Claire Burdett explains why social goodness is now a critical part of your company’s strategy for the future. Is your company helping or hurting the future – for its employees, its customers, society, and the planet? Not sure? It’s time we learn about why some companies succeed by spreading goodness, while others simply can’t.
Christian Sarkar, Co-author with Philip Kotler of Brand Activism: From Purpose to Action,
and co-founder of Wicked7
Every business and every inch of its supply chain is now in a glass house, visible to the world. Corporate spin can no longer obscure the decisions made in your boardroom. In Social Goodness, Claire Burdett shows why your actions speak louder than words, and how to thrive by doing so.
Douglas Burdett, Principal and Founder of Artillery. Host of The Marketing Book Podcast
What’s it about then?
Social Goodness is a guide to how your business can meet your customer’s expectations through your brand actions and so ensure you don’t just survive but thrive in the coming decade. Perfectly pitched for busy C-suite leaders and entrepreneurs it is a meticulously researched, comprehensive trendspotting business bible, which is an easy to read, enthralling, and engaging page turner.
Social Goodness forensically investigates current trends, like sustainability, human marketing and ESG, and joins the dots to show you how it all connects and affects businesses in the wider world. It looks at what works and what doesn’t for brands post-pandemic in the new ‘normal’. Social Goodness examines why some companies are getting it right both on social media and with their brand actions – and thriving as a result – and why others are experiencing severe backlash and criticism.
It takes a view from a different perspective of social media and the central role it now plays in society and for business. Most business leaders still think of social media as somehow ‘other’ – an add-on to the marketing and generally of minor importance to their core business unless a social media crisis erupts. Yet, as we saw throughout the last few years, social media is at once a reflection of offline life and a petri dish that causes and influences real life events. It has resulted in a fundamental and irrevocable shift in how business is conducted – i.e. business is now totally transparent at every point. People can see for themselves if companies are lying, and pressure brands to change their policies and strategies, boycott their products, get others to also avoid buying and quite literally topple major brands, if they are behaving inauthentically or unethically.
Brands are in a bind, and not just from Covid.
Many are also finding it increasingly difficult to reach their clients directly or even simply get seen or heard. Which is an issue when research shows that approximately 80% of people couldn’t care less if most brands just disappeared and largely treat brands as if they are interchangeable at the check out – because, in their minds, they are.
Online algorithms are set up to work against brands unless they are investing in paid advertising, yet advertising is increasingly ineffectual and about to get a make-over because of very real privacy concerns. Alongside this figures show that a significant percentage of advertising spend is actually being used to fund hate and disseminate misinformation – even when brands think they are spending ethically.
Big Tech is also under the microscope because of the damage their algorithms do to society, yet most of the platforms ignore the increasing calls for change. Why? Because their clients – the brands – aren’t protesting all that much so frightening outrages, such as the Capitol Hill riots despite being the consequence of their policies, isn’t affecting their bottom line in real terms. And brands – your brand – are directly responsible/contributing to that if you do any online advertising whatsoever.
So, how do you avoid becoming online toast? Is it possible to behave ethically and still make a profit? How can you gain online traction and visibility to become part of your clients’ world so you become visible, memorable and trusted – and so guarantee your brand’s survival and profit in the coming decade?
Don’t worry, we’ve got you covered…
Social Goodness is a thriller of a business book that provides the essential information and insights you need to know to survive and thrive in the ‘new normal’ – and, in the process, also save the actual world.
It’s a true win-win.
An inspiring read for business leaders and marketing professionals. Filled with ideas, tips, case studies. Strategic advice in an easy to read, easy to implement format. Highly recommended!
Kirsty Leighton, Founder & Managing Partner at Milk & Honey PR.
Fellow of PRCA. Forbes Contributor and Council Member
Claire Burdett
I’m an entrepreneur, a founder, a businesswoman, a writer, marketing pro, social media aficionado… I did a media degree in the 80s at the only university in Europe to offer it then. After graduating I worked in publishing, marketing, and the media. I’ve worked in digital and social media since its beginning and have founded three online businesses in that time, including the first dedicated Social Media Marketing Agency in the UK in 2008 (we met on social media, ran our office virtually from day one – and it is still going strong).
I’ve been tracking sustainability and applying it in my own life and business since, well, forever – with an allotment, making home produce and always upcycling and crafting in my twenties, way before it was fashionable. Yet I also loved tech and analytics, drilling down into the data and the whys and wherefores of how things happen online. And I’ve always been trendspotting, joining the dots to see the bigger picture to help people understand what is actually happening, and what action they should take to best support and grow their business or enterprise.
I’m also a prolific writer and have written thousands of articles for magazines and blogs, edited hundreds more, and authored nine books. Social Goodness is my tenth book and brings together everything I see happening in the world today and where we need to learn and adapt to properly manage and utilise these new social challenges that this big-bang of tech growth has given us.
Hands up it has been the hardest to write. That’s because it covers all the essential elements of the greater whole that we need to be socially conscious about in this superfast-moving digital age, and every week throughout 2020 something else would happen that needed to be included. So, I feel confident in saying it is very much on trend!
I hope you find it enlightening, useful, inspiring, and most of all, enjoyable.
TMMC imprint at The Media Marketing Co Ltd
As a brand that has always prioritised content, it made sense in 2020 for us to launch our own publishing imprint. Known as TMMC in a play on our brand ‘nickname’ we publish non-fiction, primarily marketing, social media, PR, business, and trendspotting books.
You can now buy the ebook or the paperback from Amazon or order a signed paperback copy of Social Goodness and receive a complimentary copy of the eBook and other goodies.
If you have a press enquiry please see details on our press page.
Distribution details and details of our other books can be found over on our parent website at The Media Marketing Co.
