LONDON, EC1 – I attended a fairly interesting conference today looking the use of Social Media in the field of stakeholder engagement. CSR was a primary starting point. Social media, quite rightly, wasn’t the sole focus.
The discussion about high profile CSR failures is always of interest. The Tesco example above, which I’d not seen before, is rather good. ie. buy energy efficient light globes (reduce carbon footprint) to earn airmiles (increasing carbon emissions). This is what happens when you put the sustainbility message in the hands of marketers.
I particularly liked the Nike video below. A nice example of collaboration between companies and “AdHocracies” (groups that form to attach meaning to serious issues).
Some great speakers overall. The grandees of the UK’s social media scene were certainly present (the Dells, the Shells, SAP etc). The initiatives presented were all decent and well thought out – but it was the non-corporate input that ignited the room.
The talk with Dan McQuillan from Social Innovation Camp had a stand out quality. Dan provided a non-corporate and non-consultant perspective that was desparately needed today. His jovial and quasi-socialist point of view (‘at first do no harm’ / “its not about companies… its about issues… we need to socialise solutions to the problems… its about overall impact on the world”) provided the room with tangible goals.
In the world of vaguely defined terms such as ‘stakeholders’, ‘sustainability’ and ‘engagement’ some moral benchmarks are very much needed.
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