 "Environmental media relations in the 21st century")
Unprecedented shifts in communications technologies are substantially changing the discipline of media relations. This is true across the board, but has a particular impact on the communication of sustainability and environmental issues, where businesses are under greater public and NGO scrutiny than ever.
Social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook facilitate rapid groundswells of public reaction to perceived malpractice or dishonesty. Avoiding these channels is all but impossible and businesses have to embrace a new era of transparency, dialogue and disclosure when it comes to talking about their operations and selling their products and services. Just as governments feel the heat of political online campaigning groups, corporations too are subject to campaigns by increasingly savvy environmental NGOs, as well as a growing public awareness of the critical nature of our environmental impact now and in the near-future.
In response, an emerging media relations practice is taking shape. It often involves dialogue with stakeholders, the media and NGOs and prefers collaboration to the one-way dissemination of a corporate message. It acknowledges multiple viewpoints and recognises that in some circumstances compromising and working together may ultimately result in a greater good, environmentally speaking. It moves beyond using environmental messaging to paint a green veneer around a business, focusing instead on much deeper structural and operational changes that businesses are taking to render themselves sustainable.
This approach to environmental media relations comes as environmental stories command greater prominence in many publications, including the national press, as well as via a number of high impact bloggers. A company’s ability and willingness to respond quickly and accurately on media inquiries and breaking stories is a prerequisite for building trust and positive perceptions amongst journalists and the wider public.
The huge growth in social media sites and applications has created many new channels for dialogue. Importantly, these channels are equally available for use between private individuals as they are between businesses and the public. Recognising this, many companies now employ a diverse online toolkit, to communicate with customers and respond to questions and problems.
One outcome of the networking power of social media is the rise in crowdsourcing of ideas. Although still in its infancy, crowdsourcing can help companies to gauge the views and desires of consumers regarding environmental issues, helping the business to respond accordingly. Framing crowdsourcing initiatives around areas of common interest can attract passionate, well-informed and diverse individuals to the forum, producing better results. Opening channels of communication in this way is simultaneously an exercise in dialogue, market research and innovation.
Social media and crowdsourcing operate on a global scale, at least potentially. This breadth can work for or against a business depending on whether community discussions cast the company in a positive or negative light. Crowdsourcing – and the use of social media generally – is therefore partly an act of relinquishing control. In the 21st century communications landscape corporate media departments cannot fully control what is said about their company or products.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________
Paul Thomas is the Communications Manager – Sustainability & Innovation of AkzoNobel
Social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook facilitate rapid groundswells of public reaction to perceived malpractice or dishonesty. Avoiding these channels is all but impossible and businesses have to embrace a new era of transparency, dialogue and disclosure when it comes to talking about their operations and selling their products and services. Just as governments feel the heat of political online campaigning groups, corporations too are subject to campaigns by increasingly savvy environmental NGOs, as well as a growing public awareness of the critical nature of our environmental impact now and in the near-future.
In response, an emerging media relations practice is taking shape. It often involves dialogue with stakeholders, the media and NGOs and prefers collaboration to the one-way dissemination of a corporate message. It acknowledges multiple viewpoints and recognises that in some circumstances compromising and working together may ultimately result in a greater good, environmentally speaking. It moves beyond using environmental messaging to paint a green veneer around a business, focusing instead on much deeper structural and operational changes that businesses are taking to render themselves sustainable.
This approach to environmental media relations comes as environmental stories command greater prominence in many publications, including the national press, as well as via a number of high impact bloggers. A company’s ability and willingness to respond quickly and accurately on media inquiries and breaking stories is a prerequisite for building trust and positive perceptions amongst journalists and the wider public.
The huge growth in social media sites and applications has created many new channels for dialogue. Importantly, these channels are equally available for use between private individuals as they are between businesses and the public. Recognising this, many companies now employ a diverse online toolkit, to communicate with customers and respond to questions and problems.
One outcome of the networking power of social media is the rise in crowdsourcing of ideas. Although still in its infancy, crowdsourcing can help companies to gauge the views and desires of consumers regarding environmental issues, helping the business to respond accordingly. Framing crowdsourcing initiatives around areas of common interest can attract passionate, well-informed and diverse individuals to the forum, producing better results. Opening channels of communication in this way is simultaneously an exercise in dialogue, market research and innovation.
AkzoNobel's Paul Thomas
Social media and crowdsourcing operate on a global scale, at least potentially. This breadth can work for or against a business depending on whether community discussions cast the company in a positive or negative light. Crowdsourcing – and the use of social media generally – is therefore partly an act of relinquishing control. In the 21st century communications landscape corporate media departments cannot fully control what is said about their company or products.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________
Paul Thomas is the Communications Manager – Sustainability & Innovation of AkzoNobel