| Victoria Harres 
Businesses used to revolve primarily around growth, revenue, and costs – the economic bottom line. However, today's customers want to know that the organizations they buy products from or do business with share their values, leading many businesses to embrace corporate social responsibility (CSR) as a way of life. The triple bottom line – one that demonstrates a company's positive impact on its finances, the communities it does business with, and the environments it affects – is a must in a healthy business model. The role of marketing and public relations in these CSR initiatives is to make sure customers are aware of a brand's programs and efforts. This calls for well-planned campaigns that build relationships and demonstrate a company's commitment in an authentic manner. Engaging established and respected CSR influencers, whether they are journalists, bloggers, or key stakeholders, can be critical to communications success. Although owned and paid media shouldn't be ignored, earned media from key CSR influencers has the potential of spreading your message much further. Familiarize Yourself with CSR Trends and Practices Before launching any communications, it's important to have a strong understanding of the overall CSR landscape. If you're not already familiar with the topic, you'll want to start your research with keyword searches on social media and Google, then go deeper by reading articles, blog posts, white papers, and perhaps some books. Get familiar with new websites and publications that may come up. If you have access to a PR targeting tool, use it to identify CSR-related publications that you can add to your reading list. See What Others are Doing Don't forget the value of seeing how other organizations are talking about their social and sustainability initiatives. Research what other brands are doing by reading press releases or following PR Newswire's Twitter account @TotalCSR. Use search engines to find stories that succeeded in getting earned media, then look at how the organization communicated their efforts. You don't want to copy a successful CSR communications plan, but you certainly want to learn from it and leverage methodologies that align with your own initiatives. 
Get to Know Your Audience Authenticity is key to CSR outreach, so make sure your understanding of it is more than cursory. Although you may already have an understanding of your brand or industry's overall CSR audience, you'll have to dig deeper to isolate the contingency speaking out about the social causes related to your activities. If you have access to a monitoring platform, you'll want to add keywords around the programs you're running, such as: environment, social good, or sustainability. Identify Your Influencers Your research will help you identify some key CSR influencers in your industry. Start making a list. Follow them on Twitter, subscribe to their blogs, and bookmark publications they regularly write for. You should also use a media targeting tool to build your list of influencers beyond the bloggers, journalists, and industry stakeholders you've identified in your own network. However, don't just run a list based on a couple of keywords and call it a day. Any good media list is well-researched and pruned. You waste the influencer's time and your own by trying to get them to cover something that is not of interest to them. You have to read their work and understand what they write or speak publicly about. Yes, it means more research, but it will be well worth it when you get genuine coverage for your story. Earned media is still the best way to influence potential buyers. Build Relationships on Social A relationship can start with something as simple as a handshake or a retweet. In-person meetings aside, you'll definitely want to leverage Twitter to make your brand and its initiatives known in the CSR space. If your brand is small, you might use your main Twitter account, but if your flagship account already has a lot going on, it might be wise to have a separate Twitter profile for your CSR efforts. Follow, retweet, and engage in conversations started by the influencers you've identified. Share others' content. Don't be pushy and certainly don't make these interactions all about you. You also want to make sure your understanding of the topics you comment on is current. This means going back to step one over and over to do more research. Don't Forget Your Internal Influencers It's easy to overlook some very important influencers: Your employees! At their heart, CSR programs are grassroots efforts. You have to get company buy-in by empowering the internal influencers who can motivate change across your organization. A top-down approach doesn't work as well. The collective online reach of your workforce would be a huge miss to ignore. Think of how many Facebook friends, Twitter followers, LinkedIn connections, etc. that each employee has – it starts to add up. Whether it's charitable giving, an office volunteer day, or a long-term CSR program, you want to tell people about it. Encourage your employees to share – with photos and videos – what they're doing. Then amplify their posts by curating and re-sharing some of them on your own channels. Doing so can have a significant effect on staff morale. People want to feel good about what they do and who they work for. A well-communicated CSR program will make a positive impact not only on the environment and community, but also on sales, recruiting, and employee retention. It's a win all the way around. If you’re not leveraging your CSR initiatives and other company enrichment programs in your public relations strategy, you’re not taking full advantage of PR’s power. Download Best Practices for Growth: Aligning PR Programs to Corporate Strategy to learn more about using public relations to influence everything from your company's web traffic and lead generation to buyer and investor decisions. Victoria Harres is vice president, strategic communications and content at PR Newswire. She was the original twitterer on @PRNewswire and continues as part of that team. If she's not at her desk, you'll find her in the garden. | 
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