Twitter, transparency, and CSR
Twitter and other rapid social media have created a new paradigm in terms of corporate communication, response, and responsibility. These tools have the ability to show the emperor’s clothes of companies and are doing so. True Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and Sustainability leadership may help to guide and protect companies from the ravages of these new communication paradigms. They may in fact become the instruments of corporate success.
Transparency is paramount in truly sustainable and successful business ventures. Only when business are transparent can everyone involved trust each other. Business is fundamentally about degrees of trust. Sustainability is about integrity through corporate responsibility to the triple bottom line.
Twitter is double edged sword. It will just as soon lift you up as cut you down. It is currently the fastest news source out there. Not only is it fast, it is immediately unforgiving. This can have devastating effects. I think of the recent #amazonfail debacle with respect to Amazon.com’s accidental(?) reclassification of GLBT books. Clay Shirky‘s Mia Culpe “I got swept up in the mess” honest critique of the situation and how it happened is classic http://tinyurl.com/ctajxf.
The upside of twitter’s speed? Because of it’s nature of presenting things “right now,” old news (i.e. more than a couple of days) disappears. Try searching for things that occurred days, weeks, or months ago on Twitter. Good luck.
Another positive: If you have some great news, Twitter has an amazing ability to get that news out to lots of places really fast. If it is not interesting though, no one will retweet it.
I think it is imperative that corporations have communication / social media experts on their teams to watch for threats and opportunities presented by this new media. How quickly they respond to situations can make all the difference – In a twittered world 5 days is too long – over the weekend, in the case of Amazon is too long. Note that ad hoc, poor interactions by company leadership can be equally devastating. Good, clear, considered, and quick responses are called for.
Well thought out accountability and apologies can go far – take Jet Blue Airlines in Feb 2007 following a weather shutdown over Valentines day. While customers and media were yelling for explanations and reparations from the airline industry and the status quo message was – “We are not responsible for the weather.” Jet Blue issued a “Customer Bill of Rights” All airlines were affected. Only Jet Blue said – “We’re Sorry and here is what we are going to do about it.” Was it the MBA business-case response – no, far from it; it was an expensive thing to do. What it was however, was the right thing to do and that action won the hearts and minds and business of America. (Side note: In the twitterverse – the 6 day delay from event to Jet Blue’s apology is too long. Having said that – if it had been twittered it would have spread like wildfire!)
Only a truly embedded culture of sustainability and corporate responsibility is sustainable. If it is just show, jargon, the latest “values” trend, or marketing/consulting gimmick – It will fail. Remember, sustainability is about integrity (walking the talk). It is the load stone. Steer your company and communication toward it.
Copyright © 2009 Matthew Rochte, Opportunity Sustainability℠. Share with full attribution.
Matthew Rochte is an experienced, operations-based sustainability consultant working with company management to navigate and realize the opportunities in taking their company green, leading through corporate responsibility, and growing sustainably.
www.Opportunity Sustainability.com
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Matthew Rochte, LEED AP 
Hi Matthew, I m working on a strategic approach of social media in a sustainability and communication agency..
I mostly agree with the content of your blog and it gives really good examples and business case.
I would like to add that these new digital media have their own rules. They empower users and I think corporation should take part of it truly.
Reading about social media, marketing and PR, I can say that if you want to get result or impact you need to give to the community, get trust and participate. By that I mean open your brand, your corporation to scrutiny, critics and get involved. You need to be truly part of a community, have a clear focus and reason to be here, but don’t ask them anything, they will give back to you more than you can imagine ( feedback , networks , idea , opportunities , self-crowd monitoring )
I’m happy that my question on twitter was related to your blog article preparation.
Thank you Chaux,
The need for corporate interaction has been the discussion of smart business for decades and Fast Company magazine has a long history of highlighting this need.
I completely agree that corporations need to wake up to this consumer / public empowerment wave provided by social media. And having said the commitment to transparency, corporate responsibility, and sustainability must be more than skin deep (PR & marketing). This is why “Green-Washing” is such a big deal.
If a company isn’t walking the talk, green & sustainability are dangerous places to be talking. I was working with a client in California that wanted to launch a green/ sustainability campaign before ever doing anything green in their company. The backlash would have been intense and perhaps cripple the company. We worked on doing green/sustainability programs and believing in it before or while talking about it.
We also worked on bringing all the stakeholders (employees, customers, suppliers, neighbors, and management) to the table and be in discussion with them for ideas, inspiration, and focus group opinions.
Ben McConnell and Jackie Huba have written two books on the subject of community involvement in corporate success that you might be interested in. Citizen Marketers: When People are the Message (2007)” and Creating Customer Evangelists document the emerging world of social media and how brands should begin to embrace a participatory culture with customers and fans.
I read a fantastic book too , called wikinomic. they talk about a new economy of collaboration sharing where stakeholders are part of the value chain.
I recommand it to you. I think it s the new bread of business competitive advantage.
Concur – Wikinomics is excellent.
Currently enjoying Clay Shirky’s (mentioned in post) new book on the subject Here Comes Everybody.