Corporate Eye

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Archives for November 2010

Does your corporate site comply with Twitter guidelines?

You have brand guidelines, don’t you? Or, more specifically, guidelines for how your corporate identity can be used?

Many companies do, and post these on their corporate sites.

Yara logo guidelines

Here’s a straightforward way of doing it: Yara provide their logo in EPS and PNG formats, explain the meaning of the logo, give us the colour reference, and provide guidelines about the whitespace to be left around the logo.

So you know about asking people to comply with your guidelines, but here’s something to think about: Twitter have published their new guidelines for using the Twitter trademark over the weekend, and these will require some adjustment for most websites. (Hat tip to Social Media Today).

You don’t think of Twitter as corporate yet? Maybe not, but nevertheless, they have a brand identity to protect.

They suggest that you use the phrase ‘Follow me [us] on Twitter’ either with or without a Twitter logo, but that you do not manipulate the logos, use an outdated version of the logo, or create your own button or mark using their logo. And most certainly you shouldn’t incorporate the Twitter logo with your own in any way.

The word Twitter should be spelled out and capitalised; and the word Tweets is to be used to refer to the messages or updates.

This is no more than any company should be doing. Making it clear what is or isn’t acceptable use of the corporate identity – and making those guidelines easily available – is vital, and should be included on any corporate website.

Because of the nature of the Twitter tool, they’ve gone a step further, and say that you should not display a screenshot of any person’s Tweets without their permission. Again, this isn’t a surprising guideline, but it does mean that many sites may need to review their content to see whether they comply with this one.

I’ve revised our sidebar to be sure that we comply with their guidelines, and will be reviewing our web content. Do all elements of your web estate conform, including not only the corporate website but also your other social media outposts, such as your Facebook page?

EU and UK on Governance Collision Course

EPP Summit March 2010The EU has rejected the idea of voluntary codes for corporate governance for Europe’s businesses and has shown support instead for compulsory measures.

In a speech on Monday, the European Commission’s Internal Markets Commissioner Michel Barnier said “I am clear we will not be able to rely only on voluntary codes”. (Speech in full (PDF))

The EU is due to deliver a discussion paper on Corporate Governance in 2011 and it is now certain that this will include an element of compulsion in sustainability reporting.

This will cause consternation among some of Europe’s member states.  The UK in particular supports wholly voluntary measures and is likely to fight against any top-down imposition of standards from Brussels.

In particular the UK’s corporate governance and reporting regulator, the Financial Reporting Council, has said it will “defend to the death” the voluntary “comply or explain” principle which underpins many of the UK’s corporate reporting requirements.

Proposals which are up for discussion include limiting the number of directorships a person can hold, making a Chief Risk Officer mandatory and moving director remuneration away from the “hit-and-run culture that has caused so much damage”.

However Commissioner Barnier’s comments are aimed at a bigger target than just the EU.  He concluded:  “None of these actions can be wholly effective if taken in Europe alone.  We live in a global world.  And in a global world, policies which have a global impact must be designed – and applied – at a global level.   That is why action at the G20 is so important.  And why Seoul next month [November] matters – because it’s the right level for the issues we face.”

The Seoul Summit agenda includes the G20 Business Summit, a roundtable of 100 CEOs meeting with government representatives who will address Trade and Investment, Green Growth and CSR and is described as “a process, rather than a one-time event”.

The summit will also focus upon how to implement changes in the global financial system to make it more robust and accountable.

As Commissioner Barnier made his comments within the context of improving financial systems and increasing corporate responsibility, it seems likely that the EU will raise the subject during the roundtables or the main summit itself.

So the scene seems set.  Sooner or later the EU will push for compulsory governance standards and will push for them to be recognised worldwide.  You have now been warned!

Picture Credit: EPP Summit March 2010 by europeanpeoplesparty under Creative Commons Attribution No Derivatives License.