Social Media for Social Change

Sumándonos is a social platform initiated by Medcom, Panamá’s largest media conglomerate. It was created to benefit all NGOs in the country. Now it celebrates its 10th anniversary.

Since 2002, Medcom, Panamá’s largest media conglomerate, has been a participant in the United Nations Global Compact. Since then, Medcom has engaged all of its corporate social responsibility efforts to be aligned with the initiative’s Ten Principles. Before that, Medcom’s networks – Telemetro, RPC TV, and RPC Radio – created the Office of Corporate Affairs to handle all CSR operations, training personnel, assigning resources, and making diagnostics and plans with international consultants. The structure was created by reengineering processes and creating new policies, which allowed for a more efficient and better use of airtime, resulting in a more standardized and personalized service of higher quality for the company’s yearly sustainability report. The services offered work throughout the entire year and are part of the external work handled by the Office of Corporate Affairs at Medcom. In 2015 the initiative will have been operating uninterrupted for more than 10 years, which is a great accomplishment due to the uniqueness of its structure and processes, standing alone in the Panamanian Media Industry.

Sumándonos, which translates to “adding us up,” is the multimedia platform for free social exposure created by the company to benefit all NGOs in Panamá. It was created as part of the CSR initiative to benefit causes, campaigns, events, and activities promoted by these organizations. Following the company’s CSR strategy, Sumándonos primarily identifies with organizations and causes directly involved with children and youth. It is not only limited to working with national NGOs, but also allows the participation of international NGOs with a presence in Panamá.

Medcom identifies with its community’s needs, focusing primarily on contributing to the growth and well-being of children and youth by encouraging, promoting, and guaranteeing that their rights are protected. At the same time, that compromise aligns with the company’s vision, which is “to satisfy the entertainment and information needs of their consumers with quality products and services generating profit to stakeholders, benefits to employees, and well-being to the community.”

The resources used for this are diverse, starting with the human resources that process all the requests through the Office of Corporate Affairs and handle the relationships with the more than 200 NGOs that use the service yearly. The company offers radio and television airtime – its primary form of income – in order to broadcast 30-second commercials, as long as there is available airtime.

The platform also offers its users the opportunity to request radio and television interviews at no cost from different available spaces within the channels three main programing slots. Additionally, the platform offers the publication of messages through social media accounts giving the opportunity to expand users´ messages to large audiences through mentions, photos and campaigns amongst other formats. To give an idea of how much their messages can be amplified it is important to mention the amount of followers for the main accounts. Facebook: Telemetro 184K. Twitter: @Telemetro 390K Verified account, @RPCTVPanama: 242K Verified account, @TReporta 240K verified account.

Medcom’s CSR projects are the link between the community and the company. Therefore, as their main network´s slogan “Part of your life” states, they are changing lives for the better through programs such as The Children First (national food drive) and Mundial del Barrio (largest national soccer league for kids, which is free of charge). The programs are part of a structured agenda specifically driven to promote the strengthening of multi-sectoral strategic alliances – one of the strengths of the CSR strategy.

The strategic alliances include many NGOs that benefit through the wide broadcasting of their messages at no cost – around 100 campaigns for NGOs each year. These organizations are also a fundamental part of the company’s projects, not only as beneficiaries, but also as allies, creating an entirely different work perspective. The company also has an agenda of strategic alliances with government entities, through which experiences and social goals are shared and achieved.

Medcom’s CSR is also complemented by its corporate volunteer program: a human workforce continuously growing that plays a role in the annual planning of creating and executing actions toward the company’s social contributions as well as empowering that outstanding group of employees. Additionally, besides the projects that are developed externally, there is an important administration that relates with the employees. Regarding its more than 900 employees, Medcom permanently maintains high standardized human resource measurements, which rise above the average levels in Central America regarding rights and employee benefit packages.

The impact Sumándonos has had from 2007 until 2014 for national audiences, includes over eight hundred campaigns, totaling 59, 820 minutes of free airtime.