Digital disruption is today's reality. Even in the relatively new field of corporate responsibility (CR) and sustainability digital and social media are forcing companies to make a 360-degree turn and revamp their communications, marketing, supply chain operations, and basically every part of the business. Why? Because digital has penetrated our personal and professional lives at every level, making direct two-way communications between consumers and brands possible anywhere, anytime. This, in turn, has resulted in increased customer expectations for brands to shift to an experience-based, consumer-centric approach to sustainability in digital channels.

A recent survey sheds some light on the rise of social media for corporate social responsibility (CSR) and sustainability.

The Lundquist CSR Online Awards Survey examines how experts in corporate responsibility, sustainability professionals and other stakeholders engage with companies. It also analyses how well Europe's top 100 companies respond to stakeholder needs with their corporate websites and associated digital presence.

Over 350 CSR experts and sustainability professionals from 44 countries have contributed, allowing to develop a clearer picture of the trends and user expectations about the use of social media for sustainability communications and stakeholder engagement.

Apparently, the Lundquist CSR Online Awards Survey has been carried out since 2007, but I wonder how I hadn't heard of it considering how thorough I was with my own research on social media for sustainability last year.

The main finding of the survey is that, just as many other industries, the field of CSR and sustainability is undergoing a profound shift. Digital disruption is reshaping outdated, entrenched corporate models.

Online, social and mobile are transforming the way we interact, consume, make purchase decisions and engage with companies.

According to Lundquist, "the penetration of digital and social channels into daily, working routines has reached a tipping point in terms of how people access corporate information and engage over environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues."

And that's a very positive thing, if you ask me! :)

The research has identified four main trends:

An ever increasing adoption of social media

• Social media networks are now legitimate channels for CSR comms with Facebook and LinkedIn leading in popularity. Digital is blurring the boundaries between professional and personal use.

A growing expectation for leadership to build and nurture personal relationships on the social web

• There is a requirement for leadership to get active on the social web and develop interpersonal relationships as consumers increasingly seek to engage with companies on social media around CSR topics. People want to talk to real people, not anonymous entities, which in turn makes social media the perfect platform for one-to-one, direct and reciprocal conversations.

A need to revamp traditional CSR communications

• CSR comms need to present relevant and useful information to the target audience, but they also need to be "packed" in the right form by adopting more innovative approaches such as infographics and videos, i.e. visual storytelling that is easy to absorb. Social media users expect to see frequent, concrete and sharable content that includes case studies and projects in action, answers to stakeholders’ questions, videos, news and updates on initiatives. This means that people are not interested in grand claims and general strategy overviews, but in concrete examples of how strategies are translated into everyday action and evidence of how companies are addressing major environment and social impacts.

A missed opportunity of integrating stakeholder feedback into the business

• Transparent and open stakeholder engagement that integrates community feedback into company operations is still an underutilised opportunity. Consumers increasingly expect companies to integrate the inputs received into the decision-making process.

One of the biggest benefits of social media is that it allows brands to create distinctiveness, it gives them the opportunity to stand out with their CSR communications approach. Integrating social media into sustainability is becoming inevitable because the need to go beyond just reporting is growing exponentially.

More and more companies seem to be making moves in the right direction and adopting digital with Deutsche Post DHL, Nestlé and Unilever being best performers in online CSR communications in Europe.

Sustainability is indeed becoming increasingly embedded into everyday business, but few utilise it for innovation. This is, in my opinion, is the biggest opportunity for brands – to actively integrate stakeholder feedback received on social media back into business operations, products and services in order to instinctively meet customer needs and so drive real business value.

For companies looking to succeed in the long run it is now essential to engage in digital and social media in a human-to-human way that is fully aligned with their business vision and objectives. Only so can stakeholder engagement be unique and walking the talk, i.e. aligning content with context, can be achieved.

The future of CSR and sustainability is digitally-driven and socially-savvy.

Check out the full report here.

Infographic from Survey Summary.