How does one even attempt a discussion about being an Upstanding Community Citizen let alone make sure your marketing works for you? Let’s try!
You know there are three legs to the BulletProof trifecta, right? Successful companies are passionate about their customers. Have wickedly simple processes. And are upstanding community citizens.
This past seven day period was the national volunteer week. Rather coincidentally, a fitting time to share the Bullet Proof view of what it means to be an upstanding community citizen. There are many ways to look at this whole topic; it won’t surprise you I believe it best for successful companies to take the long view.
The two most important things to keep in mind are you must find ways to make it work to your advantage first, and you must remain disciplined about how you go about it.
There are some newish hard truths today. First, there is less money for ‘good works.’ And second, there are more causes seeking assistance. In addition, fewer people are stepping up, volunteering and donating; more businesses are stepping up AND volunteering AND donating.
Smart businesses have become very strategic with their donations of cash and ‘in-kind’. Here are some of the things they now do:
- Establish a fixed pot of money for the entire year. This gives them greater flexibility — especially in the area of turning away what seems to be an endless supply of requests for money.
- Establish the kinds of causes they will ONLY associate with and then clearly publish those guidelines on their website as an easy referral tool – for both the welcomed and the unwelcomed. Here are two completely different examples, one from Telus and one from Jackson Triggs.
- Associate themselves with Imagine Canada and follow the 1% pretax guidelines. Giving 1% of pretax profits will register a bare blip on the radar of all profitable businesses.
- Demand recognition for their efforts. If they don’t get the credit they seek, they are unafraid to review their decision to continue to stay with the cause.
How to Brag?
As Canadians, we learn very early that bragging and calling attention to ourselves is terrible behaviour. However, when done with humility, tooting our horn is indeed a beautiful thing. Plus, no one ever objects when someone ELSE sings our praises.
So, the real question is: how to do it all in an acceptable “Canadian” way?
A few things to consider to politely toot your own horn:
- On the front page of your website, your footer area is ‘prime real estate.” No, it is clearly not as excellent as your business information area known above the fold, but it still is good ‘real estate’ because it is on the front page. Consider including the logo and a backlink to your prime cause (or even a cluster of your causes) with the phrase, ‘We proudly support ….’ You demonstrate you are an involved community citizen.
- Alternatively, consider a tab in your main menu bar called Our Community Involvement, We Give Back or even We Care. Now you have an entire PAGE to discuss the issues that are most near and dear to your heart. Without bragging about yourself, you are highlighting them. (Please do NOT bury any of this in a blog post. Nobody reads your blog posts for your community activism.) Keep your community involvement separate and apart and make your causes and by extension, YOURSELF shine brightly.
- On your Facebook and Instagram feeds, designate one day a week for ONLY your causes. Highlight them and their activities. Start the post with — We support, Come and visit us at, We love and endorse. None of this is bragging directly. However, it is called Sharing the Love. By making them look good, you look like a fantastic community citizen!
It is not hard!
There are many ways of marketing yourself and your good works to your best advantage. Both expensively and inexpensively — without appearing as a braggart.
The main thing to remember is this. Your focussed and consistent attention will all come back to you over the long haul. And you will ultimately show your community that you are a successful leader worth paying attention to and worth doing business with.
Want to discuss more about becoming a community citizen? We are always happy to chat!
