CSIC research fellow Tracey Wright interviews 12 DC-area small businesses to explore how they use social media to communicate their socially responsible business practices to their stakeholders.

1. CSR, SMEs and Social Media
A Report from the Front Lines
Tracey Wright, Research Fellow
Center for Social Impact Communication
Georgetown University
April 2012

2. COMMUNICATING CSR IN SMEs
While much has been debated and written about corporate social responsibility (CSR) among
large companies, the question of how and why small and medium enterprises (SMEs) engage in
socially responsible practices is not well documented. Looking for trends in motivation and
implementation, CSIC fellow Tracey Wright spoke directly with local business leaders in the
Greater DC region (including suburbs in Maryland and Northern Virginia).
Her primary research also delves into how SMEs communicate their CSR efforts. Are they
telling their own stories? What channels are they using and how well are the messages
reaching targeted audiences? Can social media provide a low-cost breakthrough
communications tool to help SMEs tell their story? The interview responses show that while
small business leaders can be clear on their company values and ability to make local change,
they are often less sure of how to communicate about CSR in an authentic way, and how best
to use new media tools for the greatest reach.
Interviews with thought leaders in CSR and social media offer tips that can assist smaller
organizations in giving a voice to their values. Further, these experts challenge SMEs to take
CSR from something that’s “the right thing to do” to the next level – a strategic approach that
aligns business goals with social initiatives in a way that strengthens the community, enhances
their brand and positively impacts the bottom line.
METHODOLOGY
The following report is based on first-person accounts from business leaders as well as
descriptions of best practices from experts in the fields of CSR and social media. This is a small
sampling of Washington, DC region SMEs active in their communities. An emphasis was
placed on speaking with businesses that are known for having a well-defined set of company
values and award-winning approaches to workplace excellence, sustainability and CSR. The
businesses have between 10 and 300 employees, falling within the definition of SME set by the
U.S. federal government’s Small Business Administration. A standard set of questions was
used to elicit comparable responses from each. (See Appendix) Additional questions naturally
came up in the course of interviews.
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3. TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................................................3
Key Interview Findings ..............................................................................................................................3
SECTION I CSR & SMEs ...........................................................................................................................5
Local Focus, Authenticity Required ..........................................................................................................5
Company Snapshot - Soupergirl ...........................................................................................................9
Millennials Matter…………………………………………………………………………………….................10
Company Snapshot – Reznick Group……………………………………………………………………...10
SECTION II CSR COMMUNICATIONS………………………………………………………………………..12
Reluctant Communicators………………………………………………………………………………………12
Be Aligned & Authentic - What Big Business Can Teach Small…………...…....…………………………13
Company Snapshot – Potomac Pizza……………………………………………………………………..15
Company Snapshot – Chaney Enterprises………………………………………………………………..16
SECTION III CSR & SOCIAL MEDIA…………………………………………………………………………..17
Social Media Reach & Rules Unclear…………………………………………………………………………17
Time is Biggest Downside………………………………………………………………………………….…..20
5 Social Media Lessons Learned………………………………………………………………………………21
Company Snapshot – Aronson LLC………………………………………………………………………..22
How to Do Social Media Right – Advice from an Expert…………………………………………………….23
Company Snapshot – Honest Tea………………………………………………………………………….25
Company Snapshot – Virginia Spine Institute……………………………………………………………..27
CONCLUSION.……………………………………………………………………………………………………..28
APPENDIX………………………………………………..…………………………………………………………30
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4. INTRODUCTION
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has transitioned from a feel-good to a must-do part of
business. Study after study shows that not only are consumers more likely to support
businesses that practice CSR, they expect it. For example, 86 percent of global consumers
believe that business needs to place at least equal weight on the interests of society as on
those of business, according to the 2010 Edelman goodpurpose Study which surveyed 7,000
consumers in 13 countries.i
Long gone are the days when a company’s sole responsibility was to earn profit for
shareholders. Now companies large and small recognize they must also earn the respect and
support of the public through responsible business practices and an investment in the
community.
Major corporations such as General Mills, Gap, Nike, Wal-Mart and Cisco Systems devote
sizeable budget and employee hours to creating and reporting on CSR initiatives. Is CSR then,
only the domain of large companies with big advertising budgets or those that can meet the
United Nations Global Compact’s 10 Principles? Is it too complicated or expensive for small
and medium enterprises?
KEY INTERVIEW FINDINGS
This research asked small business leaders how they define CSR, whether they communicate
about CSR initiatives, and whether they use social media to do so. Their responses highlight a
number of key issues:
• Local Focus These business leaders say no matter a company’s size, they can make a
difference. Being “hyper-local” creates immediate and lasting impact.
• Authenticity Required The companies interviewed here make a distinction between
CSR as a box that gets ticked off and CSR that is ingrained in the value system of the
business. Some have crystallized those values and added activities after many
years. Other business owners have made a conscious decision to run their companies
in a sustainable or socially responsible way from the beginning.
• Millennials Matter A generational shift is changing both consumer and employee
expectations. This drives community engagement and the role of CSR in recruitment.
• CSR Strategy/Communications Lacking Experts interviewed say CSR should be
strategic to create the most benefit for all, and that it’s not only okay, but necessary for
businesses to spread the word about what they’re doing. Many of these business
leaders however, are still hesitant to "toot their own horns" and express difficulties
deciding when and how much to communicate.
• Social Media Emerging All companies agree that social media is a
necessary communications tool in their arsenals, however they are at different stages of
adoption. Some companies routinely use social media in CSR communications, while
others are not pushing it out there, relying instead on stakeholders reading the
information on their web sites.
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5. • Social Reach and Rules Unclear The companies share a lack of strategic planning in
their social media communications. Even those that use it more frequently do so in an
almost experimental fashion, and see how it goes. Those companies that are new to
social media express confusion about what combination of tools to use and how to
measure success.
• Time Is Biggest Downside Participants have been surprised by the investment of time
needed to post, monitor and reply in social media spaces, as well as the length of time
that it takes to create relationships that result in meaningful audience engagement.
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6. Section 1: CSR & SMEs | What does CSR look like in a small business?
>> GO LOCAL FOR MAXIMUM IMPACT
CSR for SMEs is not about meeting international standards or writing glossy sustainability
reports. It IS about creating what I’ll call “hyper-local” benefit - improving the communities
where employees and customers live and work. It’s about getting those same people involved
to make small changes that add up to something bigger. It’s about creating relationships and
building teams - with the community and within the business. It’s about meeting a generational
shift, satisfying a need in the younger generation of workers to not just go to work, but to make a
difference.
Anecdotal evidence from this project and large surveys show that for many small- and medium-
sized businesses in the United States, CSR remains centered on philanthropy: donations of
money directly to an organization, employee volunteerism or lending of services.ii There’s a
focus on the social and economic pillars of the triple bottom line. For many SMEs,
“sustainability” is about helping individuals and organizations thrive in the long term.
>> SIZE DOESN’T MATTER
Whether a company’s “community” reaches around the world or
around the block, it is sure to have social problems that need to be
addressed. A crime-ridden downtown in need of revitalization? A
health problem affecting a segment of the population? “The impetus
for being involved might be the same. It’s to make things better,”
says Catherine Taylor Keller, Director of Communications &
Outreach at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Business Civic
Leadership Center (BCLC).
In her six years at the BCLC Taylor Keller has seen companies
large and small increasingly recognize CSR as a legitimate way of
doing business. Where companies once questioned, “Why are we
being asked to get involved with something like the quality of public
education or why are we being asked to address the HIV situation in
the communities where we work,” business leaders now tell her they “The smartest, most
recognize an opportunity to shape communities and gain a innovative companies
competitive edge. “The smartest, most innovative companies have have stepped up
stepped up grandly and said, “We can tackle this and it makes grandly and said, “We
sense to tackle it.”
can tackle this and it
The businesses profiled in this research have been publicly makes sense to tackle
recognized for their involvement in the local community and for their it.”
values-driven approach. These company leaders uniformly feel that - Catherine Taylor Keller
they’re part of a larger picture and when they see a problem they BCLC
CAN do something about it.
“My eyes started opening and I realized I was no longer an individual,” says Matt Hodgson,
president and CEO of web development and technology firm Hodgson Consulting. “We are a
collective group of people. We’re a company with a little more power. If we want to do
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7. something we have money – more than I do in my personal bank account. We have people –
more than I do in my family.”
Hodgson says he was astounded to learn about the poverty rate in the Washington, DC suburb
of Montgomery County, one of the nation’s most affluent regions. The company has since
taught adult computer literacy classes, lends web expertise to local non-profits, makes bag
lunches for the homeless and helps out with manual labor at a local charity when needed. “I’m
in a fortunate position where my business does well and I can fulfill a need,” he says.
For the team at the Virginia Spine Institute, CSR links the corporate for-profit and the non-profit
worlds. “They are two very distinct groups and I think in order for societies to thrive and for
people in communities to thrive, you need to bridge that gap,” says Marketing Director Erin
Orr. While the Institute has a planned calendar of CSR activities, Orr says employees feel
empowered to create new initiatives. “It’s that “lethal generosity” that they talk about –
unleashing our corporate super-powers for good.”
Both companies started small without a defined set of values, but as they grew they began to
crave a higher purpose and could envision the impact they could make locally. They developed
mission and values statements that now guide both business and CSR.
>> KEY FINDING – AUTHENTICITY REQUIRED
The push to embrace CSR has never been greater, but the SMEs interviewed for this project
agree that authenticity is paramount. CSR without a heart is an empty gesture, so profit cannot
be the sole motivator.
“There is nothing that is more quickly discovered as disingenuous than false philanthropy,” says
Barbara Mullenex of Washington, DC design firm OPX. “There are things we do for profit and
there are things we do not for profit, but you can’t have one set of values for your business and
one set of values for your CSR.”
In 2005 OPX overhauled its traditional design firm
approach to explicitly focus on sustainability – in the
materials and design choices it makes for clients, in
the way it treats employees and the community
projects it takes on. The firm created an employee-
led initiative for its 25th anniversary in 2008 called
OPX Magic. Their goal was to organize and complete
25 community service projects that year, but they
actually completed 37. OPX Magic now uses an
online portal through the Catalogue for Philanthropy
DC, which allows employees to choose from hundreds
of local charities they want to help, then plan, track
and communicate about projects. OPX features the
portal in a special Community section of its website.
At accounting and consulting firm Aronson LLC, a desire to invest in the community led to the
creation of the Aronson Foundation. It grants contributions from company employees and
officers to charities working on children’s and other community causes. Since 2004 the
foundation has awarded $775,000.
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8. “I want this firm to be seen as more than just accountants who sift through,
collect data, analyze numbers and try to realize as much profit as
possible. These are humans, people with families and lives, who are also
directly integrated into the community,” says Stephen White, Vice President,
Operations.
Repeatedly named a top local and national accounting firm, Aronson LLC has
also been recognized among Washington’s best places to work for creating a
positive environment. “We have the foundation but we also have a structure
internally where employees can give back time, between one and five per cent
of an individual’s time can be given back to the community.”
>> SMEs FOUNDED ON A MISSION
While some companies have embraced CSR along the way, for
others the mission started on day one. BetterWorld Telecom is
one of those businesses. The national telecom carrier
headquartered in Reston, VA focuses on serving companies and
non-profits that support social justice and sustainability.
BetterWorld was founded in 2003 with a triple bottom line
mission. It provides phone and internet services at a lower price than leading carriers, while
donating three per cent of revenues to causes that benefit children, education, environment and
fair trade. Its virtual office keeps employees connected across the country with minimal
environmental impact, and BetterWorld gives them at least two days a month to volunteer with
local organizations.
Certified as a For Benefit company by B Corporation, BetterWorld
also provides clients solutions to lower their footprints by using less “We strive very much
energy. “Both through the work that we’re doing and the way that to have honest
we’re running our company, it’s to be an alternative to a giant,
faceless telecom company,” says Social Media Manager Salem
communications and
Kimble. “This is very much a conscious step away from that world be very authentic.
to something that has more meaning and operates with higher Instead of shying
principles.” away and just talking
about it on the
peripheral we’ve really
Going against the norm was certainly a
driving force behind little guy-turned big said, we know this is
company Honest Tea. With the our problem and
beverage market then dominated by we’re not happy
soda and other sweetened drinks, founders Seth Goldman and about it. This is how
Barry Nalebuff set out to create an entirely different sector:
we’re trying to work
unsweetened, whole leaf and organic. Since its start in 1998, the
company has become one of the most profitable and recognized to get to a better
sustainable businesses in America, with sales over $70 million in result.”
2010. It was purchased by Coca Cola in March 2011 and now - Kelly Cardamone,
operates as an independent subsidiary that still only employs Honest Tea
around 120 people.
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9. How did Honest Tea grow from Goldman’s Bethesda, MD kitchen to national symbol of
sustainability? By focusing on CSR from the beginning and weaving it through every aspect of
the business, including: sourcing organic and fair trade ingredients, reducing the use of plastic
and paper in its containers, creating ground-breaking national recycling programs, and
partnering with numerous national and local nonprofits to work on issues such as the
environment, education, breast cancer and small business development.
“There’s this little company that was paving the way for beverages and food. That’s really how
we see ourselves,” says Kelly Cardamone, Special-tea Projects Manager. “When you can prove
that this model works, the bigger companies take notice and if they can start also shifting toward
healthier options then you’ve created this change.”
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10. COMPANY SNAPSHOT: SOUPERGIRL
Serving Up CSR, One Bowl at a Time
Entrepreneur Sarah Polon has a mission to change the world one local
business at a time. An “aha moment” propelled her into a new career
focused on local sustainability. After reading Michael Pollan’s “The
