Friday Fast Links: Fifth calls, CSR, name changes and more

April 8, 2011


Have a great weekend!


Social Media ROI in Cincinnati

May 14, 2010

On Wednesday, May 12, PR and marketing professionals from the Greater Cincinnati area attended our event, “Social Media ROI: Being Seen Is Not Enough.”  Our expert panel consisted of:

The panel addressed an audience of around 36 people who came to The Phoenix on a rainy morning to hear them discuss topics related to the adoption, uses, benefits and pitfalls of social media. Moderator Michael DeAloia got the ball rolling with a short PowerPoint presentation, then asked the panel to define social media and took off from there.  Each of the panelists was asked if there was a key metric they would consider for measuring ROI for social media.  Daniel Lally feels that it depends on what your strategy and goals are, while Krista Neher takes a different approach:

Later, the panel was asked to explain what they felt was the business rationalization for the use of social media. After James Pilcher discussed using it to confront business/branding problems, using the infamous “Comcast Technician Sleeping on my Couch” video as an example, an audience member asked whether stories like Comcast’s were why some companies are reluctant to start using social media:

There’s a genuine upside to getting into the social media sphere, as Pilcher demonstrated with a story about how Procter & Gamble is using social media strategies to combat negative stories, and their customers are helping:

The panel covered other topics, ranging from whether Google is still the most important outlet on the internet (a unanimous “YES”) to how social media is changing journalism to whether social media is here to stay.

The entire event, with all the questions and answers, will be available for download on Monday. Check back here or on our Twitter feed for updates.

Be sure to look for upcoming Business Wire events both in your area and online, and follow the #bwevents hashtag on Twitter for live updates from our events and webinars.


Less Transparency = Less $$$?

April 12, 2010

We’ve written a lot at Business Wired on the subjects of disclosure and transparency, including the causal relationship between increased communication and capital market benefits.  Looks like there’s even more evidence for transparency being good for companies’ bottom lines — and for lack of transparency hurting them:

After 11 years of publishing a list of the best corporate citizens, Corporate Responsibility Magazine plans to introduce in its April-May issue, out this week, its first-ever “black list” of the worst companies, or those that are the least transparent.

Transparency, as the magazine defines it, means making information about practices like employee benefits, climate-change policies or philanthropic efforts publicly available.

Dirk Olin, editor in chief of Corporate Responsibility Magazine, notes that, when compiling data for the article, they were able to find 30 corporations with no relevant data at all on those topics available publicly.  That group includes such corporations as clothing retailer Abercrombie & Fitch and weight loss specialists Weight Watchers.

And what does that mean for shareholders of those companies?

The best corporate citizens list . . . had a total return on shareholder value of 2.37 percent over three years. But the 30 worst had a negative 7.38 percent return.

“Our aggregate analyses,” Mr. Olin said, “make a strong argument for the business case for transparency.”

Corporate Responsibility’s full “Black List” will be published next Wednesday, April 24.


New on Twitter: Corporate Social Responsibility News

November 6, 2009

You may have noticed a new addition to the “Follow Us on Twitter” box over at the right:  @BWCSRNews.  Anna-Christina Cabrales, our Global Disclosure & Financial Reporting specialist, will be tweeting the latest in Corporate Social Responsibility news from Business Wire as well as links to other CSR-related topics around the Web.  Make sure to follow her and keep up on everything CSR!


Business Wire Makes Long-term Commitment to Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)

July 31, 2007

CSR Circuit logoRecently, an article in PR Week cited a Cone, LLC survey, stating, “The public’s embrace of cause marketing and CSR efforts continues to expand, making them an increasingly necessary part of any company’s operations.”The article goes on to state, “Perhaps the most fundamental takeaway for the corporate world, Cone believes, is that cause work is here to stay. “Good is the new black,” she said. “It’s a staple in your wardrobe. It’s not going to go away.”

We here at Business Wire couldn’t agree more.  It is for precisely this reason that Business Wire last week launched its proprietary CSR Circuit, an extremely cost-effective method for disseminating corporate social responsibility news to interested journalists, financial analysts, activists, investors and academics worldwide.

We’ve been sure to keep the cost of this distribution low (lower than any other comparable offering out there), because we believe strongly in the CSR cause and do not want distribution to become burdensome.

Finally, it is important to note the world of Corporate Social responsibility may be larger than you realize.  According to a Business Week cover story, serious money is lining up behind the sustainability agenda. Assets of mutual funds that are designed to invest in companies meeting social responsibility criteria have swelled from $12 billion in 1995 to $178 billion in 2005.  Now these investors are collectively calling on Congress to go green.  Stay tuned… 


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