Blend brand with online communities

When future historians come to look back at this period, it will perhaps go down as a truly turbulent age as old orders are swept aside, consumers are liberated and the masses mobilised. The historians might well point to the growth of macro trends such as secularism and individualism, all enabled by the seemingly unstoppable force of newly emergent social networks and the technologies that underpin them. Tipping points abound, and lessons are being learned in boardrooms and governments worldwide. People power, when focused and channelled, can be an awe inspiring force.

Think of the huge public gatherings of the 1980s, from the Philippines to Prague. Or the movements around charity fund-raising to relieve famine in Africa.

Then add the connecting force of 21st century communications networks and social platforms, and the implications are clear: people no longer need a physical space to congregate and deliver a potent message. Or, indeed, to rally behind a cause. You can rally behind it wherever you are.

All of which gives today's connected brands a lot to chew over. We know that when big brands make big mistakes (and here I'm thinking of BP, Toyota and News Corporation), the reaction in cyberspace can be positively apoplectic... and equally unforgiving.

But could the flip side of these new online communities be a force if the brands recruit customer advocates to follow, stimulate and sustain their own branded social campaigns?

For those who champion the importance of corporate social responsibility (CSR) in the world's biggest corporations, this would surely be nirvana: publicly-acknowledged philanthropy and customer involvement, each reinforcing the other.

It's not as easy as it sounds. The first barrier to surmount is consumer scepticism: Why should you, Brand X, wish to suddenly and from nowhere support grassroots athletics? Or provide free books for schools? Or save my local swimming pool? Or support Scottish farmers? You're salving your corporate conscience to make me feel marginally better about your record profits.

It's an understandable reaction if yours is a brand with no track record of being nice to anyone, ever.

Building social networks around a brand's favoured ‘cause' needs to involve more than appointing a ‘charity of the year' and organising a family fun run. Brands can and should overcome the authenticity barrier by supporting causes with a tangible, real life link to their real world operations, building bridges around issues of common interest.

It's here that actions speak louder than words. So if you're an automotive brand, focus on child safety. If you're a detergent brand, help your poorer customers to replace their broken white goods.

The most valuable PR might be of the low-level, unreported variety that persuades a single, sceptical consumer that you are, in fact, okay.

Corporate responsibility campaigns should be more than tokenism flashes in the pan. They need to be fed, nurtured and sustained — particularly online where special interest communities thrive.

‘Giving something back' should always be something meaningful: and mobilising a new generation of mobile, vocal, active consumers around a common cause might just be it.

The writer is the CEO of Rufus Leonard, a brand and digital agency based in London and Dubai.