Omnivore’s Dilemma,” she donned her new identity of “Soupergirl,”
creating a home delivery soup business. “I didn’t want to start
necessarily a company. What I wanted to do is be part of the local food
movement,” says Polon.
Three years and hundreds of recipes after cooking up the first pot of
soup with her mother, the duo have expanded beyond the delivery
service with a large retail space staffed by 12 employees who serve
hundreds of customers a day. The way her business has taken off has
convinced Polon, “You can start a profitable, yet responsible company.”
Polon uses only ingredients grown on local farms. Her soups are all
vegan, and without dairy and meat have a light environmental
footprint. She composts, has outfitted her new retail location with
furniture made from recycled materials, and uses recyclable
containers. “Those containers cost double what regular ones do
and I could get my produce for a quarter the price (elsewhere), but
in the long run if people are focused on health and responsibility, I
think it will come back in terms of financial standing, respect of the
community and karma.”
With sustainability a core value, CSR is woven into Polon’s mission
and every bowl of soup she serves. She tries to keep the tone light
though, with humorous messaging on the web site where customers
make orders. “The green movement can sometimes feel really “We can change our
serious, which it should be because we’ve got this serious community one
subject. But, “sometimes people don’t want to be eating a business at a time,
mission. So we have fun with our message.”
not only one person or
Polon also looks for other ways to engage locally, giving to causes one nonprofit.
and local charity auctions, donating excess soup to local non-profit Businesses can really
Martha’s Table and hiring employees from DC Central Kitchen, change the way the
which helps people get back on their feet. world works.”
- Sarah Polon, Owner
“I’m worried about the state of the world and it’s very hard to fathom Soupergirl
changing the world, but you can fathom changing your
neighborhood, your community,” says Polon. “That’s how you make
a change on a local level. And if enough people focus on the local level it will turn global.”
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11. >> KEY FINDING – MILLENNIALS MATTER | Tracking the generational shift
The passion for being part of change that drives young entrepreneurs like Sarah Polon is a
signal to SMEs: the new generation of workers wants more than just a job. In a Pew Research
survey of 1,800 people age 13-25, 80 per cent said they want to work for a company that cares
about how it impacts society.iii
Company leaders interviewed here say their young employees see work as just one part of the
24-hour continuum of their day, and any hour is an opportunity to make a
difference. Businesses that don’t incorporate sustainability into their culture will lose out on top
talent.
COMPANY SNAPSHOT: REZNICK GROUP
CSR drives Millennial recruiting
Accounting firm Reznick Group is using CSR in its strategy
to recruit the best young students to its firm. It has a special
“In the Community” tab in its online Careers section and
company brochure. The firm markets its long history of
working in the area of low income housing tax credits and
the certification of its Bethesda, MD office as a Green
Business, for reducing waste, recycling and lowering its
energy footprint.
In an appeal to the YouTube generation, Reznick makes significant use of video. The Careers
section features two videos, one explaining the company’s green certification and another
describing its Pay It Forward program, which gives each employee a small “something extra”
every December to donate to a charity of their choice. The video features young employees
describing the numerous types of causes that have benefitted.
Video is also used heavily on Reznick’s Facebook page. Nine videos showcase the real-people
impact of the firm’s work in facilitating funds through its New Markets Tax Credit Program. The
stories range from rebuilding New Orlean’s Lower 9th Ward, to creating a California facility for
the disabled, and revitalizing a Baltimore neighborhood.
“It’s something from a recruiting point of view that’s taken on more importance,” says Rachel
Platt, Human Resources Director. “That engagement that people have where they feel like
they’re part of something bigger is a big part of people overall feeling proud of the company they
work for and we hear that from people.”
Alongside the paid time off and 401k plan, Reznick lists “extensive charitable and community
involvement” among the Perks and Benefits. It describes office-wide community events where
employees spend the day on service initiatives.
We have a very young work force so people get excited from doing these things,” says Karrie
Goldstein, Reznick’s College Recruiting Manager. “People do want to be involved. They want
to do more than just their job every day, because if all they’re doing is coming and doing their
job for eight or ten hours a day, they’re not going to be here for long.”
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12. Reznick’s Facebook page features videos on the company’s community involvement.
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13. Section II: CSR Communications | Bragging, or building relationships?
>> RELUCTANT COMMUNICATORS
This anecdotal survey revealed a uniform commitment among companies to making community
change. There was less agreement, however, on whether and how to communicate about
CSR. When does it go beyond building relationships and amount to nothing more than
bragging?
“You’ve put your finger on the thing we’re probably missing the most and it’s the hardest thing to
market,” says Adam Greenberg, president and founder of Restaurant Zone which manages
Potomac Pizza locations in four DC-area suburbs. “You know, someone wins first place at the
race – are they going to run around and tell everyone they got first place?”
A reluctance to tell their CSR story is common among SMEs says Catherine Taylor Keller of the
BCLC. “We’ve found that companies of all sizes will not want to toot their own horns.”
Interestingly the businesses interviewed here all report feedback from vendors, clients and
customers who say they value their community involvement. Yet several communicate mostly
internally about CSR or make it public only by putting information on a company website, which
requires action by stakeholders to find it.
The Case AGAINST Communicating
Design firm OPX is very explicit about its values statement but does not “go out there and bang
the drum” about CSR on a regular basis. “I’m not really sure I want to,” comments owner
Barbara Mullenex, saying her personal desire to make a difference is not something that should
be exploited.
Mullenex relates a recent example of “quiet” caring. After the September 2011 earthquake in
Japan the firm gave a Japanese employee time off to go home and help. They sent with him a
traditional Japanese symbol of hope – origami cranes. “During the day and in the evenings at
home, this group of people folded a thousand cranes. It was kind of a quiet way for us to
individually tell him that...how he was feeling about this was important to us.”
Mullenex is a founding member of Companies for Causes, which brings together values-driven
companies to partner on philanthropic efforts. In discussions about communication the Cause
members have asked, “Shouldn’t we tell people we’re going to do X, Y and Z? And I think the
group is like, ‘No, let’s just go do X, Y and Z and then we can tell people about it.”
Mullenex says she wants people to know about the values at OPX but she worries that pushing
information out will lead stakeholders to question the company’s motives. “We want people to
know that we’re not doing it because it’s like paying your taxes, something you have to do. It’s
more important than that.”
The Case FOR Communicating
As president of Montgomery County’s Corporate Volunteer Council, Matt Hodgson of Hodgson
Consulting sees many companies who are doing good works but don’t want to talk about it. He
respects their decision, but doesn’t agree with it.
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14. “I think a lot of companies start by thinking, ‘I’m going to go
out and do some work. They don’t tell anyone about it.
They don’t get any recognition for it. They get cranky and
they stop doing it. I’ve seen that happen.”
Hodgson says being exposed to community need has convinced him one of the best ways to
help is to spread the word among vendors and clients with greater resources. “I want them to
know about it because I want them to know they’re engaged with a company that believes in
this stuff. I also want them to know because they’re in a position to do a lot more than me.”
Extending the reach of small business CSR is not only a good idea but a responsibility,
according to Nancy Goldbranson, Practice Administrator at the Virginia Spine Institute. The
Reston, VA private healthcare center collaborates with two CSR partners - the national Spinal
Research Foundation which it raises money for in an annual 5K race, and local nonprofit Reston
Interfaith, which it supports through ongoing drives for food, backpacks and other donations.
“You have a responsibility to communicate what you’re doing so that other people know it’s out
there and want to emulate your organization in a good way,” says Goldbranson. “It’s like the
rock you drop in a pond. If someone else hears about what you’re doing and it taps into them
and it just starts to spread, you have more people doing more good for the less fortunate or for
people in need.”
>> WHAT BIG BUSINESS CAN TEACH SMALL
Aligned and Authentic
Clearly, talking about CSR can potentially extend the impact of good work, inspire employees,
attract recruits and generate new business. But some SMEs remain stumped about how to
communicate in an authentic way that doesn’t offend a cynical public.
CSR expert Jonathan Yohannan says while it may seem counter-intuitive for SMEs nervous
about seeming inauthentic to focus on their brands, in fact it’s the very thing they need to do.
The biggest CSR mistake by business? “Focusing on the social side, the philanthropy and
cause, and not talking about the business,” says Yohannan, Senior Vice President and acting
head of CSR at Cone Communications.
Yohannan has worked with large companies such as General Mills, Starbucks, Nestle,
CVS/Caremark and Timberland. He says some of the most successful CSR programs are by
companies that integrate the corporate responsibility message into the brand, “giving people a
reason to believe.”
Yohannan points to the strong following among college students enjoyed by Toms Shoes, which
donates one pair of new shoes to a child in need for every pair purchased. Since it was
launched in 2006, the company has given away more than a million pairs of shoes to children
around the world.
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15. He also advises Sambazon, which markets acai berry products in ALIGNED AND
grocery stores and juice bars across the United States. Sambazon AUTHENTIC
works with non-governmental organizations in Brazil to promote 3 Things SMEs
sustainable forest practices. Guaranteeing a long-term supply of Should Know
acai fruit is good for the business, but it also gives low-income
communities an economic alternative to clear-cutting that helps 1. CSR is not just
preserve the Amazon Rainforest. cause. It’s about how
you operate your
Yes, those are two examples of social justice companies, but business.
Yohannan says the model can be adapted to other businesses. He
2. Address your material
cites the work of EMC, an international information technology
issues when devising
company that helps other businesses store data. “There’s a way to CSR strategy. Align
take services and talk about how they help...what their products are what’s important to
delivering to society,” he says. EMC’s social responsibility “is about business growth with
impact on the environment and security of the data.” what’s important to your
primary stakeholders.
Yohannan says general statements about doing the right thing don’t
wash with a skeptical public so it’s imperative to back up CSR with Examples: Timberland =
clear goals and reliable company data. EMC has an extensive outdoor enthusiasts =
breakdown of its sustainability goals and performance on its environment; local pizza
business = families =
website.
community/schools.
Research shows an increasing number of large companies report a 3. Make it relevant to
strategic effort to link business goals to CSR. In a 2011 survey of your audiences.
490 companies by the Center for Corporate Citizenship at Boston
College, 80 per cent said community involvement initiatives directly Example: Deer Park
support defined company goals. A significant majority also said Water focuses less on
they communicate their efforts externally, most often on the its emergency response
company website.iv work than on how it is
reducing plastic in its
single serving bottles,
“I think that not communicating is a mistake,” says Catherine Taylor
an issue important to its
Keller of the Business Civic Leadership Center (BCLC). To be consumers.
taken seriously though, she says SMEs must avoid an “Oh, by the
way,” silo approach. “Don’t add it as a separate item to do. Build
your business messaging, build your brand around this type of
involvement and it will sing a lot more true for your audience. It
gives it authenticity.”
Jonathan Yohannan,
SVP, Cone, Inc.
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16. COMPANY SNAPSHOT: POTOMAC PIZZA
Support customers and they’ll support you
“Let us help you.” That’s the message Potomac Pizza delivers to the students, clubs and
community organizations whose members are also the paying families that make its restaurants
successful. A visitor to the Potomac Pizza website is only one click away from a direct offer of
assistance. “Need a donation for your fundraiser or silent auction? Click here,” says the online
tab.
“I believe that the corporate community should step up and
do more,” says Adam Greenberg, president and founder of
Restaurant Zone, which manages four Potomac Pizza
restaurants in DC’s Maryland suburbs. With a dedicated
community outreach employee, “We’ve made things easy -
streamlining community relations and giving and outreach,
and making sure we’re doing the right thing.”
Potomac Pizza has become the go-to supplier of pizza and
subs for non-profit fundraisers and local school events,
offering discounts and giving away thousands of slices each
year. It’s a strategic approach to corporate giving: align the business goal of eventually selling
more pizza to targeted audiences such as schools and families, with the CSR goal of supporting
local events and initiatives. Greenberg calls the collaborations “win-win situations.” Community
groups have a no-stress supplier of food and Potomac Pizza benefits from the good will it
creates.
In the restaurant business since his late teens, Greenberg believes
in the power of networking, marketing and staying true to his values.
When opening his fourth Potomac Pizza location in 2006, he gave
five charities a day each to promote themselves in-store and earn
100 per cent of the proceeds. He gave away about $18,000 that
week.
“Treat others the way you want to be treated yourself. It’s the way I
want my kids to be brought up,” says Greenberg. “We’re in the
business to make money and we’re in the business to lead by
example and to do the right thing.”
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17. COMPANY SNAPSHOT: CHANEY ENTERPRISES
Managing a reputation for the long-term
The “doing well by doing good” mantra of CSR isn’t
about increasing immediate sales for Chaney
Enterprises. It’s about long-term reputation
management. As the largest producer of sand and
gravel in Maryland, with a need for land from which to
mine those elements, Chaney relies on its reputation
as a good neighbor and environmental steward.
“We have the Chaney cycle which really starts with community relations, getting good land and
permitting that, mining it in a responsible way, processing the highest quality products we can,
and then as we come back around the circle, we have to reclaim that land,” says Chaney
marketing manager Steve Tripp.
“If we mess up, if we don’t follow through on our commitments, if we don’t take care of the
communities we’re in, we won’t have the privilege of repeating that cycle.” So the company has
developed a multi-track CSR strategy that includes transparency, sustainability and local giving.
Transparency Chaney begins each new project by consulting with and educating local
neighbors and politicians through meetings and newsletters. Mine site tours provide ongoing
transparency.
Sustainability Chaney has committed to Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) standards of
sustainability: it recycles concrete, oil and office products; is converting from fuel oil to biofuel;
and promotes the use of EPA-recommended pervious concrete, which is more environmentally
friendly because it reduces erosion from water runoff.
Local Giving The company makes material and financial donations, and sponsors events
benefitting more than 20 national and local nonprofits. Chaney also established a foundation
with a focus on environment and education. As
one of the largest employers in southern
Maryland, Chaney makes strategic investments in
educating potential workers, providing
scholarships, facility tours and career days.
Taken as a whole, the CSR program is aligned to
the company’s strengths, and Tripp says, its long-
term business goal of keeping the Chaney cycle
going. “If somebody understands us better, when
the opportunity comes for us to be in that
community, they will be open to us.”
Chaney donates pervious concrete mix to create
Quiet Waters Park in Annapolis, Md.
16

