CorpComms Magazine

Social media and crowdsourcing play a vital role in helping companies to raise their profile and drive awareness of their corporate social responsibility programmes, according to a new survey of 200 companies by Weber Shandwick's Social Impact group.

More than four in ten companies (44 per cent) have used crowdsourcing to ask customers to offer ideas and assistance on how they should tackle issues and achieve their stated goals. 

The survey found that 95 per cent of companies who used crowdsourcing said it had proved invaluable in helping them to achieve CSR goals because it generated new ideas and view points, built relationships with new audiences and also brought a new dynamism and energy into the process.

More than half of those companies (55 per cent) who have yet to use crowdsourcing view the social media collaboration tool favourably, while 43 per cent believe it will ultimately prove valuable in their CSR efforts.

Social Impact co-founder Paul Massey said companies saw the value in crowdsourcing because 'it creates opportunities for immediate and direct dialogue with key audiences about CSR goals, strategies and impact'.

Seven out of ten companies use social media to communicate their CSR efforts, and 59 per cent believe this channel has had a positive impact on the quality of their communications.

Almost four out of ten companies claimed that social media offered the opportunity to reach out to diverse and broad audiences, while 29 per cent viewed it as a channel to communicate in a cost-efficient way.

Social media is viewed as an effective way of engaging with consumers and clients by a majority of companies. Almost seven out of ten (67 per cent) see Facebook as the most valuable social media channel, followed by blogs (60 per cent) and LinkedIn (58 per cent). Fewer than half (46 per cent) see Twitter as the best route to engage consumers and clients, while just 44 per cent believe location based services are the most efficient channel.

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