This month’s book for review includes considerable mention of companies that have often been criticized for environmental, labor, or social behavior that is the opposite of good citizenship, but have started to change their behavior. It also points out the importance of social responsiblity initiatives that are congruent with the company’s core identity. So it’s only fitting that this month’s Positive Power Spotlight highlights a company that does both those things.
Occasionally in this space, I’ve profiled companies like that. Wal-Mart made the list for its amazing humanitarian response after the U.S. government left the people of New Orleans to drown in the wake of Katrina, and could make it again some time for its enormous initiatives on the environment–despite its abysmal record on labor, supplier relations, community impact, and a bunch of other areas. BP got profiled for the huge shift in environmental consciousness under its former chair (I’m afraid there may have been some backsliding since he stepped down). In other words, I’m a believer in acknowledging and thanking companies when they start to do things right, even if they could still be criticized.
This month, I’m saying thank-you to Tyson Foods. Most of what I know about Tyson is not pretty; the company has often been named as an organizing target by labor groups who have been extremely unhappy with orking conditions at its chicken processing plants.
It’s been several years since I heard that criticism, though, and meanwhile, someone Twittered about a remarkable and extremely positive initiative from Tyson: For every comment made on the blog page about it, the company would donate 100 pounds of food to the Food Bank of Greater Boston, up to two full tractor trailer loads, or 70,000 pounds of food. The original offer was one trailer load, but when it took only a few hours to fill their quota, the company added a second one–which also filled instantly.
Tyson execs actually read every comment. I know this because after I made my comment, I received this little e-mail (the link to my blog was not in the original, of course):
Won’t spam you, but noticed your comment about blogging about it. Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions. This is the third of these efforts we’ve done; the others being in Austin and the Bay Area.
Regards,
Ed
Ed Nicholson
Director of Community and Public Relations
Tyson Foods, Inc.
<http://www.linkedin.com/in/eenicholson>http://www.linkedin.com/in/eenicholson
<http://twitter.com/TysonFoods>http://twitter.com/TysonFoods
<http://twitter.com/ederdn>http://twitter.com/ederdn
<http://hungerrelief.tyson.com>http://hungerrelief.tyson.com
He included his direct phone number, which I’ve removed. I have to say, the note was effective. I hadn’t known about the two similar initiatives (I had wondered why they picked Boston since their plants are mostly in the South). I was impressed with the initiative itself, but also that someone pretty high up the ladder was reading the blog comments and very quickly contacted me, and that he’s tapped in to LinkedIn and Twitter. I do think that when you’re using social media effectively, it pretty much forces you to behave in a more outwardly-focused way. Twitter, in particular, is briliantly designed to be more-or-less spam-proof: if all someone does is blab about how great they are, nobody will follow them and they only spam themseles. People will take one look at their profile and leave without following.
Ed is using this Twitter page solely to promote hunger and social justice initiatives (not just Tyson’s either), and is being very transparent.
I noticed, for instance, this post:
@jowyang This account started as 2) and moved to 3) after perceiving the need for more transparency. We also have 4).
The original post he was responding to was from a very prolific Twitterer, and it’s been buried under hundreds of posts, so I won’t quote it here. But I can guess it was in response to some post about using Twitter appropriately for business.
At the time I’m writing this (12/15, 7 a.m. Eastern), his most recent Tweet is
Great 60 Min. story on Pete Carroll & efforts to reduce gang violence in LA. You gotta give props to someone trying to make a difference.
So, I’ll give my “props” to Ed: Thank you for being a voice of conscience at this company. And to Tyson. Thank you for hiring a community relations director who really gets it, and for giving him the resources to make a diffeence.
