The world of corporate communications is changing. With the tools afforded by the internet, and blogging especially, there is a great blurring of private citizen communications and corporate communications that I see will bring great value to corporations and to corporate responsibility.

by Kevin Moss, Head of CSR at BT Americas.

Yesterday’s post, How to Get Your Sustainability Message Noticed in Cyberspace misses the true value of blogging to corporate responsibility.

The world of corporate communications is changing. There used to be a clear line of demarcation between the individual as an executive communicating a corporate message and the individual as a private citizen exchanging personal views. Corporate communications that represent the company position tend to be one to many. Private citizen communications would be two-way but limited to very small audiences.

With the tools afforded by the internet, and blogging especially, there is a great blurring of these two options that I see will bring great value to corporations and to corporate responsibility.

In large organizations, whether for-profit, NGOs or government, the individual connection between the employee and the external stakeholders can be lost. The internet is an equalizer for small to have an equal voice to large. And the internet also has the capacity to serve as the personalizer, allowing executives in large organizations to share their personal views and be more connected as individuals with their stakeholders.

Simply having a company blog open to comments from readers gives a key message on the importance and acceptance of differing viewpoints to that company. When truly an expression of the views of an individual business executive, blogging provides a strong foundation for individual accountability. And through opening him or herself up to a more personal connection with readers I believe the executive blogger (CR practitioner or otherwise) creates an environment in which the views of their external stakeholders are front of mind in their decision-making.

Blogging as a communications tool for CR practitioners is interesting, but blogging as a mechanism to bridge the gap between company executives and stakeholders is a compelling route to ever-improving corporate responsibility.

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Author: Kevin_Moss (8 Articles)

Kevin Moss, Head of Corporate Social Responsibility at BT Americas, has a passion for identifying and leveraging the intersection between the principles of sustainability and the business mission to deliver value to stakeholders. He has responsibility for implementation of BT's Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) strategy in North America, and strives to be a catalyst to help the company and their customers move forward on all aspects of sustainability. Kevin is the author of the blog, CRS Perspectives and has authored the Four Dimensions of Sustainability, as a straightforward framework to analyze an organization’s sustainability strategy through any of these lenses. Kevin also has experience working in the local US telecommunications environment. He previously oversaw voice and data product management for BT Americas, including product strategy, new product development and geographic expansion across systems, networks, operations and channels. He spent two years working at MCI following the passing of the 1996 Telecommunications Act, where he helped build local services, negotiated partner agreements and represented the company before state regulators. A British national, Kevin began his career in telecommunications in an international marketing role for BT in the UK.