arguments against CSR and some answers
Global Reporting Initiative - commentary
Mallen Baker's Blog
Who's reading your online CSR report?
19 Jun 2009
I've spoken to quite a few people in the last few weeks that are responsible for producing a CSR report for their company. Most of them now have a section of their website that lays the report out for the interest of their audience.
I've made a habit of asking whether they know how many people are visiting the site, and what content they're looking at. It's a very basic question. Website analytics can always tell you some interesting things.
Almost universally, I've been met by responses like - "that's a very interesting question. I must ask the IT team if we keep that information".
It goes beyond knowledge of the technology. It begins with a general lack of interest in whether the communication sent has been received, and to what effect.
For me, this is the big problem in CSR reporting. It is carried out for the producer, not the consumer.
Can you imagine the CEO asking what the sales figures were for that month, and being told "very good question - I'll see if anyone keeps that information"?
If you have a CSR or sustainability section on your website, scrutinise the reports monthly. Answer important questions like:
* How many visitors did we get to our sustainability report this month? If it's a low figure (and be prepared for the possibility it might be) what do we need to do to reach out to those that would be interested who aren't coming?
* How did people get here? Did they come from search engines, and if so what were they looking for when they did? Would they have found what they wanted?
* Which sections were most viewed? And which are the pages where people land, and then jump straight off again (bounce)? What would have needed ot be on that page to keep them on the site for longer?
* Which countries are the visits coming from? Is it mostly our home market, or does it get a worldwide audience? Does that change the way we talk?
Of course, what you really want to know is: who are these people? Are they NGOs, government, academics, competitors, customers, employees? That is the one thing the stats won't immediately tell you.
But if you're wondering who they are, that's an important first stage. Curiosity about the audience - and what they want. Before you know it, you'll be wanting to create feedback mechanisms and you'll have a dialogue.
Send me your print report (some do) and it will probably go in the bin. Just being honest. You, of course, when you mail it to me have no way of knowing that. You just report the numbers of copies distributed.
The website is the one form of publication you can track exactly who's reading what. It should be one of the tools of your trade as a professional communicator.
Tags: CSR reporting audiences stakeholders corporate social responsibility Mallen Baker
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4 comments for this post
Comment by: Lucia on 19 Jun 2009
Weblink: http://www.corporateandresponsible.com/
Hi Mallen,
I see your point and I am suprised to hear that companies haven't yet developed the technology and know-how that would allow them to know the audience of their sustainability reports. Do you know of a company (perhaps a CSR-specialized PR company) that knows how to do that? What companies display a good understanding of their audience and how did they achieve that? Does that make them more comptetitive?
Comment by: John on 20 Jun 2009
Weblink: www.johnfurnival.com
Hello Mallen
Your post is spot on. Given that stakeholder feedback is the holy grail of CSR reporting it no surprise to me that you have come across this basic lack of understanding/lack of interest with some CSR reporters. My experience is a bit different. The clients I work with, and even our newest reporters, are really embracing this stuff and are tracking activity to measure the effectiveness of their reports. The next step for us is to integrate social media platforms as a way of engaging stakeholders.
Comment by: Marcy on 1 Jul 2009
Weblink: http://bogs.sun.com/csr
Hi Mallen. I read your post with interest and I, too, am surprised that people aren't tracking visitors to their online CSR reports. That said, I track the data religiously and while it is interesting to see what folks are reading and where they are coming from, the information itself is not particularly useful (beyond knowing that our readership is increasing each month). What I find particularly interesting is that our most recent CSR report (sun.com/2008csrreport) has a comments feature so that stakeholders can make comments/ask questions directly in the report (just as I am doing here), but we have had very few comments over the past 8 months. So yes...it's important to know how many people are reading your report and how they are getting to it. But it's more important to actually engage with these report readers...and until they are interested in engaging with us, there isn't much more we can do than count the clicks and rate our own success.
Comment by: Mallen Baker on 2 Jul 2009
Weblink: http://www.businessrespect.net
Lucia, John, Marcy - thanks for your comments.
I do take the point that the webstats provide only limited intelligence, and that all of us want to find more engagement with audiences than the mere numbers provide. My point is that it is the mindset - the lack of curiosity about whether the audience is there, the lack of interest as to what is the content that is attracting attention. This speaks of people that are not producing content for the audience, but for themselves or for other interests.
It certainly doesn't end with the stats - but it should at least begin with them, because it inevitably leads to further questions.