Two things are true for businesses across the board: 1) corporate social responsibility (CSR) is a crucial part of bolstering your brand’s reputation (and more importantly, helping others is always the right thing to do), and 2) technology cannot be separate from effective marketing and promotion. No matter how good, inspiring, and noble your CSR activities are, it won’t matter if people don’t know about it or if your brand does not have a community that cares enough to know more and be involved. Here are some key ways you can leverage technology to promote your business’s CSC campaigns and activities.
Consider building an app for your CSR activities
If your company is serious about making CSR a key part of your brand identity, consider launching a separate platform for your campaigns and activities. One example is a mobile app community platform where your audience can touch base not just with your business but also with each other. The app can be the one-stop-shop where people can learn more about your brand’s advocacy and how you’re planning to reach your goals. At the same time, it can also be a place where like-minded individuals who care about the cause can gain more information about your mission and how they can extend help. Some example of the app’s content can include:
- Chat messaging where the brand representatives and customers or clients can build a connection and spend time talking about the CSR campaign and even about your brand’s products and services
- A place where they can book appointments to visit your business, or where they can shop some of your products
- Your brand’s own social media platform where you can post your own content
When building an app solely dedicated to CSR and your brand in general, the possibilities are endless because you’re not limited in what features you can incorporate.
Promote your CSR activities through various channels
Aside from building one central space like a website or mobile app, you also need to get the word out about your CSR activities through multiple channels. Thankfully, the biggest social media platforms in the world are free for businesses to use, and you only really need to invest in targeted ads and the like. Here are some tips for maximizing these free social media networks to spread the word about your CSR activities:
- Come up with a solid set of contents for your efforts and activities. You may have an app or a website and a good number of followers on your social media platforms, but these won’t matter if the press release, graphics, and copy are subpar. Make sure your content is engaging, simple, and accessible. Whenever possible, keep informing your audience about the progress of your activities and how they can take part. Your current and future audience need to know that your CSR activities are always operational and that they can send in their donations or volunteer at any time.
- Avoid using highfalutin words, and make sure the designs you use are excellent, eye-catching, and shareable. Keep inclusivity in mind, as well—you can include image descriptors for members of your audience who are blind. Captioning on videos is also important for your audience who are deaf or hard-of-hearing.
- Don’t just stop at your social media accounts—you also need to send out the pertinent information to external stakeholders like non-profit organizations, journalists, local authorities, and even politicians. Again, you can use various channels like reports, meetings, and newsletters.
Explore targeted ads
Targeted advertising, also known as tailored advertising in some circles, is how brands focus and prioritize a specific demographic—starting with their habits, behaviors, and contexts. For example, if you are looking for a specific customer or client to be part of your CSR activities, targeted ads may help you reach them.
In addition, tailored ads are known for reducing wasted resources on individuals who are more likely to be unreceptive or unresponsive to what brands are trying to promote and advertise. So if you are looking for the type of consumer that cares about your brand’s mission, targeted or tailored ads can help you find and engage them quicker than when you’re just using more traditional methods, like posting on your social media accounts and hoping your target demographic will find it.
If you truly want to boost your company’s CSR, technology and social media are tools you need to take advantage of. Get the word out about your activities by being strategic, and let your target audience come running.
