Once down to 8 tracks, they have to choose just 1 as their ultimate desert island disc.

No doubt each variant of someone’s list represents just a snapshot, and if asked a little later, their list would sound very different. After all, your focus and interests change all the time…

This is rather how I feel about conference programmes. There are always a few sessions that are standout interesting at the time; and your standout sessions probably wouldn’t be the same as mine. Creating a set-list that’s going to appeal to as many people as possible, must be a very difficult task.

It’s time for the 3rd Communicate Reputation in Oil Gas and Mining conference, aimed at those with responsibility for brand management, corporate comms, internal comms and strategy. It’s on the 13th June, in central London, and will be looking at crisis management, digital media, employee engagement, internal comms, social media and more.

I’ve been to several Communicate conferences now, and the pick-list of sessions is always good. There are several sessions I’m particularly looking forward to, but if I had to pick my Desert Island session, it would be Behind the Scenes, looking at video.

I’ve been researching the use of video on the corporate website recently, and have watched many, many more than is probably sensible. The speaker, Stephen Golding from Tullow Oil, is going to look at video in internal comms, and it should be fascinating. Some of the external-facing videos I’ve spotted on corporate websites communicate their messages very strongly…

Here’s the IBM Diversity video, for example, which I think does a great job of ‘show don’t tell’ in communicating their corporate culture—and demonstrating just how long this has been a company value. It’s not new, but is worth watching to see how they do it. It’s on the corporate website diversity page too.

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My second pick would be the “Daimler For Me Is…” video. This is used on the corporate website too, and is a great example of combining/linking videos. You can click the video at various points when a particular individual is talking to see another video with more detail about a them and their viewpoint. View it on the corporate website for best effect.

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Do come to the conference if you can; the Communicate conferences are always worth attending. If you haven’t booked your ticket yet, it’s not too late: check out the conference programme and book — and let me know if the session you’d pick to be saved from the waves would be the same as mine. See you there?

 Communicate: the Desert Island Session

He reflects on how he caught the digital wave, which corporate sites he rates, and offers some key lessons in getting into social media from a corporate perspective.

Do take time to listen. It is a long and discursive interview with some great tips, well worth listening to in its entirety.

I’ve broken the interview down into smaller pieces, so that you can quickly find particular points you’d like to hear about. I’ve also included the whole interview and a transcript.

Part 1: Looking back: junior reporter to digital leader

Key points:

• Learning lessons from newspapers
  • targeting content for specific audiences
  • building content on a schedule
  • storytelling and simplicity
• Taking advantage of technology shifts
  • text editing to desktop publishing
  • internal comms: print to intranet
  • external comms: product focus to strategic editorial management

Soundbite:
“We started with a site which was a niche product for PLC stakeholders, and what we have now is the company’s biggest storytelling machine… The majority of the audience now, which is quickly growing, is not your shareholders, or your analysts, or your fund managers, or your city journalists: it’s everyday customers who come into contact with Aviva and want to know more about us”

Part 2: What characterises the best sites today?

Key points:

• role of content in transparency and trust
• releasing corporate content into the wild
• connection of trust with social technologies
• a content strategy that helps elevate the content

Soundbite:
“We did some user experience studio stuff with a fund manager. He was asked “How do you use corporate websites?” … He said “My team, that’s their job. I used to do it. We pore over sites like this because that’s where the information is. And we make judgements about how successful it is, and whether we can get the information, and things like that, which gives us a barometer on how healthy we think the company is”

Part 3: The websites that stand out

Key points:

• significance of the peer group – and eating each others lunch
• comparison across industries, and in different countries
• best big companies…
• …and learning from the little ones

Soundbite:
“Major companies get stricken sometimes by this legacy. They’ve been around a long time…”This is the way we do it round here”… When you look at these new companies, they’re not often hamstrung by this… I am fascinated by the way they would tackle similar things, the agility of flexibility they’ve shown… Those are real rich pickings for learning, education, knowledge”

