Mineral Exploration is the official publication of the Association of Mineral Exploration British Columbia.
Issue link: http://digital.canadawide.com/i/370216
F A L L 2 0 1 4 27 will lose your audience and your cred- ibility. Make sure you have your facts correct, post lots of pictures of your community events and credit others for their work (i.e., submitted pictures). Your community becomes your public rela- tions defence mechanism." "Our Facebook page is one of the tools we use to reach out to our stakeholders in Alaska," says Donnelly of NovaCopper. "We have a rewards and recognition program from which we recognize the achievements of our employees. Given that a significant amount of our seasonal workers are indigenous people, showing pictures of them on Facebook while rec- ognizing their achievements creates a lot of goodwill with the local communities and shows that we are committed to our employees and stakeholders." But what are the challenges for com- panies that have already hopped on the social media bandwagon or are still flirt- ing with the idea? In order to maintain the ongoing conversation about social performance on social media, it is important to closely monitor how the company is being por- trayed and to regularly produce content: updated information and interesting stories to keep interest and relevance. Monitoring, scheduling, continuous engagement and oversight are concepts that Marks of Goldcorp emphasizes to make these communication tools effec- tive. "Depending on the scale of the program, it's beneficial to designate a person or team to oversee the company's engagement, to respond and proactively share information. It's not the sort of thing you want to hand off to an intern without some oversight." With an industry that is tightly regu- lated, social media – often viewed as one of the most unregulated forms of communi- cation – can seem like walking through a minefield. A simple rule of thumb is that if it is public information, then it can be shared on social media. Bennetto says she was lucky that the Great Panther senior management and board supported the social media strategy. "I think you will find that is one of the biggest challenges for investor relations people – trying to get senior management to buy in." When it comes to engaging with social media, there are many arguments for and against it to influence companies who are considering joining the conversation. Mining companies are definitely in the early stages and only a few are very active, while most are still testing the waters. Junior and mid-cap companies that are thinking about joining or are still too far from taking that step complain that allo- cating resources to this task is not possible at a time when "hire and spending freeze" are minted words. Hiring more staff, cre- ating policies and paying for external legal services are an extra strain on resources that many cannot afford. According to Bennetto, however, it may not be as difficult as companies think. "Social media is scary," she says, "but you can cut through the noise and figure out what is right for your com- pany and your message pretty easily (and cost-effectively)." Besides, adds Marks, "If companies are not engaging in social media and shaping a conversation about their brand, someone else will." • Monica Moretto is manager, corporate affairs and social responsibility, at Pan American Silver Corp. and a member of the AME BC Corporate Social Responsibility Committee.