SmartPulse — our weekly nonscientific reader poll in SmartBrief on Sustainability — tracks feedback from more than 17,000 CSR leaders. We run the poll question each Wednesday in our e-newsletter. This week’s analysis is provided by Susan McPherson, senior vice president at Fenton.
Last week we asked: How does your company communicate its CSR strategy to its stakeholders (media, employees, shareholders, suppliers, customers, partners, board of directors, etc.)?
- Via annual CSR report, 29%
- Via company website, 25%
- Via e-mail, 8%
- Via corporate Intranet or wiki, 4.17%
- Via annual meeting, 4%
- Via social media, 0%
- All of the above, 29%
I was very much surprised to see that so few respondents use social media tools to engage and communicate with their stakeholders. Companies such as Microsoft, Intel, DuPont, Campbell Soup and Unilever are actively communicating, polling, researching and sharing information with their customers, employees and other stakeholders including the general public via Twitter. Thousands of companies have set up Facebook pages to keep their “fans” updated about cause programs, generate enthusiasm for new initiatives and link to news items and reports that could be found on their main corporate websites. For those who responded to this poll that they are not using the free tools that are now at our disposal, I highly recommend that you spend some time uncovering the benefits they offer. Your suppliers, employees, partners, shareholders and the media are all “playing” in this new medium. You are missing out if you don’t.