Part 4: Social behaviour, and the need for future planning

Key points:

• the internet in your hand
• expectations of the future
• significance of individual’s choice in communications

Soundbite:
“The real big ticket thing is actually planning about 3, 5, 7, 9 years time. Because my daughter, if she goes into further education, by the time her and her ilk come out into the big wide world of ugly work in their early twenties, say, they are going to be bringing a technological driven level of expectation that’s unbelievable. So they’re going to be saying:

• “I want to be a customer of yours and I do things like this so what have you got? How can I do it?”
• Or “I want to be part of the community so I’m interested in these things so how do I….?”
• Or “I’m going to be working for you so what kind of tools have you got that can help me do my job for you better?”
• Or finally “I might be a shareholder, so… I don’t want to turn up physically. I don’t ever want to walk in your office but I want to be part of your business and have a connection with you.
• So what have you got? Oh you haven’t got that. Well perhaps I’ll go over there because they seem to have got it and that fits with me.”

And I think every business should be thinking about this change that’s happening.”

Part 5: How Aviva built up experience in using social media

Key points:

• experimentation and courage
• getting it right… and wrong
• understanding the sense of connection and passion

Soundbite:
“We had the opportunity to support a round the world sailor called Dee Caffari … we used what was then called the Aviva Challenge as our laboratory… an opportunity to understand how this thing worked, why people find it interesting, why they engage with it and its implications for more corporate communications through your dot-com.

…The other thing I think is just being brave”

Part 6: Communicating with shareholders

Key points:

• the next step online for retail shareholders
• webcasts and transparency
• expanding the appeal of the corporate investor site

Soundbite:
“Retail shareholders are one of the areas that companies can really mine and I think they would like to take part in this as well…The Holy Grail is that someone recommends you to their friend or family. A shareholder might say “I really like this company because they keep me informed, the share price is good, the dividend is good…” – all these other things that are the decision maker – “But actually I really like the way I feel engaged in with the company, communicated to, part of it, opportunity to vote online for the AGM, see the workings of the meeting, do anything really.” And I think that’s a potential growth area”

Part 7: Selling the social media strategy

Key points:

• “Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should”
• learning from companies outside the industry
• increasing time on site…
• …or making it easier for them to get what they need and leave

Soundbite:
“We started to think about Twitter and in 14 months we’re now just hitting through the 1,000 [followers] mark. And then you look at the make-up, who’s bothering about this? Why would we do it? Well because other people, whether it’s analysts or journalists, are electing to get their news like this. They might have RSS, they might have signed up to our email drop from dot-com. But their behaviours are perhaps changing.”

Part 8: Getting into Facebook with a major brand campaign

Key points:

• raising brand awareness
• connecting with key influencers…
• …but enabling everyone else to participate
• connecting social networks and big business
• interesting tools that may – or may not – be the next big thing.

Soundbite:
“For a company like Aviva and its 53.4 million customers around the world (quite a sizeable number in the UK), it’s not too much of a stretch to work out that many of them will be on Facebook. So thinking about “Right, are we ready to have, say, an e-commerce motor and household page?”, perhaps Aviva is not, and many insurers might not be ready for that, but thinking about “Well where we should be in three years with this?” If we’re seeing this growth and Facebook are pretty definite they want a billion subscribers within perhaps another two years and given their current rate of progress would you bet against it? No. ”

Here’s the whole interview, in case you’d rather listen to it end-to-end; and the transcript, for those who prefer to read.

Many thanks to Stuart for taking the time to talk to Paul.

Who were we speaking to?

Stuart Bartram led the development of Aviva’s online corporate estate for 11 years.

The global insurance company has been considered among the leaders in FTSE 100 digital corporate communications. Its online communications challenge is a complex one, balancing the demands and opportunities of a dynamic consumer brand and an extensive global portfolio of websites.

