Fast Facts: Crowdsourcing and Social Media in CSR

FAST FACTS:

Crowdsourcing and Social Media in CSR

What is the value and impact of crowdsourcing in corporate social responsibility (CSR)? How are social media tools shaping how companies engage consumers to provide ideas and help in decision-making on how to tackle issues and achieve goals? These questions are at the center of research the Weber Shandwick Social Impact team conducted with KRC Research in October 2010 to gain new insights into the challenges and opportunities facing companies in a changing CSR and communications landscape.

This fact sheet summarizes the key findings of our survey of more than 200 senior executives in large-sized companies with responsibility for philanthropy, social responsibility and community relations. It complements the findings our team issued in December 2010, which explored why corporations invest in CSR today, the role of nonprofit partners in CSR, and key success factors and lessons learned from recent efforts.

What we found is that a sizable percentage of companies we interviewed have used crowdsourcing and are actively using social media to communicate about CSR programs. Results revealed that social media has proven to be an effective means to engage diverse audiences and identify new perspectives, and has had a positive impact on reaching key stakeholders. Interestingly, we also saw strong support for the idea that integrated communications programs combining social media, community events, executive visibility and earned media continue to be critical to building awareness and engagement for CSR efforts.

To learn more, visit our Social Impact blog at: impact.webershandwick.com

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METHODOLOGY KRC Research surveyed 216 executives in Fortune 2000 companies who have responsibility for philanthropic, social responsibility or community outreach within their organizations. The survey was conducted via phone between October 6 and October 22, 2010. The margin of error is +/- 6.8 percentage points at the 95 percent confidence level.

ABOUT WEBER SHANDWICK SOCIAL IMPACT Weber Shandwick’s Social Impact practice builds insight-driven communications programs to drive engagement on pressing social issues. We partner with corporations, nonprofits and foundations to develop strategic platforms and campaigns that reach key audiences with resonant and actionable messages on corporate social responsibility (CSR) and issues spanning global development, education, sustainability, human rights and more.

We are story tellers, content creators and advocates. The team combines the strength of Weber Shandwick’s public affairs, corporate, consumer and digital practices.

FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT: PAUL MASSEY, 202.585.2799 pmassey@webershandwick.com STEPHANIE BLUMA, 202.585.2755 sbluma@webershandwick.com COLIN MOFFETT, 202.585.2045 cmoffett@webershandwick.com VICTORIA SNEED, 202.585.2814 vsneed@webershandwick.com JONATHAN BENTLEY, 202.585.2732 jbentley@krcresearch.com

Corporate executives see the value of crowdsourcing in CSR efforts.

A sizable 44% of executives say their companies have used crowdsourcing to engage stakeholders around CSR programs.

• An overwhelming majority (95%) of executives who have used crowdsourcing found it valuable.

• T he top reasons executives find crowdsourcing valuable are that it surfaces new perspectives and diverse opinions (36%), and builds engagements and relationships with key audiences (25%).

• I nterestingly, among those who have not yet used crowdsourcing, 43 percent anticipate that crowdsourcing could be valuable to their future CSR efforts.

IMPLICATION: Crowdsourcing is an effective means to identify new perspectives and build relationships with key audiences and should be explored as a means of engaging stakeholders around CSR efforts.

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Social media is widely used in driving CSR initiatives.

Social media has become an important part of the mix when considering which channels to use to communicate CSR efforts.

• M ost (72%) executives say that social media has been used to communicate about their organization’s CSR efforts.

• Nearly 60 percent say social media has a positive impact on the quality of their communications with consumers.

IMPLICATION: Given the positive impact of social media, these channels should be strategic priorities for communicating CSR efforts to stakeholders.

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Social media tools engage stakeholders and expand the reach of CSR efforts.

Executives believe the primary value of using social media tools to communicate around CSR programs is that they create opportunities for companies to reach broad and diverse audiences (38%).

• A dditional benefits cited by executives include allowing companies to connect directly with consumers in low-cost, efficient ways (29%) and enabling companies to engage specific constituencies with greater ease (11%).

• O f those who use social media tools, Facebook (67%) was named as the most valuable tool in engaging consumers around a company’s CSR followed by blogs (60%), LinkedIn (58%), Twitter (46%) and FourSquare (44%).

IMPLICATION: CSR programs are likely to be increasingly characterized by creative efforts to engage consumers across social channels, given their demonstrated value.

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Companies see greater value from integrated CSR communications programs.

Although 71% of executives say social media is an important communication channel to raise awareness of CSR programs, they continue to see the value of other communications priorities as well.

• E xecutives cite community events (85%), executive outreach (75%), and earned media (70%) as priorities for raising awareness of CSR. • W hen it comes to driving engagement with CSR, 83 percent of executives cite community events, 74 percent executive outreach and 69 percent earned media.

IMPLICATION: Integrated communications matter – and those companies that develop strategic programs featuring social media, earned media, events and executive visibility stand a better chance of getting their messages heard. strategy.

I M P A C T. W E B E R S H A N D W I C K . C O M

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