Volunteerism and Community Engagement Tops Climate Change in 3BL Media Study of Most-Read CSR Content

Research reported at Charities@Work employee engagement summit
Mar 30, 2015 12:30 PM ET

NEW YORK, March 30, 2015 /3BL Media/ – Among all the news distributed by corporate America, content concerning volunteerism and community relations initiatives gets the most engagement, according to newly released research report from 3BL Media.

News about the environment and climate change represented the second most read and shared category of content distributed by corporations.  The findings were revealed at the 2015 Summit on Employee Engagement in Corporate Citizenship in New York City.

“We analyzed all forms of content distributed by our subscribers to see what topics were read and shared most frequently,” said Dave Armon, CMO of 3BL Media.  “It’s clear that corporations are proud of the volunteer work their employees are doing in the communities where they do business.”

3BL Media, whose distribution network for sustainability and CSR news includes JustMeans and CSRwire, analyzed content published by its corporate and non-profit subscribers in 2014.  Content types included in the analysis were blog posts, photographs, videos, infographics, reports and press releases.

Page views to 3blmedia.com were tracked by category and reported as a proxy for additional downstream distribution through third-party networks, such as 200+ CSR websites and 320,000 subscribers of Bloomberg Professional, and 133,000 Thomson Reuters Eikon desktops carrying 3BL Media client content.

Findings are presented as a percentage of viewership of all content distributed by 3BL Media in 2014:

  • Volunteerism and Community Engagement, 15%
  • Environment and Climate Change, 12%
  • Business and Trade, 9%
  • Awards and Recognition, 8%
  • Philanthropy, 6%

Other categories of CSR and sustainability news representing less than 6% of the content distributed by 3BL Media in 2014 included social innovation, ethical products, and diversity among the top 27 category codes tracked by the company.  The complete list can be found here.

Chris Jarvis, co-founder and senior partner of Realized Worth, a consulting firm focused on engaging employees in corporate citizenship programs, acted as emcee at the Charities@Work event where the research was shared with 200+ executives who are responsible for employee giving and volunteerism programs at Fortune 500 companies.

“Getting employees to show up and participate in these programs – engaged in citizenship – is a top priority,” said Jarvis, adding that he reads the 3BL Media feed each day and selects content to share on the Realized Worth social channels.

While interest in Volunteerism and Community Engagement news was buoyed by the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge in 2014, the category was also the most read in 2013, said Armon.

About 3BL Media
Founded in 2009, 
3BL Media is the leading news distribution and content marketing company focused on niche topics including sustainability, health, energy, education, philanthropy, community and other social and environmental topics. The company works with organizations including multinational corporations, SMEs, and non-profits to distribute multi-format media assets through social, traditional and new media channels. 3BL Media leverages its expertise in communications, technology and social media to enable organizations to more effectively communicate about their initiatives to the press, investors, consumers and other critical stakeholder groups.  Visit us at CSRwire.com, Justmeans.com, SocialEarth.org and 3blmedia.com.

Contact:
Dave Armon
3BL Media
866-508-0993, ext. 123
darmon@3blmedia.com