Over recent years Aviva has embraced social media, personalisation and specific content for mobile devices within its evolving digital strategy.

Reporting to Aviva’s global brand development director, Stuart was at the heart of this strategy with his team also playing a key role in developing the digital presence for Aviva’s first global brand campaign: You Are The Big Picture.

Before joining Aviva Stuart spent 10 years as a journalist.

Married with two daughters, he lives in Norfolk and is a governor at Norwich University College of the Arts.

Stuart is on LinkedIn and Twitter.

 Interview with Stuart Bartram: Catching The Digital Wave

Coca-Cola

Do you think this site is designed only for the British? It has a UK URL, and the audio clip used of their focus group contains some quite strong northern British dialects, which maybe people coming across this from abroad may struggle with. It reminds me very strongly of the Nick Park adverts for electricity … and if it is UK only, why?

This is an opportunity for people to ask questions of Coca-Cola, and receive answers within 3 days if the question is fairly straightforward. Some questions have already been posted covering the product, the health issues and corporate social responsibility. Answers have also been provided though these are questions that may have been raised during the focus groups used in developing this tool, and do look very like FAQ, so may have been pre-loaded.

It is easy to ask a question, and to rate the answers so far provided. I’ve done both, and although my rating appeared instantly, I’ve yet to receive an answer – I’ll let you know if I get one.

But there’s more. The site is set up so visitors can register for alerts, and interested people can apply to become part of the conversation – part of the consultation panel, as it were – requiring 1 or 2 days over the next year.

I think this is a great way of identifying people with strong views on Coca-Cola’s industry (for or against) and engaging them in discussion. And Coca-Cola deserves credit for putting a transcript of the audio clip on this tiny site.

I’ve seen Ask the CEO pages on other sites (I’m sure Sainsbury used to do it), but this is a very pleasant and friendly way of handling this type of interaction – and couldn’t it be used as part of a general FAQ section too?

 Want to talk to Coca-Cola?

But how can you demonstrate that you genuinely do, and that you actively consider human rights in your business? Showing is always better than telling…

Here are a few examples of what some of the biggest companies do when discussing human rights on their corporate websites.

Show the relevance of human rights to your company

There are several items in the list of Rights, but there are four that might be particularly appropriate to consider:

• No discrimination

  Diversity pages are increasingly common on corporate websites. Consider whether this is best placed in an About Us section, or in a Careers section. Note also, here in the UK, the need to consider diversity at Board level after the Davies Report.

• Freedom of association and the right to collective bargaining

  This is much less frequently seen, but one example is Volvo, who make it clear that these principles are covered in their Code of Conduct (that page is called Human Rights in Operation). Another is Anglo American on their Labour Relations page where they outline their commitment to these rights. Both these companies extend their discussion of human rights on other pages across their sites.

• No slavery or forced labour

  Child labour or forced labour is not relevant to all companies, but can crop up in several industries, especially in discussion of your supply chain. If there is any risk that your industry is one of these, consider discussing your approach to handling these issues in an Ethics or Corporate Social Responsibility section. (See examples of this below)

• Right to a private and family life

  This one is probably only indirectly relevant, at least to most companies, but there are a few who make a point of associating work/life balance with this human right.

You may have other, more relevant aspects to consider…

For example, African Barrick Gold have an interesting explanation on Security and Human Rights of what they are doing as part of their human rights activity: training stakeholders in human rights and supporting local government and law enforcement agencies in providing training in adherence to international human rights norms.

Note the progress/priorities sections at the bottom of this section…

Create – and make available – a human rights policy

G4S provide a page specifically about developing their policy—there’s also a press release announcing the new policy.

Note that they have posted a letter from an external expert explaining his involvement, and confirming that he believes the people at G4S he has worked with have shown real intent to produce a meaningful policy. As in so many things, external assurance helps convince the reader.

There’s more: they’ve included a presentation on human rights available for download, and they’ve outlined the next steps in their project to evaluate the ‘human rights landscape’ at G4S: how they will promote and integrate the policy.