18. Section III: CSR & Social Media | Can you cut through the clutter?
Studies show that people want to know about and will support company efforts to be socially
responsible. Large companies at least, are responding by telling their stories on multiple
platforms. But is the message getting through? It’s possible that CSR communications go
mostly unrecognized. According to a 2010 branding survey, while “communications about
social responsibility have significant impact on favorability and purchase intent...only 11% (of
those surveyed) say they’ve heard communications about CSR from any company in the past
year.”v
If even the big guns aren’t getting through the communications clutter, what does this mean for
small and medium-sized businesses with tiny staffs and lower budgets? Can social media, with
its relatively low entry cost, provide a breakthrough communications tool to help SMEs tell their
story? The answer is a qualified yes.
Key findings from the companies interviewed in this project:
• All see the potential for social media but are at different stages of adoption
• Many lack a strategic plan for social media communications
• Investment of time is the biggest expense
• Social media can be an effective tool for CSR communications if used correctly
>> SME SOCIAL MEDIA USE ON THE RISE
Social media use is increasing among the general public and small business. Recent surveys
show SMEs are universally aware of social media and a third to half are using it to
communicate. At least one study suggests social media benefits to small business include new
partnerships, improved sales, reduced marketing costs, and increased exposure.vi
As of publication, only one of the 12 businesses interviewed for this project had no presence on
social media platforms. Two others were using it on a limited basis while formulating social
media policies. The other nine have waded in to the social media waters but only a few have a
specific strategy in place, further evidence that social media is still very much in the
adoption/early learning phase.
>> KEY FINDING – SOCIAL REACH & RULES UNCLEAR | Still more questions
than answers
Social media is moving at breakneck speed and most businesses are learning behind the
wheel. Many are frustrated over how to figure out which platforms to use, what and how often
to post, and whether it will be worth the effort.
Potomac Pizza owner Adam Greenberg started with Facebook because it seemed the easiest
and he now also links his posts to Twitter. His efforts to create engagement include offering gift
cards to customers who post pictures in a restaurant. He also uses Facebook to let people
know about community events he’s supporting, but he’s concerned the company news gets
buried in readers’ newsfeeds. “You almost have to post something four times a day, and then
are you ticking off as many people? Would I be better off knocking on two doors a day and
saying hi than spending half an hour on Facebook?”
17

