Rethinking CSR in the Age of Influencers

The concept of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is one of the most crucial factors of what makes a company great. But with the rise of many social media influencers, they tend to fall into a "gray area" as to whether they should uphold the same moral and ethical responsibilities or not. CSR can be referred to as a companies responsibility to bring a positive outlook on society without just the reason of making a profit. The Iron law of responsibility co-insides with a CSR, the iron law of responsibility is those whom use their influence in society, if not used in the right way will lose that power and or influence they have.

Following the iron law of responsibility there are certain expectations that these companies should be following, this includes going above and beyond instead of just doing the bare minimum, acting within the public's best interest, as well as being actively involved in public activities, and supporting small family owned businesses or other local non-profit organizations.

Social media influencers is a good way for companies, either home owned or organizational, to reach out and spread their message either for a movement or products related to the public. One influencer who I follow and greatly admire is Andy Edwards who is a musician, drummer, painter and music educator. Within the last half a decade he has been involved in YouTube Podcasting and has discussed topics of politics, aesthetics and philosophy, aside from music and art.

Andy Edwards, cir. 2021

The responsibilities influencers have is to give the public what they want - in Andy's case, promoting his music he composes and discussing thoughts and topics related to music or to art. Influencers do also have the right to speak their mind regarding certain topics such as philosophy or politics - especially the artists, who feel a certain way about the world around them. Artists look at the world differently and have differing ideas and viewpoints of how the world should managed, what policies should be suggested or enacted. I believe they should have a right to speak what is on their mind and maybe help to bring about change in the world or in the corporate workplace.

Companies and media outlets should be open-minded to incorporating new ideas as well. These responsibilities of continuing to provide to public consumers their needs and what they want should be paramount as well. As far as giving to community foundations or supporting local non-profits - companies are the ones who feel more obligated to do so rather than social media influencers. However, the social media influencers who feel very strongly and are ambitious at what they do should give to support their local community as well and help it flourish.

When it comes to taking a position, I believe influencers should be held to the same degree for what they say or discuss as largescale corporations should. If a social media influencer is out of line with what they do or say, they should enact the same protocols and standards for making it right with their audience, assessing "damage control" and looking out for the public's best interest.

In today's modern and contemporary society, many influencers feel they have less restrictions put on them as organizations do, giving them much more "lee-way" to do or say what they feel even at the expense of losing followers or subscribers. Granted, all influencers, let alone businesses should have a vision or mission statement and stand by it whatever the cost, but by losing some subscribers by what an influencer says they might inadvertently be gaining more subscribers, the ones who approve of what they say, so it could also work in their benefit as well.

With what Edwards has done with his YouTube channel, he has been very outspoken on political topics such as abortion, identity politics, the LGBTQ+ community, as well as his own personal stance regarding them. He has certainly lost a great deal of subscribers as a result of his videos on these topics - however, I have always viewed his videos as a very serious, and deep discussion about these topics rather than viewing them as hate-speech like most people.

One of the recent efforts Edwards made to improve his CSR towards his audience is by making a separate YouTube channel for his political videos apart from his main music YouTube channel. This kept his main audience detached from his more "political" videos with also keeping his main audience engaged in his instructional music videos and discussions. Some other ways in which he could improve his CSR efforts would be giving towards music colleges or conservatories or towards supporting other musicians and bands who share his love and passion for the art form.