their alarm clock. Well, they are clearly stronger than I, because I couldn’t do that. It’s a personal thing. I need to have a passion for what I do. There’s a nice quote I read recently from a Steve Jobs address to students at Stanford: “You’ve got to find what you love… If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle.” Spot on.
Passion gets you out of bed in the morning. Passion forces you to think about new and better ways to work and to get results. Passion makes you an incredible ambassador.
Are you passionate about what you do? If not, think about what you’re doing today and then think what you’d like to do – what are you passionate about?
There is nothing most depressing than working with people who have lost their passion.
If you’re working in Marketing or PR, re-capture your passion and get your colleagues passionate about what you are trying to achieve, the results will be worth the trip – and the alternative doesn’t bear thinking about.
Author aside: Please note that this entire post, which is related to PR, did not include one, single mention of social media….doh.
Update: Read Louis Gray’s post on a related subject.
The secrets of controlled media leaks… January 7, 2010
Posted by Tom Murphy in : Public Relations , 1 comment so farThere’s a lot of great content online. If you wade back into the mists of time (I’m probably talking about oh 2001) then there really was very little information to find on subject areas like PR (believe me I used to look for it).
But now we have the luxury of thousands of people actively blogging and twittering about PR and PR-related issues. This is fantastic.
Even when you consider quality-versus-volume, we’re still in a far far better place.
However, sometimes as I monitor what’s getting lots of Twitter love I just scratch my head and wonder.
The latest is this piece in MacObserver on How Apple Does Controlled Leaks (great headline) is a case in point. You think ‘wow, we’re going to get the inside track here from a former Apple marketing dude’. (Well I personally wouldn’t say dude but come with me.)
This is being re-tweeted ad infinitum, people are getting ever so excited.
To save you the 45 seconds it’ll take you to read it, let me summarize:
“They call a reporter and tell them the leak.”
My God, why didn’t we think about that before? How clever, insightful, strategic and crafty. So, they ring a reporter and tell them the leak. Fantastic.
I am now better equipped than ever to face the day.
Seriously, did everyone think they used to meet people in a dark corner of a parking garage? Did people think it was a mysterious envelope?
Really?
Seriously… dump that social media stuff and get back to work January 6, 2010
Posted by Tom Murphy in : Public Relations, Social Media , 5 commentsHappy New Year. I had a lovely time, thanks for asking.
I have spent far too much time over the past couple of weeks monitoring the online chatter. My god there’s a lot of noise.
I think I am having Social Media sweats. There are just so many articles, posts, rants and links. Now don’t get me wrong it’s great that people are sharing their views, and opinions and, in a very small number of cases even their experiences.
But really… there are only so many Social Media Top 10s, 10 things to avoid, 10 brands that…. you know… enough already.
Social Media is incredibly exciting, important etc.
We get it.
Seriously.
Enough with the colorful* graphs, bar charts and stock photography.
Honestly. If you don’t get the importance of the whole social media thing, then you are probably still faxing and spamming people with press releases and let’s be frank there’s little hope for you is there?
The reality however is that most of us aren’t paid a princely sum just for thinking about social media or antagonizing about the global impact of a new widget or phone. At least not me, if I missed that memo can you send me an e-mail or even a letter, please.
The reality is that we’ve got a day job and that day job requires us to think about mundane things like personal and professional objectives, managing our ever growing workload, understanding how our audiences are using social and unsocial media, how we can be more creative and how we can fundamentally change the way we write and think about communications. In summary we are focusing on how we can be more effective in communicating with people who matter to our clients or employers. People not tools, widgets or hardware.
Social media is important for all of us, but as my grandmother often said don’t forget the knitting, it’s cold out there.
At least that’s what I think she said.
*Yes I’ve migrated to US spelling full-time. I keep getting blank stares from my colleagues when I deliver pithy and if I say so myself, witty phrases that didn’t travel over the Atlantic, so US spelling reduces other risks.
Bloggers Note: Guest Posts
Posted by Tom Murphy in : Blogs , 1 comment so farGeneral note to all those people kindly sending me offers to write guest posts.
Unfortunately this blog only gets about 5 visitors a month (and that’s if I hit refresh a couple of times) so you’re probably better spending your time pitching and writing for a real blog like the Huffington Post or Engadget or something like that.
That approach has the upside that there’s a chance that someone other than you and me will read it.
Secondly, even if this blog did get visitors and I did take contributed posts, I’m not sure hands-on tutorials on scripting, or business transformation really float my boat, so to speak.
If the policy changes, I’ll let you know, don’t worry.
Thanks
PS: Thanks to everyone who keeps sending me random press releases. I read all of them, they are a constant source of solace in a sea of irrelevance.
PR in 2010: Coping with the Cacophony December 15, 2009
Posted by Tom Murphy in : GTD, He would say that, OneNote, Personal, Public Relations, Social Media, Technology , 4 commentsAs we approach the start of a new year, and indeed a new decade, the blogosphere will no doubt be overwhelmed by predictions and forecasts of various kinds concerning the future of traditional media, social media, PR, marketing etc.
