How to write about CSR without virtue-signalling

Writing about corporate social responsibility without sounding self-congratulatory can be challenging. Here’s how to stay humble while getting your message across.

Any modern business worth its salt takes corporate social responsibility (CSR) seriously. In the B2B world, most invitation-to-tender (ITT) documents now require prospective suppliers to demonstrate how they support their workforce, stakeholders and local communities, while shared values continue to drive brand loyalty in the B2C space.

But meaningful CSR is more than a mere box-ticking exercise. It involves policies, initiatives and behaviours that your company would commit to even if no one were paying attention. It’s no surprise, therefore, that the most impactful examples are often associated with purpose-driven organisations (think Tony’s Chocolonely or Allbirds). Poor practice, meanwhile, tends to be most obvious when companies’ marketing campaigns court positive publicity regardless of the facts (Volkswagen’s ‘Clean Diesel’ scandal still looms large, despite coming to light almost a decade ago).

Of course, this doesn’t mean that a corporation is guilty of performative ethics simply because it chooses to discuss CSR. On the contrary, today’s consumers and service users want to be reassured that the brands they choose to deal with share their principles, meaning it’s never been more important to communicate how your organisation lives and breathes its values.

So, how can we write about CSR without making our target audience cringe?

Don’t focus on your brand
Firms that ‘do CSR well’ rarely make themselves the centre of attention. For instance, visit the homepage of the aforementioned Tony’s Chocolonely and you’ll notice that the company’s mission shares an equal footing with its online store.

Even global conglomerates are capable of discussing responsible operations without prioritising brand promotion. Check out Marriott International’s sustainability and social impact programme, Serve360, whose webpage is entirely focused on the issues the corporation is working to address (a quick CTRL-F search will reveal that the brand itself barely gets a mention).

In short, you should never view CSR as an opportunity for self-praise. Try to stay focused on the issues that are driving your activities and the specific steps you are taking to achieve a measurable impact. If you’re lucky, your audience may even start saying nice things about your brand, meaning you don’t have to.

Think collaboratively
Doing good is not a competition; it’s a team game. Even the Marriotts of this world are not capable of meeting UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) unilaterally. Social impact is maximised when organisations pool resources, share expertise and celebrate one another’s achievements. 

For instance, when Volvo engineer Nils Bohlin invented the three-point seat belt in 1959, his bosses must have at least considered the money-making potential of this revolutionary safety feature. Yet the Swedish automaker chose to prioritise people’s lives over profitability, opening up the patent to its competitors in an example of corporate altruism that is still talked about to this day.

So, try not to get too protective over your achievements, remain open to partnership opportunities, and don’t be reluctant to give credit where credit’s due – even if that means praising your competitors.

Link back to your values
This is a good rule to follow when writing about CSR, but it’s also worth bearing in mind when you’re planning initiatives. Always question why exactly you’re doing what you’re doing. How do your activities reflect and reinforce your company’s core values?

Remember that values are foundational. If a company appears to change its priorities from month to month – especially when these priorities seem to coincide with whatever is ‘trending’ at the time – the chances are it’s either lacking core values or not taking them seriously. One-off publicity stunts may get your name out there, but your audience will soon grow wise to your antics if you fail to follow through with meaningful, long-term action.

True social responsibility forms a central component of an organisation’s culture. In turn, brand loyalty and repeat business come when customers and service users have confidence that your firm will continue to operate based on its core principles year in, year out.

Be honest
As with all aspects of your business, transparency is paramount. Do not fall into the trap of overstating your organisation’s CSR-related investments, activities or achievements.

“But everyone exaggerates their social impact,” I hear you cry. Well a) no they don’t, and b) those that do are only setting themselves up for a fall. Best-case scenario: you’ll succeed in deceiving your audience and building a reputation for something you’re not actually doing. Worst-case scenario: you’ll be found out and spend years working to undo the resultant reputational damage.

Remember, when it comes to CSR, your organisation is not the story. More importantly, customers and clients can smell bullshit a mile off.

Exercise forgiveness (where possible)
Rather than a tip for business leaders or marcoms professionals, this is more of a general plea to audiences: try to give people the benefit of the doubt – at least in the first instance.

When companies appear intent on congratulating themselves or, worse still, fail to practise what they preach, it’s immensely tempting (and, let’s face it, satisfying) to call them out. Public scrutiny also plays an important role in ensuring corporations are held accountable for their actions. After all, nothing inspires organisational change faster than the prospect of vanishing profit margins.

Nevertheless, the individuals responsible for corporate marketing and communications are, by and large, just trying to do their job as best they can – often under difficult circumstances – so try not to make it personal. Moreover, not every reference to a company’s CSR activities constitutes virtue-signalling. If an organisation is achieving a positive social impact while remaining true to its core values and avoiding self-praise, it deserves the opportunity to talk about its successes.

Even corporations that drop the ball may merit a redemption arc. For instance, you’re probably aware of the 2015 Volkswagen emissions scandal I mentioned at the beginning of this article, but did you know about the organisational transformation this controversy precipitated? CSR is best viewed as a journey, not a destination.

So, if brands are able to write about social impact in an issues-based, collaborative, value-driven and transparent manner, and audiences are willing to avoid making unfair accusations about self-promotion and hypocrisy, who knows? Perhaps one day soon we’ll be able to engage in grown-up conversations about CSR that feature only trace amounts of cringe.

Was this post useful? Follow ChattyDuck on LinkedIn for monthly insights into messaging, branding and content creation.