Corporate Social Responsibility & Social Media

With the advent of social media, brands have had to gain the consumers trust again. The floodgate of transparency drowning any hidden agenda a brand, organisation or politician might be nurturing has led to a shift in power.

This shift in power from brand to consumer means that social media has made CSR more prominent!

Facebook now boasts in excess of 800m users worldwide, Twitter has more than 200m users, LinkedIn has 64m (and growing), and 23% of all time spent online is on social networks. Brands are beginning to communicate their social responsibility initiatives more openly utilising these platforms.

If you want a demonstration of the power of social media to bring people together around real-world causes you only have to look back at the summer riots. According to Natalie Cowan from First Direct:

A disaffected youth came together through BBM to riot, but then residential communities across the country worked together to rebuild their communities - all organised and enabled through social media.
The latter was lauded as the ‘Big Society’ in action but as our CEO said in a Guardian piece last week, the ‘Big Society’ isn’t a new concept - it’s just a new phrase to describe good social leadership, and highlight what’s often already there."
Natalie Cowan, Head of Brand and Communications at first direct

Social Media has provided a great opportunity for companies, brands and all of the above to re-align their beliefs and start again. It has led us the age of accountability and can no longer go ignored.

Social Media Stats