19. Greenberg is considering starting a monthly email newsletter to
keep customers informed of what the business is doing in the “Would I be better off
community but he also has questions about email marketing. “Is it knocking on two doors
as effective as it was three years ago? Are people feeling like a day and saying hi
they’re getting spammed too much? There’s so many different than spending a half
options, so many ways to go. It’s really just mind-boggling.”
an hour on
Sand and gravel company Chaney Enterprises got into social Facebook?”
media with some trepidation. It uses Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn - Adam Greenberg,
and YouTube to market its products and approach to local concrete Owner, Potomac Pizza
sub-contractors. “Initially it was more to check the box. I struggled,
asking ‘What are we going to get out of this?’” admits Marketing Manager Steve Tripp. “Let’s
face it, the construction industry probably isn’t where you see the most iPhones and iPads and
things like that.”
Still, Tripp has found Facebook gives him a platform to share Chaney’s views on sustainable
concrete products, information on the company’s client and community appreciation events, and
donations by the Chaney Foundation to help end local problems such as high unemployment
and hunger.
Tripp says the next phase is to generate more engagement with the community by asking
people to post their own comments and photos. “If there’s a Boy Scout project or something like
that and they’re looking for a small donation of concrete or materials, we’ll ask them...to post
some pictures to our wall. That’s the kind of thing where we can get a little bit of an interaction
with the community and people can see things that are not engineered by us.”
Optimal Networks COO David Campbell was an early skeptic of social media. “I didn’t really
see the value in having the organization’s face on Facebook. I realize now I’m in the minority
there.” The company has ramped up profiles on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and a recently
created YouTube channel. To date, it primarily uses the platforms to post thought leadership
content on IT issues.
It hasn’t yet optimized social media for CSR
communications. The company has won several
workplace excellence awards for its employee
policies and commitment to volunteerism but is still trying to shake off a years-held reluctance to
talk about CSR publicly. “We do know that we owe that because people want to know what
we’re doing and if we don’t tell, they assume we’re not doing anything.”
Soupergirl owner Sarah Polon says she hasn’t yet mastered how to use Facebook and Twitter
as more than broadcast channels. For now she’s most concerned about marketing her soups
and alerting customers to menu changes. She also occasionally posts links to media reviews
and articles on the local food movement which generate some “likes,” but she isn’t seeking or
seeing a great deal of audience engagement on the social media channels.
“I’m sure I could use it more effectively,” says Polon, who has instead focused on online
relationship building within the Soupergirl website. She creates humorous stories about each
soup and asks customers to rate them in the online “Soup Pantry.” Each new soup offering
generates a handful of comments. “People have a lot going on and I’m just one of the many
things they’re fans of,” says Polon. “I just think posting on the Soupergirl page is not on the top
of everyone’s priority list.”
18

