Going online

Malaysian Business, Jun 16, 2008 by Dina Abdullah

AN EXPERT ON CORPORATE Social Responsibility (CSR) believes that companies need to have a bigger presence online as part of their commitment to promote their CSR programmes efficiently and effectively.

`The whole idea of CSR online is quite new and unexploited,' says Jeff Zweig, the Chief Guru of Web Guru Sdn Bhd, an Internet consulting firm specialising in interactive marketing, web solutions development, and the promotion of CSR programmes online.

`This is a new and exciting area but a lot of companies are not using the Internet for their CSR programmes,' says Zweig. He adds that these companies will need to change their mindset and be more open to the idea of going online.

`By using online media, companies will find that they can get ahead of the competition,' says Zweig. He suggested that companies with a huge investment in CSR, take a certain percentage of the budget and promote CSR programmes properly online.

Jeff Zweig will be one of the speakers at the International Corporate Social Responsibility Conference to be held in Kuala Lumpur from July 29 to 31. He will be sharing his ideas on how companies can actively exploit the power of the Internet to enhance their CSR programmes.

`Online CSR is new in Asia. It is new in Malaysia, but Hong Kong and Singapore are more mature markets in this area,' he says. `In general, government-linked and public-listed companies with an international presence, are missing out on a good opportunity if they do not take advantage of online CSR.'

According to Zweig, as more and more people go online, there are many interesting and creative opportunities for companies to bring their CSR programmes "alive" using a web-based approach.

Such companies can use online media to get the message out more quickly to people all over the world, and in a cost-efficient manner too,' Zweig tells Malaysian Business.

Web technology, says Zweig, is not expensive, and online media provides many opportunities for companies to use blogs or videos to add value to their CSR programmes.

Zweig says companies can also move certain components of their CSR programmes online. He cites how a company, which is famous for supporting the arts and culture, has been implementing a portion of its CSR programmes online through a special website for children and students.

`They now have a better reach and the Internet enhances the company's CSR programmes,' he says.

Zweig says Web Guru Asia is currently working on an online CSR programme for a local public-listed company to be implemented this year.

Web Guru Asia was set up more than 10 years ago and its clients in Malaysia include Malaysia Airlines, Tourism Malaysia, YTL and Sepang Formula One.