Envirocomm

Beyond Followers: Scaling up to Stakeholder Advocacy
September 3, 2012

Research and studies by the Arthur W. Page Society indicate that corporate chief communication officers (CCOs) are building toward accountability for improving advocacy within the company's stakeholder universe. CCOs are:

Designing information, messages and assets so that they are found via search and shareable via social media.
Creating web tools — such as expertise location systems — that automate the insertion of knowledge and individual experts into situations where they will be of value
Working with peers in industry, government, NGOs and elsewhere to establish independent institutions that pool resources and drive advocacy. Ultimately, says the Page Society, CCOs enabling advocacy among followers and believers will require chief communicators to go beyond the development of messages, positioning and policy, to actively engage in day-to-day management of the enterprise.

Such an expanded accountability, Page suggests, means chief communicators must take on new roles as integrators, system designers, masters of data analytics, publishers and developers, students of behavioral science, and curators of corporate character.

It is a challenge in new and changing territories. What does each of these role categories contain and require? Here are current (2012) Page Society findings and insights:

Integrators

The CCO must integrate skills and responsibilities across the C-suite to make a company think and perform like its corporate character. The CCO can help formulate formulation, develop management systems, identify opportunities and implement insights.

System designers

A social media strategy, for example, is inherently cross-enterprise and systemic. It must be designed and optimized like any complex system.

Masters of data analytics

CCOs will need to build the capabilities to understand a broad range of their enterprise's data, as well as the growing mountain of information produced in social networks — and they will need to be able to do so in real time.

Publishers and developers

CCOs can provide facts and evidence, create opportunities for stakeholders to have a personal experience, produce applications that show "how to" and present role models of desired behavior. This can be done through a combination of paid, owned and earned media.

Students of behavioral science

Now that the CCO job has expanded to include shaping cultures, attitudes and beliefs, CCOs must be skilled in how those dimensions of organizations, societies and individuals are formed and evolve today.

Curators of corporate character

The CCO must lead the company in establishing and implementing management systems to define and activate corporate character.

(Source: for further study on this concept and the CCO path ahead, see the Arthur W. Page Society's 2012 report, Building Belief: A New Model for Activating Corporate Character and Authentic Advocacy)

E. Bruce Harrison, September 3, 2012

    Bruce Harrison is an adjunct professor in the master's program at
    Georgetown University, Washington, DC. He and Judith Muhlberger teach
    courses in leadership communications and corporate crisis communications.

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