By Kirsten Funk
Over the last year, Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and Environmental, Social, Governance (ESG) initiatives have been catapulted into the spotlight among both consumers and investors. Companies are being pressed to do more than just operate successful businesses. Regardless of the scale of your CSR or ESG campaign, social media is a critical tool to bring awareness to and inspire action among your target audiences.
With more than eight in 10 Americans consuming news from their digital devices, social media provides an accessible and efficient way for companies to put their CSR or ESG initiatives in the hands of their potential customer and investors. Here are four ways to effectively leverage social media as part of a strategic communications campaign surrounding CSR and ESG efforts and impact:
Focus on Storytelling
While CSR and ESG reporting focuses on benchmarks and statistics, storytelling tends to perform better on social media. Finding stories within your CSR and ESG initiatives can provide engaging social media content. Whether it’s a new environmental initiative started by one of your employees or a philanthropic donation by an executive or the company itself, your content will perform best on social media if you can bring the human element to the forefront with feel-good stories that illustrate what your initiative is all about.
Utilize Video
Video has proven to be the most engaging content type on social media, so we encourage incorporating video into your social strategy whenever you can. Some examples of video ideas that KWI has produced for our clients to showcase their CSR or ESG programs include:
- Interviews with executives sharing their thoughts on why CSR and ESG are important
- Spotlights of employees who are making a difference in the CSR/ESG space
- Short, animated explainer videos highlighting non-visual data points
Create a Toolkit for Employees
Your people are your greatest asset – in general, but especially when it comes to spreading the word about your CSR and ESG impact. Social media is the way people share and spread information, so get employees involved with your CSR and ESG communications and make it easy for them to want to talk about it. A simple toolkit with key messaging and social media best practices can go a long way in getting your employees engaged in what the company is doing. Also, use internal communications to showcase how the company is distributing CSR/ESG information on social to further encourage engagement and shares from employees.
Implement Social Media Advertising
Social media advertising is a cost-effective way to reach members of your target audience who don’t already follow you online. With the robust targeting capabilities of paid social media, you can target investors, potential customers, people interested in the same social causes your company focuses on and everything in between. Since organic reach on social media is not what it once was, incorporating some ad dollars in a strategic way can bolster your content’s reach and get more eyes on your CSR and ESG stories. Spend your dollars on content that performed well organically or content that is most important to your target audiences to get the most bang for your buck. The best paid content on social media is content that doesn’t look or feel like advertising – be authentic and incorporate storytelling in your content to best resonate with your audiences.
Interested in more ideas for taking your social media strategy to the next level? Our digital team specializes in tailoring strategies and proven tactics to meet your business goals. Or if you’re just getting started with your CSR or ESG initiatives, we can help you with your internal and external messaging to make the biggest impact. We would love to connect and share ideas. Drop us a line, or check out more of what we do at https://kwicomm.com/services/.
