Leadership Purpose

Over the past few years, we have witnessed huge changes across society. Financial crises, global pandemics and now war in Europe have all brought about far-reaching and unforeseeable consequences. The exponential evolution of technology is also disrupting how we live, work, socialise, and consume. The world is changing and it is doing so at breakneck speed.

The boundaries of organisations are more porous and there is a huge array of touchpoints between any organisation and its audiences. In this environment, reputation management is not just about the message, – instead it’s about grounding that message in purpose-led action.

We are seeing increased demand from our clients for support with CEO and executive social media profiling with a focus on purpose, and environmental, social, and governance (ESG) issues as they align with various targets including UN SDGs and NetZero, and in response to an increase in mandatory ESG reporting. This is an area of the communications mix that is growing in importance but which remains underexplored. For communicators, it presents opportunities but is also fraught with dangers.

That’s why we partnered with EACD to undertake research on the topic and start a conversation within our professional community.

In our joint research project with the European Association of Communications Directors (EACD), we spoke to communications professionals from around the world to find out what their organisations understood about the importance of ESG issues and the need to engage with stakeholders about these issues.

We particularly wanted to understand how businesses, organisations, and their senior executives are using social media to show leadership on the critical ESG issues of the day; to find out about their experiences, the hurdles they’ve encountered along the way, and the extent to which employees are traveling with them on their ESG journey.

The findings contained within this report will:

f

help communications professionals benchmark their progress on communicating about ESG issues and purpose on social media.

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give perspective on potential stumbling blocks.

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provide pointers to consider and adopt in working towards achieving better stakeholder engagement.

Download the full report

%

of respondents report an increase in their senior execs’ social media activity

There is a growing expectation that brands engage with their various audiences about ESG issues. So, it’s surprising that a significant minority of companies either don’t think that engaging on social is important enough or haven’t got around to it as a priority. engaging on social is important enough or haven’t got around to it as a priority.

Matthew Willis

Partner, Fourtold

Our executive thought leadership is a key part of our strategic communications, helping to protect and build our reputation, and social media is the leading channel we use to amplify this. It gives us control of the message/s, is easy to use, timely and complementary to the other channels we use. In particular, using LinkedIn allows our senior execs to talk about various issues in-depth, grounded in evidence and with passion.

Nicki Allitt

Vice President Group Comms, ISS

%

have seen no significant change in their senior execs’ activity on social media

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Find out how you can benchmark your progress, identify potential stumbling blocks and discover ways to achieve better stakeholder engagement.

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