Don’t forget to include your human rights policy or statement on the website. It’s good to see PDF content written out in full, but if your policy is long, attach it in a PDF, and offer a summary on the webpage.

Explain in detail your approach to applying the policy ‘in real life’

Rio Tinto devote a long page to their human rights approach, covering:

• Policy (and date of update)
• Due diligence “avoiding involvement in human rights harm by others, including business partners”
• Respecting the diversity of indigenous peoples
• Human rights risks
• Approach: policy/procedures/training/risk analyses
• International commitments, partnerships and publications

Chevron includes human rights as one of their Global Issues and also discuss human rights on a dedicated page in their Corporate Responsibility Approach section, where they include video and offer links to a variety of PDFs and external resources, including their efforts to address the risk of forced labour and human trafficking in their supply chain.

These are all good ways to highlight your human rights activities.

Ideally, it’s a good idea to provide some measures of success as well. One option would to use the GRI framework to measure progress – National Grid, for example do this. Another idea would be to include external ratings/awards as evidence of success in different areas (e.g. Chevron include their rating of 100% on the Human Rights Campaign Corporate Equality Index in their CSR report). And including case studies in CSR reporting is a popular option.

Interestingly, Mondelez International has a discussion of their verification system on their CocoaLife site:

“A verification system is a way to give voice to the people in cocoa-growing communities and it’s one of the three core principles of the Cocoa Life program. A verification system is an external set of eyes and ears, both looking and listening, to make sure that the program is doing what it set out to do. It’s similar to the model of verifying in the financial sector where books are kept and then auditors check those books. The big difference, however, is that money is quantitative and should be black and white, while human rights are qualitative and therefore not as clear-cut.”

It’s worth a read: scroll down the page to see what Mil Niepold has to say about verification.

Extend your approach to your sphere of influence

Companies sometimes talk about their sphere of influence. Often this means working with suppliers and partners; sometimes it means working with governments or other organisations.

• Sector

  Barclays and RBS both explain how they work with the Thun Group (an informal group of European banks) to create a discussion paper(PDF) for banks about business and human rights.

• Supply Chain

  British American Tobacco have a page called Human Rights in the Supply Chain where they discuss how they incorporate human rights criteria into their major supply chain programmes.

  They also specifically discuss the issue of child labour in cultures where children assist their parents in domestic/agricultural chores. Since BAT has an agricultural supply chain, this is clearly a very relevant issue for them. They link this page to other highly relevant pages on their site: Managing Human Rights, Social Responsibility in Tobacco Production, and their supplier assessment tool. This is a good example of how to interlink pages to demonstrate consistency and depth of approach.

• Government agencies

  African Barrick Gold explain how they are working with the Tanzanian police force:

  “ABG is the first and only private company to comprehensively engage with senior Tanzanian government officials and local law enforcement agencies to encourage and support the provision of Voluntary Principles [on Security and Human Rights] training to these agencies and the adherence to international human rights norms.”

Make it clear and interesting

And finally…

Sometimes policy pages are little more than a list of downloads. Consider using a different medium: for instance, Volvo Group provide a video outlining their approach; as we’ve seen, Chevron offer a case-study video discussing one particular aspect of their human rights policy.

And good use of language, font and layout can help. CapGemini communicate their sustainable procurement policy very clearly and the human rights elements can be clearly seen.

***

This post is part of Blog Action Day, which this year is discussing human rights.

Previous contributions to Blog Action Day have been:
2012: One Plus One Can Be Greater Than Two
2011: Lessons From Food Security: Telling Us What Matters
2010: Mixing Oil and Water
2009: Climate change and the corporate site
2008: Celebrating the FTSE 100: action on the breadline
2007: Enticing the green investor

 Communicating Commitment to Human Rights

It is after all the crucial interface through which businesses, big and small, market their products, build brand recognition and expand their client base.

