Making an impact: Why social value is your business’ secret superpower
As we approach the new financial year, most business leaders are buried in spreadsheets, focusing on budgets and the bottom line for the year ahead. But there is another type of value that is becoming just as critical to a company’s success as its profit margin: social value.
With the start of the new financial year often acting as a reset for procurement teams and long-term planning, there has never been a better time to look at how your business contributes to the world around it – and how you’re telling that story.
What is social value?
In simple terms, social value is the positive impact an organisation has on the economic, social, and environmental wellbeing of the community it operates in.
While it’s often grouped with Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), social value is more about the measurable change you create. It’s about moving from ‘doing good’ as a side project to ‘creating value’ as a core part of your business model.
The value you’re already creating – without realising it
Many B2B companies are already generating social value every day; they just haven’t given it a name yet. You might be:
- Hiring locally: Supporting the local economy by providing jobs within your immediate community.
- Upskilling the future: Offering apprenticeships, work experience, or mentoring to young people.
- Greening your supply chain: Choosing local suppliers or those with high environmental standards to reduce carbon footprints.
- Wellbeing initiatives: Prioritising the mental and physical health of your team.
If you’re doing any of these, you may have a social value story to tell.
Why communication is key
As is the case with any positive organisational story (not just social value and CSR, but wider business milestones or commercial success), it’s crucial that you take the time to tell people about the good work being done – otherwise it’s nothing more than a missed opportunity.
Telling these stories can benefit your business in a multitude of ways. Firstly, from a brand perspective, clients want to partner with businesses that align with their own ethical standards and where they share a common bond beyond the nuts and bolts of the job. Then there’s attracting talent – the modern workforce wants to know that your organisation genuinely ‘cares’ – whether that’s about community, environment, diversity, and so on.
But perhaps the starkest change in recent years has been in the procurement and tender space. Whilst social value / CSR has been a requirement in the public sector for a while, many private organisations are factoring this into their weighting when deciding which supplier to choose. From a commercial standpoint, it is no longer a ‘nice to have’.
How to showcase your social value effectively
At TMPR, we help businesses translate their behind-the-scenes, day-to-day good work into a narrative that resonates with stakeholders.
Here is how we help businesses showcase their impact:
- Strategic PR: We identify the human stories within your social value efforts and pitch them to trade and local media to build your reputation as an industry leader.
- Owned website content: Much like this post, we create long-form content that explains why you do what you do, positioning your brand as a thoughtful, responsible partner.
- Social media storytelling: We take your raw data (like carbon miles saved or hours mentored) and turn it into engaging, visual social copy that builds trust with your followers.
- Stakeholder comms: We help you craft the right messaging for your annual reports, newsletters, and tender documents to ensure your impact is understood by those who matter most.
As you plan for the new financial year, don’t let your social value stay a secret. Let’s make sure your impact is seen, heard, and valued.