20. >> A DEBATE OVER REACH
One of the big promises of social media is its ability to spread key messages beyond current
audiences as people share content. With followers in the low to high hundreds though, some
SMEs remain unconvinced about social media’s reach. “I don’t think we’re going to be able to
reach a bunch of people who otherwise we were not going to be able to get to,” says David
Campbell of Optimal Networks. “We’re not going to get the same sort of brand recognition as
Coke by using Twitter.”
Matt Hodgson of Hodgson Consulting agrees that small business owners should be realistic in
their expectations. “I’ve been to many seminars on social media and I give seminars. I find it
incredibly frustrating and annoying when you get someone from Google or Yahoo or Coca Cola
or any of the big brands who get up and say, ‘You need to be part of social media because if the
conversation is happening, you need to be a part of it.’ And I’m thinking, I’ve got a 30-person
technology company. I can guarantee you that in Idaho there is no conversation going on about
me. Probably in Montgomery County right now there is no conversation.”
It’s not the size of the audience that’s important, counters social
media expert Colin Moffett, but the level of engagement you create. “It’s not the size of
“You may have an audience base of a thousand people. In that the audience that’s
case getting a couple hundred people to pay attention to what important. It’s the
you’re doing on social media is great,” says Moffett, SVP Digital level of engagement
Communications for global PR firm Weber Shandwick.
you create.”
- Colin Moffett,
Campbell of Optimal Networks says social media’s greatest value SVP, Weber Shandwick
so far has been to give the company a faster, more intimate way of
reaching people it’s already connected to. He calls it a digital
“footprint in a place where people are looking for you.”
But other SMEs report that social media is giving them an access point to entirely new
audiences. “One of the biggest rewards that we’ve seen is the connectivity we’ve been able to
make with people we would not normally have been able to reach,” says Erin Orr of the Virginia
Spine Institute. “You make one relationship with someone and the next thing you know, they’re
referring you to someone else.”
Orr says in addition to increasing brand recognition among potential clients, she’s seen an
increase in media coverage since she began creating content for social media channels such as
YouTube.
Stephen White of accounting firm Aronson LLC also says that shifting resources from traditional
PR to social media has garnered his company more press. “There was a time when I would
hire a PR person whose sole responsibility was to write, generate and issue press releases,”
says White. “I don’t think I’ve had a call from a reporter in the last 12 months, but I’ll tell you,
we’ve been in everything from CNN to The Huffington Post to Washington Business Journal.
They’re getting all that information because they went to our blogs and social media pages.”
>> SOCIAL PRESENCE NOW EXPECTED
Despite ongoing confusion about how to effectively use social media and whether it will lead to
new clients, most business leaders agree it’s a must. For BetterWorld Telecom’s Salem Kimble,
it’s a question of professionalism and accessibility. It’s “the standard of having some other
19