So I thought I’d take a different tack.
I’m going to assume that we are indeed heading into another year of evolution and change. So if that’s a given, why not consider you. What will you do in the next year?
It’s December, it’s a great time to take stock, to review how you’re doing, and to preview where you’re going.
The world of work is changing; and I think that PR and marketing professionals face even greater challenges as we struggle to juggle our traditional work loads and responsibilities with new emerging channels, tools and relationships. So how will we cope with these challenges?
Now before I go any further, I would hate you to think that I’m living in some sort of personal Zen. I can assure you that I am not. However I have reached the conclusion that we must take responsibility for how we manage our personal and working lives. We need to actively think about how we not only cope with a broader set of responsibilities but how we succeed with them.
In short, I think 2010 is the year that you need to invest in you.
I’m not a personal development guru, but here I present 12 areas that I’ve been thinking about recently – for what it’s worth. (And there’s not one mention of unfollowing people on Twitter – that’s a promise.)
I would love to hear your views. What have I missed? What do you disagree with? Jump in with a comment or write your own post and let me know, I’ll add links here.
1. If you don’t know where you’re going.. I am sure there are many people in this world who are naturally ‘planful’. No doubt their work and personal lives revolve around a clear vision of short, medium and long-term objectives. I’m not one of them. However, I have been investing some time in thinking about my own priorities and my own objectives. What roles do I play in my personal and work lives? What objectives do I have? What changes do I want to make? Where do I want to go and how do I get there? Start small, map your roles and responsibilities and your aspirations, then review and review again.
2. Make time for your personal life… Do I need to write any more? If I do, then please refer to the beginning of this paragraph.
3. Love what you do.. It amazes me how many people hate their jobs. They dread the sound of their alarm clock. Well, they are clearly stronger than I, because I couldn’t do that. It’s a personal thing. I need to have a passion for what I do. There’s a nice quote I read recently from a Steve Jobs address to students at Stanford: “You’ve got to find what you love… If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle.” Spot on.
4. Get smart about your workload… You face an avalanche of work, commitments, e-mail, tweets, meetings, tasks and calls every day. Do yourself a favor, start thinking about how you can work smarter. There are some great approaches to more efficient personal workflow. Research them, try them, and give yourself some time back.
5. It’s OK to be a nerd… Related to getting a personal workflow is getting smart about how you use the tools you have. Investing some time in learning to use your PC and applications – as well as the tools and services available online – more effectively, is a good investment that will give you a huge return. Get searching.
6. Get Social.. I know this sounds really obvious, but social media is here to stay. Ignorance really isn’t an option. Many, if not most of our traditional tools and channels will remain important and relevant for the foreseeable future, but social media opens new opportunities to increase the effectiveness of your efforts. The fact you are reading this on a blog means you’re probably already there, however, keep current and get involved. See point #12.
7. Consume greedily.. Keep your brain active and challenged. Find time to read, find time to listen to podcasts, find time to talk to people. Expand your mind outside your area of expertise. Build it into your objectives. Creative ideas and approaches come from many sources and many of them are surprising. Bring your Zune or your Kindle to the gym or on the train. Make time.
8. Live a little… So as the quote goes, "If you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ve always got." We live in exciting times, take calculated risks, experiment, review it and measure the results. At worst it provides fantastic learning opportunities and at best will have a major impact on the effectiveness of your work.
9. Write proper…Isn’t it time we addressed the black and white elephant in the room? The advent of social media demands that we revisit how we communicate. Corporate speak is over-used and it no longer resonates with our audiences. We must change how we think about it, we must bring words to life and go back to telling stories. This is a long journey but one that is worth taking.
10. Where’s your vision… There’s a land grab underway in social media. Who owns it? Who drives it? Don’t be left behind, take control of your destiny. Be clear on your goals (and how they tie back to the business), your strategies and your tactics. Social media isn’t about starting a Twitter account it must be integrated across your business.
Remember the story about everybody, somebody, anybody and nobody?
This is a story about four people named Everybody, Somebody, Anybody, and Nobody. There was an important job to be done and Everybody was sure that Somebody would do it. Anybody could have done it, but Nobody did it. Somebody got angry about this, because it was Everybody’s job. Everybody thought Anybody could do it, but Nobody realized that Everybody wouldn’t do it. It ended up that Everybody blamed Somebody when Nobody did what Anybody could have done.
11. How big was it?… Don’t look at your shoes and cough. Measure your successes AND your failures. Review them. Learn. Go again. Be accountable.
12. Know your audience… Invest in getting a better insight into your audience. It will pay huge dividends. Don’t pay lip service to it, do it.
Last but certainly not least, enjoy it… remember this isn’t a dress rehearsal…
Author’s note:
When I was drafting this post, I happened upon a post I wrote around this time of the year back in 2007. It’s still relevant.