Tag Archives: Bank of America

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Social activism impacting reputations

Since we blogged about Change.org back in 2011, the influence of the online petition platform has continued to grow. It has helped usher in a new era of online activism that has leveled the playing field for grassroots causes.

For example, a November 2011 Change.org petition asking Bank of America to drop a new monthly banking fee started with 22-year-old Molly Katchpole before growing to more than 300,000 signatures. The bank reversed its decision in less than a month. In a similar display of viral activism, a February 2012 petition reached 100,000 signatures and forced car rental company Enterprise to alter its unpopular stance on proposed safety legislation, all in less than 24 hours.

The ease and viral potential of such petitions aren’t the only advantages that activists have gained in the online arena. The Internet has granted them unprecedented degrees of transparency and reach. One great example is SPARK Movement’s recent campaign against the underrepresentation of women in Google Doodles. Harnessing the same sort of online data that is Google’s lifeblood, SPARK was able to publish an entirely fact-based report that supported its cause. The advocacy group also recognized the best way to disseminate their message online, executing “a digital campaign to make sure Google follows through, including a petition on change.org, and a social media campaign organized around the hashtag #doodleus, calling on Google to address the gender balance,” according to the Wall Street Journal’s Jane Spencer.

A closer look

To better understand the mechanics and dynamics at play in such incidents, it helps to take a closer look at online activism and how it works. In his 2010 New Yorker essay “Small Change,” Malcolm Gladwell identifies a “crucial distinction between traditional activism and its online variant: social media are not about this kind of hierarchical organization. Facebook and the like are tools for building networks, which are the opposite, in structure and character, of hierarchies.” When dealing with a hierarchy, one could go straight to the top, but with the decentralized and “enormously resilient” online networks that Gladwell describes, a more complex approach is required.

Gladwell’s essay examines what some have called “Activism 2.0,” a level of integration into daily life that has allowed “people to use technology and social media to habitually contribute to social change with small, practical acts — and, often, clicks,” according to Kristin Ivie. This sea change has been downplayed and criticized with terms like “slacktivism,” but as Bank of America, Google and many other companies have discovered, thousands of mouse clicks can have an impact on the real world. And, while online activism can be a powerful catalyst for positive social change, it can also unfortunately lead to “collateral damage” and other unintended consequences.

Risks and opportunities

Many companies view this still-emerging environment as dangerous and volatile, but it also offers new opportunities. Tom Liacas highlighted this last year in a Social Media Today post. “There are ways to make this a win for the subject under fire and, ultimately, for a world in which more and more of our sticky problems will need to be resolved through large scale dialogues,” he says. Google’s decision to create an International Women’s Day doodle featuring more than 100 women from around the world was an especially smart move, helping transform the pressure of SPARK’s activism into authentic content and positive momentum.

Few companies have access to a vehicle as resonant as the Google Doodle, but the popular microblogging platform Tumblr, which “helps facilitate a kind of entry-level activism, a venue for introducing a broad audience to causes and issues affecting politics, culture and business,” according to Brian Honigman, can be a valuable and versatile tool for engaging and communicating with online activists. Online clothing retailer Aplomb has even taken things a step further by using online activism as a new form of currency. As our real and online worlds become more and more intertwined, such innovative and creative solutions will be key for companies that want to not only protect their reputation from the volatility of online activism, but also harness its vast potential.

 
 
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Sallie Krawcheck is a top candidate to become the next head of the SEC, according to Dealbook, but it’s not just her record and resilience as a Wall Street executive that’s put her in the running.

Since she began tweeting last spring, Krawcheck has gained more than 11,000 followers. On LinkedIn she’s attracted an even larger audience—75,000 and counting. “She has drawn a significant following with her conversational style and posts on investment issues,” Dealbook says, referring to an earlier article in which Krawcheck called her move “part of a larger effort to style herself as an industry analyst” and “lend her Wall Street experience to the broader debate about the industry’s evolution.” Already among LinkedIn’s top “Thought Leaders” and Business Insider’s “101 Finance People You Have To Follow On Twitter,” she’s clearly had a great deal of success with her strategy.

Social Media Savvy

A big part of that success comes from Krawcheck’s deft use of social media to take ownership of her image and message. In the past, she would have had to rely on a public relations intermediary to arrange interviews and keep her name out there, as many prominent figures do. However, she has used social media to take more direct control of her voice and reach a larger audience at the same time. In a recent RIABiz.com article Dina Hampton examines how Krawcheck “used those months of technical unemployment to cultivate a distinct and intimate online voice that may, industry watchers say, deftly position her for her next move.” Speaking to Hampton, Gregory FCA Communications’ Joe Anthony adds that Krawcheck’s strategy has “broadened her footprint to where more people are recognizing her beyond the financial services space” and “gone from being seen as a sharp mind within wealth management/banking to a thought leader and business titan.”

While she may describe herself in her Twitter profile as a “current mom” and “crazed UNC basketball fan,” a closer look at Krawcheck’s online presence shows that her approach is far from amateur. In addition to regularly sharing useful links and poignant thoughts on both Twitter and LinkedIn, she has self-published popular posts like “Lessons Learned in Leading During a Crisis” and “What I Learned When I Got Fired (the First Time)” and penned op-eds for outlets including the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post and Politico.

Those posts have given her a chance to share her own perspective and narrative regarding her previous experience, while the op-eds appear to be setting the stage for her next move. “Lately Krawcheck has been peppering the media with her thoughts and strong recommendations about how to address, if not solve, the gigantic, chronic, almost genetic, ills of the global financial industry,” The Daily Beast’s Allan Dodds Frank wrote in October. “If she can continue her nonpartisan stance,” Frank observed, “she might be the ideal person to be in charge of consumer protection, be nominated to the Securities & Exchange Commission or to a Treasury Department job.”

Setting the Stage

Her undergraduate degree at the UNC School of Journalism has likely helped Krawcheck communicate effectively, but perhaps more important is how she has applied the same strategies that made her one of Wall Street’s top female executives to her social media endeavors. “The secrets of Krawcheck’s success, however, hinge on her social skills,” Heidi N. Moore wrote in 2009, adding that “she has built a reputation as Mrs. Clean” and combined “a warm interest in others’ feelings, an obsession with preparation” and with “frank talk and open ambition.”

Speculation about where she’ll end up next will surely continue, and there’s no guarantee that she’ll be tapped as the next SEC chair. But one thing is certain: as one of the first major names in the banking world to dive headfirst into social media, Sallie Krawcheck has reaped the vast potential of an open and savvy online strategy.