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Corporate/Social Responsibility & Search Engine Marketing is Good Business
October 19, 2008 |
I’VE MENTIONED BEFORE that I find most of my inspiration and motivation for work and life outside of the industry I work in. One of the publications in my back pocket includes GOOD Magazine . GOOD is unique in that it “gives away all membership fees and allows you to choose which organization you would like to support. In other words… it empowers people who are driving change in the world.”. I recently sent a close friend a subscription and donated the subscription fee to 826 National - another one of my inspirations.
The recent issue of GOOD included a copy of a new project by GOOD and B Corporation simply called GOOD Business . In the same way GOOD Magazine is unique in its ability to let a user choose where it can donate the subscription fees and is written from a bottom-up perspective rather than a top-down narrative, GOOD Business is unique in that its mission is to focus on redefining what it means to be a good business.
In his welcome letter to the reader, Johnathan Greenblatt , CEO of GOOD writes about the new partnership with B Corporation and its co-founder Jay Coen Gilbert . Both men have backgrounds as social entrepreneurs so the partnership not only makes sense but should help keep the focus on businesses that share similar corporate and social responsibilities. Currently there are 134 companies certified as B Corporation, through its B labs organization, based on a very specific set of standards. It is free to apply for a B Rating and depending on you industry you are surveyed and measured on things like environmental footprint, environmental and social performance and assesses your impact on stakeholders. The hope is that as the list of B Corporations grows this way of doing good business will become the standard, not the nice to have.
Who’s Who and Who’s Not a B Corp
There is a complete list of the 134 B rated companies and partners available at bcorporation.net/community . The list extends across 31 industries totaling close to $1 Billion in marketplace share. Less than half the states in the US are home to a B Corporation with most of those states located on the West Coast and the North East. Overall California is the state with the most B rated companies (39) with my home state of Pennsylvania coming in second with 26 B rated companies. Locally the White Dog Cafe and One Village Coffee are two of my favorites. Nationally companies like Seventh Generation , Method , Numi Organic Tea , The Green Office and Greyston Bakery are ones I favor. In fact, earlier this year I wrote about Bernie Glassman, the founder of Greyston Bakery and his dedication to community and use of JIT in the baking process. Julius Walls Jr., President and CEO of Greyston Bakery is featured in GOOD Business as a pioneer of socially conscious business leaders.
Most, if not all of the companies on the list you have probably never heard of. These companies are not the Apples, GE’s or Citicorps of the world - companies that are in our faces everyday because they can afford to - which is even more reason to support B rated companies. Not even Toyota (toyota.com/whynot ), who many would argue is the true pioneer of corporate and social responsibility and sustainability is on the list - yet.
This is not to suggest that Fortune 100, 500 or 1000 companies do not give back socially. Some do more than others, but I would assume that most do not do so as a part of their mission, but more so as an after thought only paying lips service to being a good company.
Making Search Good
Sadly there are no Online or Search Engine Marketing agencies or software providers on the list of 134 B Corporations. There are marketing, advertising and technology related companies on the list but none are dedicated to Search. Again, this is not to suggest that there are no socially conscious Search agencies here in the states. The B Corporation certification of this new class of business is very new and I would expect the list of marketing and advertising agencies with a strong hand in Search to begin to populate. Locally here in Philadelphia SEER Interactivelead by Wil Reynolds would be a good (no pun intended…) candidate. Aside from their work in SEO, Interactive Marketing and Conversion, SEER employees are encouraged to volunteer at an organization of their choosing.
Quality in Search, this blog, makes an attempt to be environmentally conscious by maintaining a Carbon Neutral website and promoting businesses such as The Green Office through its affiliate marketing program. Quality in Search is a member of the Sustainable Business Network of Philadelphia and also supports Yahoo! Green and the Environmental Defense Fund .
In thinking about ways to make Search good there are a few things you might want to consider. The easiest way to begin a socially conscious program at your company is to donate your time. This is a very fast paced industry and it is very helpful to have the right processes and standards in place to allow your staff the free time to donate. Another consideration is to seek out clients who themselves have a socially conscious mission built into their corporate strategy. Selectively picking clients is not an easy task, but it does help integrating a client into your process easier.
On a much larger scale it would be interesting to petition the three companies that dominate the Paid Search Marketing space, Google, Yahoo! & MSN, to house their data warehouses in environmentally, green ways. The amount of energy required to store all paid search keywords and their corresponding data is massive and probably unknown to a large extent. Making the ‘big three’ make this information transparent and what they do to reduce energy consumption and carbon footprint would be more useful than increasing keyword costs in order to pay their growing utilities bill.
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