Specifications
CSRwire is a digital media platform for corporate social responsibility and sustainability news, views, and reports. Members can distribute content through numerous channels, including Google, Reuters, Yahoo News, LexisNexis, Bloomberg, and a CSRwire Daily News Alert that is emailed directly to subscribers. Highly customized targeted distribution lists and analytics reports are also available.
Clients can also access various services including custom content creation, a professional editorial staff, consultation on social media, and multimedia communication strategies.
Cost
Annual subscriptions range from $400 to $2,500 for nonprofits and from $500 to $3,200 for other companies. Nonprofits can buy individual press releases for $495 (for-profits pay $595) with discounts available for volume purchases. Social media and communication strategy services range from $5,000 to $20,000.
User
Rey Bouknight, corporate communications director for MGM Resorts International, has been using CSRwire since the fall of 2012.
How do you use it?
We use a link to access our account for distribution of CSR-focused announcements.
The platform is very user friendly. You enter the title of your news release, the subtitle if there is one, and categorize the content. Then you just upload a release in a word document, which is very convenient because you don’t have to insert any text beyond the title and the subtitle.
You can include your company’s logo, images, captions, links to images, and any videos associated with the release.
There are also social media options. For example, you can include a Twitter handle and sample tweet associated with your release.
There are options for general and targeted distribution, though there is an additional fee for the latter service. You can target based on region and CSR topics. There are also other different targeted distribution lists you can tap into.
If you don’t need to send a release right away, you can schedule a time to distribute it.
After your release goes out, CSRwire emails you analytics, including summaries of the total sent and read, as well as information on media contacts by name and outlet.
Customer service representatives are very attentive to our needs. If anything goes wrong, I can email one of my dedicated points of contact and they respond very quickly. They will call if it’s something that can’t be addressed via email.
We have regular contact with the senior leaders of CSRwire, which reflects their relationship model, and sends a message of attentiveness to clients.
We have not had many issues come up, but they’re always quick to respond if we need help.
How does it serve your business needs?
For many years MGM Resorts International has conducted CSR in the areas of diversity and inclusion, sustainability, philanthropy, and community engagement.
We were the first company in the gaming and hospitality industry to implement a formal diversity and inclusion program. We’ve built the largest LEED Gold certified development in the world. Since 2002, among our 62,000 employees, we’ve raised $54 million to support nonprofit organizations in the communities in which we operate and throughout America.
Our customers and stakeholders want to know exactly what we’re doing in terms of CSR and corporate citizenship. In 2011, we decided to establish a unified platform to communicate about all of our CSR initiatives because we didn’t previously have one platform to communicate all that we do. CSRwire really helped us establish a unified platform for telling our story to interested audiences.
CSR is not only a moral imperative for us, it’s also good for our business. It’s important for our CSR initiatives to support the company’s business objectives. For example, through CSR we’re attracting conventions and guests to our properties because people want to do business with companies that share their values. More and more audiences, particularly Millennials, are interested in what companies are doing for their communities.
CSRwire also hosts a Web page dedicated to our CSR initiatives. It houses press releases we’ve distributed, our CSR report, videos on CSR topics, and stories about our initiatives that have been featured in publications. It really serves as an archive of our accomplishments and gives audiences an historical account of our strong track record in CSR.
It’s important to have a platform like this where people can research our company, especially now as we’re looking to build resorts outside of Las Vegas. We’re in the process of developing a resort in Maryland, and we are looking at Massachusetts as well.
What are the main benefits?
CSRwire makes distribution of CSR-related press releases very easy for us, and it introduces our stories to the right audience.
Customer service is excellent. They make you feel like you’re their only client.
At times, CSRwire serves as a consultant and has helped introduce us to new ways to communicate with our audiences. For example, they’re helping us put together a Twitter chat on the topic of CSR. We have a presence on Twitter and Facebook, but this is the first time our corporate communications team has organized a Twitter chat on the topic of CSR.
I appreciate being able to send an email directly to designated points of contact instead of to a general help inbox. I feel like I can build a stronger relationship with CSRwire because of those contacts.
CSRwire looks for opportunities for us to tell our story. Sometimes they’ll email us about an opportunity. They’ve been really great about helping us identify opportunities on the east coast, which is very helpful given that we’re building a presence there.
What would you like to see improved/added?
CSRwire provides us with analytics following the distribution of our releases. However, there is an opportunity to make this function even more robust.
Competitors
Business Wire: distributes press releases, full-text news, regulatory filings, photos, and other multimedia content to journalists, financial professionals, investor services, regulatory authorities and the general public worldwide.
3BL Media: distributes a variety of CSR and sustainability content (press releases, videos, blog posts, etc.) to media and stakeholders through a network of traditional, new, and social media channels.
