Two reports came out this week that underline the value and opportunity for business leaders to communicate effectively in the current environment. I take a look at what Edelman’s 2021 Trust Barometer and Brunswick Group’s Connected Leadership reports mean for business leaders.
Remember how many of us struggled to get senior leadership to communicate on digital channels in the early days of social media? For some, that’s still the case but two significant reports out this week underline the importance for business leaders to communicate effectively, especially on digital channels.
The excellent annual Edelman Trust Barometer for 2021 came out and demonstrates that business has become the most-trusted institution (61%) as governments across the world lost trust (53%) during the course of the COVID-19 pandemic. Edelman finds that respondents also rated their trust in their employer at 76% and their employer’s CEO at 63%.
Edelman reveals that, globally, people find academic experts and company technical experts as the most credible spokespeople (both on 59%), despite a drop for both categories. In addition, nearly nine in ten (86%) of respondents say they expect CEOs to lead publicly on societal issues such as the pandemic.
Also, this week, Brunswick Group unveiled its Connected Leadership report. Brunswick surveyed readers of financial publications and employees of companies with more than 1,000 staff across 13 countries about what they wanted to see from corporate leaders.
Brunswick’s research finds that, by more than a margin of 5:1, people want to work for a CEO who is active on digital channels. Nine in ten financial readers agree that CEOs must use social media to communicate in a crisis and by a margin of 9:1 they trust CEOs who use social over those who don’t.
The COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated further the value of consistent communications and the consequences of muddled messages at a government level.
Leading by example in a digital age
So, which business leaders are communicating well at this time? Again, I have to cite Scottish brewer BrewDog as a great example of a brand that’s showing purpose and living up to its established activist character during this time. A lot of this is down to the company being led by digital native founders who can ‘read the room’ in the mood of their target audience and communicate effectively on all social channels. BrewDog was quite early in the pandemic to create hand sanitiser and also made its empty pub space available for COVID-19 vaccinations. The company is also carbon negative.
Businesses who are not already communicating effectively – both internally and externally – via digital and other channels must use this time wisely to fine tune their purpose and messaging, identify and train the experts who will carry that message, and use content and digital channels effectively.
External experts still add authority to campaigns, so it’s worth engaging suitable, on-brand, on-message specialists when required.
It’s no longer a choice for business leaders as to whether they want to use digital channels to communicate. As the Edelman and Brunswick studies demonstrate, in 2021, employees and the public alike expect it.