I just read an interesting article about badvocates. I love seeing how the concept of badvocacy has grown over the years. Weber Shandwick invented the term and it has taken off. The article was on Mashable and one of the pieces of advice on dealing with badvocates was particularly compelling. I thought I would include here in case you are ever in danger of facing a badvocacy firestorm. [Another option is to review Weber Shandwick's book on badvocacy.]
The article quoted a woman who handled the Intuit Small Business community. She told the author that engaging and displaying human avatars changed sentiment from 65% negative towards QuickBooks to only 35% negative. “My avatar was always a picture of one of my children and me during that time. I regularly told folks that it was easy to say ‘f**k you’ to Intuit the brand, but really hard to swear at the mommy and the baby. Especially when the mommy was helping,” she said.
Pick out your avatar today.
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Tags: Badvocacy, Badvocates, Good Book of Badvocacy, Intuit, Mashable, Weber Shandwick
The University of Arizona announced today Monday that it is forming an institute on Civility. The honorary chairmen of the National Institute for Civil Discourse will be former Presidents’ Bill Clinton and George W Bush. The director said they “would focus on political disagreements from the grass roots all the way to the top.”
Civility has been part of the conversation in the US after the horrific shootings in Arizona that killed six people and injured 13 others, including a Democrat representative Gabriella Giffords. Our nation’s political discourse became the hot button because of its mounting incendiary tone on Capitol Hill, on the airwaves, in our schools and in our media, online and offline.
Our research last spring on Civility in America was perfectly timed and captured the declining level of discouse that was gaining speed in many of our institutions and across the nation. The Institute is a smart idea for re-setting the tone and galvanizing advocates to support better interaction.
Tags: Civility in America, Institute for Civility
Wanted to update everyone on some interesting research on advocacy we recently did on how social media can be employed to further corporate responsibility. We (KRC Research and the Social Impact team at Weber Shandwick) found that crowdsourcing plays a vital role in helping companies drive engagement for their corporate social responsibility (CSR) programs. Wikipedia describes crowdsourcing as an “open call to an undefined group of people…to solve complex problems and contribute with the most relevant and fresh ideas.” The survey was conducted among corporate executives in large-sized companies with responsibility for philanthropic, social responsibility or community relations. They are advocates themselves because these jobs require strong conviction about what is important and what is the right thing to do to meet corporate business goals.
The research found that a sizable 44% of companies have used crowdsourcing. In addition, an overwhelming majority (95%) of those who have used crowdsourcing found it invaluable to the organization’s pro-social or CSR efforts.
What particularly stood out for me was the reasons why these advocating executives say crowdsourcing is valuable for CSR programming. They said that it surfaces new perspectives and diverse opinions (36%), builds engagement and relationships with key audiences (25%), invites clients and customers from nontraditional sources to contribute ideas and opinions (22%) and it brings new energy into the process of generating ideas and content (16%).
The latter is particularly important to all advocacy programs — igniting the process by energizing people. It seems that the “energy” component is what really makes the difference so I was glad to see it among the top reasons mentioned why crowdsourcing helps drive corporate CSR. Where would advocacy be without advocates’ energy to mobilize these efforts to build a better planet? It should be at the heart of all corporate efforts. The question is how to find that energy and capitalize on it. How do you ignite it to drive mobilization? Energizing people is an important ingredient of true advocacy and worth deeper thought. Maybe a good topic in itself for crowdsourcing. Hmmmm.
Tags: advocates, crowdsourcing, CSR, KRC Research, Social Impact, Weber Shandwick
An interesting article surfaced last week on a wholly new corporate position — Chief Good Officers (CGOs). The article mentioned our recent research on the impact of crowdsoucing on corporate social responsibility. The CGO would be the newest evolution of the CSR Officer. The idea is that this person would straddle the CSR position with marketing/advertising that aims to attract customers. The CGO would create “brand purpose” and drive action to the company’s causes by bringing them to life. “This is the chef who blends financial and social bottom lines into a tasty dish that is as engaging as it is impactful for consumers.” I think that the CGO is an alternative version of the CAO–the chief advocacy officer. So be it.
Tags: CGO, CSR, Social Impact, Weber Shandwick