However the digital interface is much more than a dry marketing and business development tool: it’s the company’s face, voice and personality. The medium through which the modern international can connect personally with browsers and express its characteristics, values, principles and outlook on the world.

By doing this the corporate can draw out brand admiration and build brand affinity, loyalty, consumer respect and a sense of rapport. The rewards for the company that does this well are great.

But how well are big corporates doing this and who’s setting the industry standard?

To answer this we’re going to have a look at a selection of the Most Admired Companies of 2012 as named by Fortune Magazine.

The subject of this first review will be the inimitable Starbucks Coffee Company which came 8th in this year’s Fortune rankings.

First Impressions

As we’ve discussed before, first impressions and aesthetics are crucial to the user experience.

The first impressions of the Starbucks site are pleasing to the eye: the web designers have given an open and relaxed feeling to the digital interface and its balance, ambiance and layout work well.

Content

So we know that the first impressions are critical and that Starbucks does this well.

But any website cannot rely solely on looks, but also requires the backing of strong digital content that engages and informs the user.

The content is the vehicle through which a corporate can deliver its message and portray its values and personality.

I have noted a few characteristics of Starbucks that really became apparent as I passed through the site and engaged with its content:

• Firstly, the website makes Starbucks come across as personable and engaging: the site has an easy access video of one of their resident baristas, Jack from Romford, who provides a walk through guide on how to make the perfect cup of coffee.
• Trendy and up to date: the Starbucks site offers a free weekly iTunes download which gives the impression of a company that is really ‘with-it’.
• Innovative: Starbucks talks about new technologies including its new mobile payment system. It also introduces new produce which paints a picture of a company constantly thinking of new and exciting ideas for the customer.
• Strong blogging content: this is important for any ambitious company and for a conglomerate the rule applies no differently. The blog content is engaging and relevant: discussing jobs, opportunities and the skills needed to be a barrista, as well as the personal stories of the workers – very engaging!The blog also talks about what goes into making fresh products which is very important for the customer conscious of what is in their food.

  However the blog doesn’t appear on the dashboard but can be found tucked down the side. The blog posts are also undated and this takes away a little from the integrity of the commentary as we don’t know if the content is fresh or stale. Remember it’s the simple things that matter!

• Strong ethics and social conscience: corporate social responsibility has always been a big selling point for Starbucks and this is a big part of their website. But they go further than just providing ethically sourced coffee; they also work with the local community which adds real brownie points.
• Social media literate: Starbucks has a strong social media footprint and they really get how it works. The range of social media channels, laid out very clearly, really complements the website. This shows not only a commitment to innovation and process improvement but it also shows that Starbucks is a company that wants to actively communicate with its customers.
• Navigability: underpinning all traits noted above is easy navigation which adds to the user experience and gives a real bring-back-ability’

All in all Starbucks has ensured that their web team not only created a top website but maintain a top website with fresh, engaging and innovative content.

Remember a corporate website isn’t just for Christmas!

I was particularly keen on the range of media that the web designers use, from video, to blogs, interviews and social media. This versatility and range of digital tools really adds crunch, taste and bite to the palate.

However I did note a few points that I thought could be worked on.

The in-shop experience in Starbucks is certainly unique: a sort of refuge for the academic, bookish and artsy types. It also gives off real creative vibes.

However I didn’t exactly feel that they played on this point. They did offer the iTunes “pick of the week” but they could do more with this.

They could engage with book reviews, book offers, and a book of the week award, music reviews or even a recommended playlist. They could also produce online art galleries, showcasing the work of local artists; after all they do this in-shop, so why not online?

All things considered Starbucks ticks all the boxes for a strong corporate website very well: it does the simple things right, conveys its message with fluency, makes the company seem personable and gives the browser and prospective customer every reason to believe that Starbucks not only sells top products but that it’s a thoroughly ‘with-it’ company.

 Conveying Corporate Stewardship