21. method other than a rote contact form on a website. If you don’t have some
other way for people to get in touch with you in one of these various
mediums, I think it undermines your credibility as a company that’s customer
facing,” says Kimble, BetterWorld’s Social Media Development Manager.
She also believes there’s a generational shift driving how individuals and
businesses consume and share information. “I’m the youngest person by far
on the BetterWorld team. I’m just about half the age of most of them,” says
Kimble, who works with a number of telecom industry veterans. “I’m speaking
as a Generation Y/Millenial, so to me and to pretty much everyone after my
age, (not using social media) sort of marks a company as out of touch. If a company doesn’t
have some engagement in social media they’re not paying attention to where everything is
going.”
With the 50-plus age group rapidly adopting social media, Weber Shandwick digital expert Colin
Moffett feels it’s more than a youth-driven trend. He does agree though, that a social media
shift has happened, especially in the past year.
“I think a couple years ago it was this brave new world where you could reach and connect with
people,” says Moffett. Now with the increasing use of mobile devices and the blurring of offline
and online activities, social media is “actually in many ways how a lot of information is shared,
how people learn about things. It’s no longer social media. It’s just media.”
>> KEY FINDING – TIME IS BIGGEST DOWNSIDE | Social media is not “free”
In straight “dollars spent” terms, social media is indeed low-cost. There’s no charge to set up
basic accounts on the most popular platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. As
many of us know from personal experience, however, time is the biggest investment, and in any
business, time is money.
One of the questions that this project set out to answer is whether social media, with its low
entry cost, is uniquely suited to SMEs with small staffs and budgets. The answer would be a
straight-forward yes were it not for the clock. Interviewees uniformly report a range of concerns
around the amount of time social media takes: to master the different tools; learn best practices
for strategic communications; create content that can be updated frequently; build an audience;
and establish meaningful dialogue.
“If I had to tell other businesses one thing about it, it’s that you had better be committed to it
because it’s almost like turning on water. Once you turn it on, it’s on,” says David Campbell of
Optimal Networks, whose company president is “now spending a considerable amount of time”
on social media. “It’s very difficult to start down the road of social media and then decide you
don’t like it anymore. Once you go into those arenas, you have to be committed both on a
financial level and strategically to make it go.”
SMEs should proceed carefully, cautions IT company CEO Matt Hodgson. “I think social media
is a great tool. Could it kill a business? I think it can. If you take a 10-person company and say
go get involved with social media, they’re not doing what they’re supposed to be doing. They’re
messing around with social media. They’re trying to figure it out. They’re having a conversation
with themselves,” says Hodgson. “It’s a waste of time, money, resources and productivity.”
20

22. Better, says Hodgson, to think of social media as just one small part of communications and
marketing. Weber Shandwick’s Colin Moffett agrees. “A lot of the tried and true ways we
communicated with people are not going away. It doesn’t mean you have to abandon the old
and only do the new.”
So SMEs are to keep communicating the way they always have but now add more channels?
Who has the time? “That’s the big hurdle for people,” says Moffett. “There’s a lot of opportunity
to share timely information with efficiency and speed like never before. That’s the good news.
The bad news is, it takes more sustained effort, time and energy to communicate with people on
an ongoing basis.”
IN THEIR OWN WORDS: 5 SOCIAL MEDIA LESSONS LEARNED
1. Success takes time: “There’s a lot of noise out there. So as a small company with not a lot
of budget to push systematic campaigns or spend a lot of advertising dollars on adwords and
that kind of stuff, it can be challenging,” says BetterWorld Telecom’s Salem Kimble. “There’s a
long return arc on social media. It can be a long tail to actually see results.”
2. Getting it right is important: Growing from small to mid-size, 10-year-old management and
technology consulting firm Acuity Inc. is creating its first-ever strategic communications plan.
When Sharon Grevious was hired last Spring she quickly set up social media channels on
Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube. “When I came onboard I said, ‘Okay these are going
to be quick wins so I’ll just go ahead and do that first.’ I’ve learned that it really does take some
dedication and some time to do.”
Grevious readjusted her approach, choosing to do a “soft launch” of social media – sending out
links to employees and internal stakeholders first to generate traffic. “You always are grappling
with what’s going to add the most value, what’s going to resonate and what’s relevant.”
3. Brief is best: “In the blogs people think they have to write an essay,” says Matt Hodgson of
Hodgson Consulting. “Type up what you want to write in three sentences and put it out there.
You don’t have to write a book.”
4. Be prepared for negative feedback: Interviewees report being taken aback by negative
online comments such as an employee complaining about work on Facebook, a disgruntled
applicant on Yelp! or a dissatisfied customer on Twitter. The other side of instant
communication is instant and very public feedback. “The first thing you need to decide is if
there is anything you can do about it and if so, act quickly,” says David Campbell of Optimal
Networks.
5. Use the open dialogue to your advantage: The immediate feedback of social media can
be faster than information trickling back from field representatives. Honest Tea says it can
respond to problems faster and it finds online fans help each other out. “It brings in other
people as opposed to an email which is a very personal communication,” says Samme Menke,
former PR Manager. “Maybe someone in new York is looking for a particular product and can’t
find it and someone else will let them know.”
21

23. COMPANY SNAPSHOT: ARONSON LLC
Inside one company’s social media thought process
Accounting and consulting firm Aronson LLC has attacked social media
aggressively, shifting traditional communication resources into an
ongoing series of six blogs that are featured prominently on the
company website. Stephen White, Vice President, Operations,
describes his approach, results and how Aronson LLC uses social
media to market company services and CSR through its grant-making
foundation.
• Strategy: Use blogs and social media channels to deliver
thought leadership that educates clients about issues and offers
company solutions. Two years ago there wasn’t a strategy. If I
had a dollar for every time a partner came to me and asked,
‘What’s our Facebook strategy,’ I couldn’t answer that question.
I think it was too new. In a very short amount of time, ironically less time than it took us
to understand how to harness the internet, we figured out how to use it to communicate
differently and better and quicker.
• Channels: You can’t possibly be a dominant player in every channel. You have to pick
your channels and stay true to those channels.
v Facebook. I think a lot of businesses make the mistake of making it primary and
I think a lot of companies are trying to mold it into a corporate solution and I’m
not sure I buy that. For a corporate solution I don’t think it works but we have to
at least have a presence.
v YouTube. It’s good for external knowledge transfer. It’s good for just simple
brand. But you have to be committed to a video strategy which is something that
not many firms of our size or smaller are equipped to deal with in the frequency
that I think is necessary to be successful.
v LinkedIn. It has a platform that is both scalable and it’s really designed for the
corporate world and how corporations interact with one another.
• Engagement: Every day we get email responses, people coming to our website, people
who comment, “I read that article you posted on the blog. I saw your twitter feed. I
would like to sit down and talk to you about my problem and how you might be able to
help us.” I’ve never seen that in traditional marketing.
• CSR Awareness: We get anecdotal feedback that they saw us online. I get grant
requests where they’ll say, “As stated in your blog entry.”
• Measurement: I won’t do something if I can’t get a financial ROI or an ROI of mindshare
or capture. I have both anecdotal and empirical evidence to suggest that our revenue
has been positively impacted by our marketing and social media strategies. Our most
popular blog gets 2,800 to 3,200 unique sessions a month. Roughly 10,000 unique and
repeat visitors. That’s a lot of eyeballs.
22

