McDonald’s has turned to internet ‘blogging’ to help it communicate its corporate responsibility messages.
The
global foodservice retailer has started a dedicated blogging site led
by Bob Langert, its senior social responsibility director, who posts
regular thoughts on the company’s activities and responds to feedback
from site visitors who post comments. Already it is attracting between
700 and 1000 visitors a day.
The relatively new phenomenon of
blogging, short for weblogging, typically involves individuals posting
diary-style entries on a website, often with an invitation to readers
to respond with their thoughts or to enter into debates.
Recent
postings on the McDonald’s site, called Open for discussion, have
included Langert’s observations on conserving fish supplies, his
criticisms of a new book on the fast food industry, and background
pieces on food quality and packaging.
All readers’ comments,
critical or otherwise, are posted, unless deemed to be vulgar or
offensive. Further responses are offered by Langert in reply to
subsidiary questions or ideas, and occasional blogs are written by
other senior staff.
Most of the comments from readers,
including present and former McDonald’s employees, have so far been
favourable. Langert added that discussion of the blog’s contents had
also appeared on other sites. ‘My intuition is that it’s getting some
good discussion going on the wider blogosphere,’ he told EP.
Running
costs are negligible, the main call being on Langert’s time. ‘I’m
committed to doing one blog a week, which I thought would be a piece of
cake, but it’s hard to fit in with all my other work,’ he said.
Langert added that the company had chosen blogging to ‘share what we’re doing and learn what people think’.
Brendan
May, head of corporate responsibility and sustainability at the public
relations consultancy Weber Shandwick Worldwide, said McDonald’s use of
blogging was an interesting experiment. ‘Blogs are accessible,
interactive and engaging. They bring whole new ways of communicating
with consumers and other stakeholders,’ he told EP.
‘The fit
between blogging, which is the communication channel of the future, and
CSR, which is the behaviour of the future, is obvious. As long as blogs
truly offer open dialogue, available to all, they have the potential
finally to end the curse of bland corporate-speak.’
Mallen
Baker, development director of Business in the Community, who writes
his own blog on business responsibility , said: ‘CSR blogs can be a
good tool for companies that are typically viewed as faceless brands –
because they can put some humanity and, hopefully, humility into the
work that they’re doing. However, if you’re also strictly toeing the
corporate line, it can make the result a little bland and lose the
impact. The McDonald’s blog is certainly coming close to that line.’
