Coca-Cola hires the ultimate Social Mediacoordinator for Cooperate Social Responsibility (CSR) in Africa
On April 13, 2017, Coca-Cola, the leading soft drink company in the world appointed I <insert name> as their CSR coordinator for Africa. CSR has been an emerging trend allover the world since the late 20th century. CSR is about the company giving back to the society and while this might seem to be a non-profit venture, CSR is can be used as a strategy to gain competitive edge. In the developed countries, CSR has worked as a marketing strategy as consumers are drawn to a company that seems to care about the society. This is expected to be the case with Africa, a developing continent. For Coca-ColaThe rate of growth of the African market is higher than that the Western market and other parts of the world. This makes the African market at the top of Coca-Colas priority list on all matters concerning expansion.
So why introduce CSR if the company is already overachieving in Africa? Pepsi is a major competitor for Coca-Cola and it is increasing it’s operation in Africa. To keep ahead of Pepsi’s competition, the Coca-Cola Company needs to come up with a strategy that will make it look good in the eyes of the African Company. This is where I come in. I will be based in South Africa and my focus will be using CSR to accelerate the company’s reputation within the continent. Currently, the company has been involved in CSR initiatives such as supporting football teams. It will be my responsibility to expand CSR activities in a creative and effective manner. CSR if not closely monitored can lead to loss of revenue and not bring much back so I will be tasked with ensuring the money invested comes back in terms of profits generated. As the social media coordinator for CSR in Africa, I will be tasked with publicizing the company’s CSR initiatives via social media
Bio
I join the Coca-Cola company straight from college where I majored in <insert major>. I have a big social media following on my twitter and Facebook pages. In 2016, I was the social media representative for a famous fast food franchise in the country. As the social media rep, I managed posts for the franchise’s social media pages. My post generated heavy traffic and during my time with the organization the Facebook and twitter pages gained a lot of followers. I left the organization to concentrate on my school work as I was about to graduate.
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The global company has a 3.3m followership on twitter while the African Coca-Cola twitter account has 34,513 followers only. This is a low following for a continent considering countries like Argentina have a following of 300,311 on twitter (Coca-Cola Press Centre). As the new Social Media coordinator for CSR in Africa, I plan to increase the followership on this page in a profit oriented manner. My fist task as the Social Media Coordinator for CSR Africa is to plan and later implement an employee newsletter for the company. ZipporahMothoa-Muabane is the Head of communications and Sustainability at Coca-Cola Southern and East Africa (Coca-Cola Press Centre). She will be my boss and as such I will be expected to communicate directly with her on matters concerning my work. Below is my memo to her about my idea for the employee’s news letter that will provide her with an overview of the newsletter.
TO: ZipporahMothoa-Muabane, Head of Communication and Sustainability at Coca-Cola Southern & Eastern Africa
FROM: <Insert Name>, Social Media Coordinator for CSR in Africa
DATE: April 15, 2017
SUBJECT: Corporate Social Responsibility inclusion in the employee’s newsletter.
Market analysis show that a company’s primary CSR initiative should be towards its employees. Employees are at the heart of business operation and they are also the company’s internal consumers. As such, CSR initiatives aimed at the employee and other consumers should be included in the employees newsletter. The newsletter will be distributed to all employees across Sothern and Eastern Africa via email. In this day and age, employees are more concerned about their welfare than they are about annual figures. The bigger picture is to promote CSR among other consumers but starting with the employees is the first step. Incorporating the CSR goal within the employees will lead to the propagation of the same to the other consumers. While carrying out CSR initiatives, company employees will be used and what better way than to get then on board from the beginning. Including employees in decision making makes them more agreeable. They are less likely to oppose the CSR idea if they are made part of it from the beginning.
The newsletter will named ‘We at Coca-Cola’. The name itself gives a feeling of ownership to the employees and makes them feel like they are part of the company. Regular columns for the newsletter will be themed around CSR. The following will be the main columns for the newsletter.
Our community
In this section, CSR activities by the company towards the community will be outlined with pictures about the activity. The Southern and Eastern Africa Coca-Cola Company serves 12 countries and employs 12000 from this countries (Coca-Cola Press centre). This people are part of their communities and any CSR initiatve will affect them too. There are 12 months in an year and this perfectly fits with the 12 countries. Every country will be allocated it’s month to carry out a community event in its environs. Prior to the event, employees will be called upon to suggest activities. Eventually, the selected activity will be implemented by the employees and the company in the community. The photos of the event will then be included in the newsletter and distributed to the other employees. All employees will be called upon to check on issues that affect their communities the most for successful CSR. Including these activities in our newsletter will allow employees to stay informed about what is happening across the organization. It will create a sense of togetherness.
Employee of the month
Employees who have show tremendous performance through the month will be appraised. The appraisal will include a shout out in the newsletter and a cash prize of an agreed amount. The winning employee will have to have shown tremendous improvement in a certain field. Targets put in the performance contract will be used while looking for the best performing employee. This is meant to encourage employees to work hard in their jobs. Human beings live on approval. An employee might be working hard but they feel that the company is not approving or noticing their hard work. Appreciating the best preforming employees, employees will feel that the company recognizes their hard work and continue working hard. The prize will also motivate employees to work productively in order to win the price. It will also create a sense of pride as the rewarded employees will be recognized throughout the 12 countries.
My story
In this section, employees will be allowed to contribute their stories. The story maybe work or personally related. In so doing, the company will have created a platform for employees to share their stories. The ‘My story’ column will also include feedbacks where other employees will be allowed to post their comments about their colleagues article. My story will be aimed at creating a platform for sharing and networking. In most cases, employees face the same problems and challenges and to have one of them share their part of it will only encourage the others on the same situation. It will also serve to provide solutions for the said challenges. Problems and challenges are not the only stories that will be shared, employees will also be encouraged to share their happy moments too.
Agony Aunt section
Mental wellness of the employee is very important for the employee and for the organization too. The company will have an agony aunt column where employees will share their issues and receive counseling from the agony aunt. The agony aunt will serve as an in-house counselor and she will reach out to employees across the 12 nations. Most of the employees run busy work and family lives thus have no time to see a real life counselor. The agony aunt section will serve to solve this problem as employees will be able to share their problems and receive professional help.
As mentioned above, the Coca-Cola company covers 12 countries in Eastern and Southern Africa thus the best method to disseminate the newsletter is via email. The newsletters will be disseminated monthly. This way, every countries community activity will be covered. Monthly newsletters will ensure that the company stays focused to its CSR initiatives. The agony aunt section also calls for frequency thus employees who had shared a problem will only have to wait a month to get feed back. As the company is also promoting a CSR initiative, printing out millions of copies in newsletters will only destroy the environment.
Reeferences
Coca-Cola Company Press Centre.http://www.coca-colacompany.com/press-center Accessed 14 June,2017.