24. • Investment: It’s taken us three years to get there. The person in charge of that is
dedicated, committed to it. If you are the type of person who prefers to fly in, fly out, do
a couple of blog entries per year, you’re not going to be successful.
• Social Media Management: There are technologies today that make it possible to get
the message out across the channels in seconds. We use a cloud-based solution called
DeliverIt.
• Risk: Bad information from internal sources. It’s one thing to put out communication
saying we donated to nonprofit Locks of Love. Very little risk there. Let’s say we put out
something in relation to a tax law or a change in policy or procedure and we’re wrong.
Worse, is outside risks I can’t control – people who comment on our posts, people who
comment out of context. How do you control that and how it can impact your brand? It
requires you to use outside counsel, which I will admit we don’t use today.
• Future Value: How do we differentiate ourselves from the accountant across the street?
How do we do it better, faster, cheaper? Those are the questions that we’ll be asking
but it will all be driven by the fact that social media and the internet and efficiencies in
operations will be so finely tuned that we’ll have to look at different ways of
diversification that don’t exist today.
>> HOW TO DO SOCIAL MEDIA RIGHT | Advice from an expert
There’s been a fundamental shift in the way people consume and create information. People
want it fast, bite-size but authentic. Following a few rules will help SMEs tell their stories with
impact, says Colin Moffett, SVP Digital Communications, Weber Shandwick.
Know your audience: Who are you trying to reach - a very
insular group like a group of vendors or your broader market
of consumers? What online tools are they using? What do
you want from them and what do they want from you?
Listen before you leap: Spend a month listening. Have
people comb these tools every day for the conversations you
care about. Who’s out there? Who’s influential in the
space? What are they saying about you? If you listen and
react to what people are saying you’ll get further than just barging into the party and blurting
things out. People don’t react well to that in person or online.
Get in it for the long haul: Engagement is an ongoing thing. Marketing has been an episodic
thing where you do a big campaign, you regroup, you do a big event, you regroup. Now you
have to find ways of engaging people on a daily basis and I think that’s a big shift for people.
You are a content producer: We used to, from a PR perspective, tee up the stories so that
other people could tell it. Whether you’re small or big. You have to tell your own story.
Think like a storyteller: Report facts and figures in interesting and compelling ways. Try not
to be robotic. People want to hear from people. Get out of the way and let others tell the story
23

25. about the impact of your product or community investment. It’s ten times more authentic and
compelling when it comes from that perspective and not from your perspective.
Engage, don’t broadcast: Understand that these tools are more like talking on the phone and
less like emailing. We still use these channels as mini press release machines. You may say,
“Remember tax season is coming,” or you may say “new product in the store.” Those are
broadcast messages. If you want people to have a conversation with you, you have to ask
questions. You have to respond to people. You have to share what they’re saying.
Measure engagement: Keep the number of page views, the number of friends or followers in
mind but look for engagement. Are you getting people to spread what you’re saying, are you
getting people to comment? Are you hearing anecdotal stories, people who walk into your
business and say they read about you?
Respect the medium: A mistake I think people make when they start to invest in social media
is to put it in the hands of an intern or someone right out of college. There’s an assumption a
younger person will understand this stuff. They’re digital natives. They use it in their private
lives. That doesn’t make them a sophisticated professional communicator. If you’re handing
these tools to the person at the lowest end of the pay grade, you’re not respecting the potential
enough. You have to think of this as a way to tell your story and you put something with that
weight in the hands of someone who’s a lot closer to the story.
>> WHY CSR & SOCIAL MEDIA WORK TOGETHER
If you had to choose a single word that defines best practices in both corporate social
responsibility and social media, it would be “authentic.” Ask an expert in either field, or even
laymen who know their gut instincts, and they will tell you that being real, genuine - authentic - is
what matters. Without that, social media is just another broadcast channel and CSR is an
attempt for easy publicity.
But done right, the two can work together to tell very personal stories about real people,
problems and solutions. “Doing the glossy report every year to talk about your CSR activities
isn’t compelling and pushing out occasional dry messages in a very robotic way on social media
is not compelling either,” says digital executive Colin Moffett.
“From a CSR perspective, think about how you tell the core stories of who you are and what
impact that has in your community, on the environment, in your neighborhood...on an ongoing
basis. Same for social media. How do you talk about things that are impactful that customers
want to hear about, want to engage with in a real time way?”
With most SMEs moving to at least some level of social media outreach, it’s natural to build
CSR communications into the mix, says Catherine Taylor Keller of the Business Civic
Leadership Center. The result can be good both for the business and the cause. “How easy is
it to click Share This or Tweet This. Whether it’s the sale item or if it’s “We are partnering with
Habitat for Humanity...” people will take it personally and they’ll share it with their 500 Facebook
friends and 100 Twitter followers and who knows how many times it will be shared.”
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26. COMPANY SNAPSHOT: HONEST TEA
Giving the audience what it wants
Ask small-turned-big beverage company Honest Tea what has been one of the most
challenging aspects of talking about its sustainable mission on social media? Engaging, not
alienating customers. “We don’t just want to be a bug in their ear and posting about ourselves
all the time, ‘try our product, try our product.’ We want to add value,” says Samme Menke,
former PR Manager at Honest Tea.
News an Audience Can Use
Adding value means aligning with customer values, posting articles and events about organic
food, fair trade, the environment and health. “We post stuff like, ‘Your kids are going back to
school. Here are some eco-friendly school supplies.’”
Honest Tea also mentions the ongoing donations it makes to local organizations, but not in a
direct way. “The issues highlighted are “so much larger than us just serving our drink there,”
says Menke. “We wouldn’t normally post, ‘We just donated X number of bottles.’” Instead, the
company promotes the partner. “Our friends at Bethesda green are hosting this event. You
should check it out.”
Frank Discussion Pays Off
Honest Tea says consumers are its most important social media
audience. And those consumers can be both committed allies and
scathing critics. That’s why Honest Tea has chosen to tackle tough
issues head-on. In its 2011 Mission Report the company outlines
its successes in creating new organic products sourced from fair
trade suppliers. But it doesn’t shy away from a frank discussion of
the fact that it’s trying to be a sustainable company while selling
individual drinks in plastic and glass bottles. “With Honest Tea’s
2010 sales of more than 100 million units, we have likely contributed
tens of millions of bottles to the waste stream,” states the report.
“If you never talked about it, only said, we’re organic we’re fair trade, low in sugar, our
employees volunteer at A Wider Circle, you would be missing a really huge part of our impact
on the environment,” says Special Projects Manager Kelly Cardamone. “I think people
appreciate the fact that we’re willing to put ourselves out there and say that we don’t have a
solution either.”
That level of transparency gives Honest Tea a jumping off point to talk about what it IS doing to
reduce packaging and energy consumption. In a nod to sustainability, new media and dialogue,
the mission report was published online at Tumblr.com. It features video, like buttons and the
ability for readers to post comments. The company has promised to respond to comments and
update the report throughout the year.
Such open dialogue can win over skeptics and create fierce advocates, as was the case when
Honest Tea was sold to mega-company Coca Cola in March 2011. Founder Seth Goldman
blogged repeatedly about the sale and even spoke in the media about pressure from Coca Cola
to remove its “no high fructose corn syrup” label on Honest Kids drinks. “It elicited this huge
25

27. dialogue on the New York Times web site from readers who are really passionate about Honest
Tea...and larger companies and smaller companies joining together and whether they have the
same mission,” says Kelly Cardamone, Special-Tea Projects Manager.
Crafting unique engagement points
Honest Tea is always looking for ways to promote both its products and its CSR messages. Its
newest campaign is the “Great Recycle,” which the company calls “a national call-to-action to
boost recycling.” A 30-foot recycle bin starts in Times Square and moves to other cities with a
goal to recycle 45,000 beverage containers in each 10-hour event. Social media elements
include a chance to earn redeemable points on Facebook, a heavily promoted Twitter hashtag
and a humorous video of an Honest Tea bottle trying to make it into a recycle bin.
In July 2011 the company carried out a public social experiment called Honest Cities, where
unmanned displays featured Honest Tea drinks available for a dollar on the honor system.
Chicago was named the “most honest city,” with 99 per cent of people paying for their drinks.
Honest Tea then extended the campaign by asking Facebook fans to vote for three charities
that should receive the proceeds plus a matching grant from the company, about $10,000 in
total. Cross-promoting the campaign through the web site, social media and video raised brand
awareness, doubled Facebook fans and increased sales. It resulted in 330 media placements
and $3.4 million in ad value.
A simple concept with a big impact for the company and its nonprofit partners. “At the core it
came down to, ‘Are you honest or not?’ It wasn’t polarizing or too specific,” says Cardamone. “It
was really human.”
26

