The themes of ‘collaborative action’ and the convergence of ‘public-private responsibilities’ ran throughout the speaker’s presentations as well as the need for more accessible and robust business environments informed by the fullest range of stakeholder views.

What also emerged from the discussion — and what is already clear to those of us working closely in the CSR field (see AccountAbility’s work as an example) — is HOW to move toward a more sustainable, progressive business model while remaining competitive and selling the case to others within the organisation.  In other words, long-term goals/benefits might be important but not at the expense of meeting quarterly shareholder profit lines.

In this, I see two fundamental tensions: 1) the disconnect between the need for collaboration and the business instinct toward competition, and 2) the constant struggle to keep up with a business context whose historical externalities are being blasted open wide by information and communication technologies (ICTs) and the threat of climate change (in terms of both public demand and more robust science).

Knowing HOW to sequence your entree into the ’sustainability’ discussion and WHO you should be working with is no easy task.  When you couple these twin challenges with the business need to provide consistent communications to its customers and other stakeholders, and the full challenge (and opportunity) presents itself.

These are the questions that we at Glasshouse like to help our clients answer.

As we see it, social communication is just ‘public relations’, revitalised.

PR was largely an attempt to control relationships with the public on a ‘one to many’ basis – which was fine when all we had were broadcast channels.

But social media now enables ‘many to one’ communication too – the crowd suddenly got empowered. Finally, we have the potential for dialogue…

Initially the role of social communications is to facilitate these emerging “many-to-one-to-many” conversations – listening to stakeholders, understanding their needs, and crafting new opportunities for collaboration and change.

Crucially, today’s social communicators understand that brands increasingly need to act as brokers of ideas, and facilitators of conversation between different stakeholders. They need to be much less intrusive than in the days of PR.

Over time, the best and most successful brand stewards will step out of their stakeholders’ way entirely, allowing many-to-many conversations to take place with minimal intrusion or intervention. The best brands will behave like the ultimate party hostess – setting the tone, checking everything is on hand; making great introductions, ejecting disuptive elements and becoming largely invisi……