Communities according to Katie Paine

Chapter 9 of Paine's book is about how to conduct relationships. She starts out talking about who are "neighbors" to an organization and why they're important.

Social media has given the word community a new look because it's no longer just the people and other organizations close by one's own organization. Now, people have to take into account virtual communities. These virtual communities will include of any group of stakeholders that has influence over the business. That includes internal communities such as customers, vendors, and partners as for external communities including advocates and nongovernmental organizations.

Businesses also need to take into account who and what is most important to measure. Majority of organizations focus more of their PR efforts on their key audiences and it's not until they have an issue that their key audiences aren't the only people that need to be cared about. In business today it is expected to some type of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and simply doing a few speeches doesn't fit. For example, one way the NBA takes care of the CSR is by having NBA Cares in place where teams get involved in the global community in some way. The key to their mission is to address social issues such as education, health and wellness, youth and family development. They've raised over $225 million dollars in the last 8 years and have put in 2.6 million hours of hands on time to the organization.

In any area businesses can't think that just saying the right things and keeping the rains tight on their messages can keep up their image because there is always someone waiting to catch the flaw in what is being said or done.


NBA Cares Background