28. COMPANY SNAPSHOT: VIRGINIA SPINE INSTITUTE
Video storytelling to highlight impact
There’s a reason why YouTube is among the top online search
engines. People love video. According to YouTube’s early 2012
statistics, over four billion videos are viewed each day and the
platform has more than 800 million unique visitors each month.vii
While coming up with a video that will go viral is rare, SMEs are
smart to harness the visual and emotional appeal of video to tell
their stories.
The Virginia Spine Institute is making video a key part of its
business and CSR communication strategies. “We’re not selling
widgets,” says Marketing Director Erin Orr, of the private health care
center in Reston, VA which focuses on spinal care. “There’s an emotional side to what we’re
doing and a lot of times we feel that comes across best in the video. The connections, allowing
people to see who our doctors are, who our team is, what they’re doing.”
Virginia Spine Institute has created more than two
dozen videos which are featured on its web site and
a YouTube channel. In some, doctors explain the
work and approach of the Institute. Others star
patients, called “Spinal Champions,” who have
successfully been treated. The testimonials put a
human face on serious spinal injuries or the
seemingly mundane – back pain that leaves healthy
people suddenly immobile. One patient describes
not wanting to go on with life after suffering the pain
caused by wrenching her back while reaching for her
cat.
“I think that other patients have connected through
those. It’s one thing to put it in writing where you
read, ‘Johnny had this problem and had the surgery
and had this outcome,’ but to see them in their
environment and to hear them talking about it is
pretty powerful.”
On the CSR side, the Institute has used video to promote a 5K race it sponsors to raise money
for national spinal research. Like a news crew, it “covered” the event, collecting interviews with
NFL stars and other one-time patients who were now able to run pain-free. It posted the
resulting video quickly after the race, generating measurable hits. “It’s one thing to hear that it
happened or to see pictures, but to see people talking about how this great community event
raised the awareness and the funds...it makes it more real,” says Orr.
Real people telling their own stories. It’s a model that can be translated to other businesses,
even those not treating debilitating injury. The trick to creating emotion is to focus on the issue
you’re solving and the impact you’re having. The result will be video content that can be
shared, picked up by media, and create higher visibility in search engines.
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29. CONCLUSION
This collection of opinions from a dozen small business leaders in one major market is an
opportunity to hear directly from the kinds of people who every day are making decisions on
how to communicate about their businesses.
As told in the preceding pages, they are certain of their ability to make a difference in their
community. Whether and how to talk about that impact is less clear. Even more confusing is
the fast-changing world of social media as a business and CSR communications tool. It’s
hoped that the challenges, successes and best-practices described here-in will offer insight and
inspiration to the small business community.
>>> <<<
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Tracey Wright is a Fellow with Georgetown University’s Center for Social
Impact Communication. She has a Masters in Professional Studies,
PR/Corporate Communications from Georgetown University and a BA in
Journalism and Communications from the University of Regina, Canada.
Tracey received Georgetown’s 2010 Social Impact Award for
"demonstrating the highest commitment to creating positive social change
as a communicator." As a volunteer Tracey has donated her storytelling
skills to produce strategic content for nonprofits. On the job she has been
a senior network television producer and reporter, covering national and
international stories from Washington, DC and Ottawa, Canada.
ABOUT THE CENTER
Georgetown University’s Center for Social Impact Communication (CSIC) is the nation’s
leading educational resource on social impact communication. Launched in 2008 and housed in
the Master of Professional Studies program in Public Relations and Corporate Communications,
CSIC aims to elevate the discipline by pioneering industry standards in responsible
communication practices and by educating and inspiring the professionals who lead the way in
creating positive social impact through their work. For more information, visit
http://csic.georgetown.edu.
28

30. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I would like to thank the following companies and organizations for their frank and thoughtful
participation:
Acuity Inc.
Alliance for Workplace Excellence
Aronson LLC
BetterWorld Telecom
Business Civic Leadership Center, US Chamber of Commerce
Chaney Enterprises
Cone Communications
Hodgson Consulting
Honest Tea
Leadership Greater Washington
Optimal Networks
OPX Global
Potomac Pizza
Reznick Group
Soupergirl
Virginia Spine Institute
Weber Shandwick
29

31. APPENDIX | Interview Questions for SMEs
1. What values drive your company?
2. Think about your most important relationships – customers, your employees, the
community. How do you put your values into practice?
3. Why motivates CSR at your business?
4. What impact have you seen, both on your stakeholders and your business? Has there
been an “aha” moment where you’ve seen your values in action?
5. Who drives socially responsible activities in your organization?
6. In general, how do you communicate with your stakeholders?
7. How big a role does the internet play in your communications?
8. What CSR practices do you communicate about?
9. What is the reason you do or do not communicate about your socially responsible
activities?
10. Who is your most important audience for CSR communication?
11. How do you frame your CSR practices?
12. What communication tools do you use?
13. How often do you communicate about socially responsible and sustainable activities?
14. How do you use social media tools?
15. Why or why not use them?
16. What challenges have you faced using social media?
17. What benefits have you seen or could you expect from using social media to
communicate with your stakeholders about your company values?
30

32.
i
http://www.edelman.com/insights/special/GoodPurpose2010globalPPT_WEBversion.pdf
ii
http://www.coneinc.com/stuff/contentmgr/files/0/2fcb9351e2bea95addb6c4413bcf39a4/files/2011_cone_echo_cr_op
portunity_study.pdf
iii
http://2020workplace.com/blog/?p=447
iv
http://www.centercorporatecitizenship.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=page.viewPage&pageID=2166&nodeID=1
v
http://www.burson-
marsteller.com/Innovation_and_insights/blogs_and_podcasts/BM_Blog/Lists/Posts/Post.aspx?ID=170
vi
Nearly half of SMEs use social media to market to customers, according to a September 2011 survey of 1,180
businesses by Zoomerang. http://www.zoomerang.com/blog/2011/09/08/new-survey-results-nearly-half-smbs-utilize-
social-media-marketing
Social media use has risen the past three years, with nearly all small businesses now aware of social media tools and
a third using them, concludes a January 2012 survey by Network Solutions and the University of Maryland’s Robert
H. Smith School of Business. However, it also reports that the number of businesses who say that social media is
not meeting their expectations has increased to 36% from 26% last year.
http://www.networksolutions.com/smallbusiness/wp-
content/files/State_of_Small_Business_Report_Wave_5.pdf?channelid=P99C425S627N0B142A1D38E0000V100
The payback from time spent on social media is higher for small business: new partnerships, improved sales,
reduced marketing costs, and increased exposure, states a 2011 Social Media Marketing Report by online magazine
“Social Media Examiner.” http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/tag/2011-social-media-industry-report/
vii
http://www.youtube.com/t/press_statistics
31