Salesforce ties exec pay to ESG, YouTube the top live video platform in US, and Zuckerberg announces employee moniker ‘metamates’

Hello, communicators:

Have an extra $150,000 burning a hole in your bank account? Great—you’ve got enough for the down payment on a ticket to space.

Virgin Galactic is opening ticket sales for its space tourism program to the public for the first time starting today. The total price of a single ticket will run you a total of $450,000, including the deposit, but if you’re looking for a late Valentine’s Day present, the company offers package deals for couples as well.

Our purpose at @VirginGalactic is to connect the world to the love, wonder and awe created by space travel. Explore our evolution at https://t.co/5UalYT7Hjb. pic.twitter.com/LMakGOaUjj

— Virgin Galactic (@virgingalactic) February 15, 2022

The Virgin Galactic website says the total experience includes spaceflight training and a “bespoke Under Armour spacesuit and boots.”

Here are today’s other top stories:

Salesforce to tie executive pay to ESG performance

Software giant Salesforce announced last week it will join the likes of McDonald’s, BP and Apple in tying top leaders’ salaries to the progress of the company’s environmental, social and governance (ESG) goals.

In the Salesforce 2022 Annual Equality Update, Lori Castillo Martinez—the company’s chief equity officer—wrote that more than 50% of the organization’s employees identify as being from “underrepresented groups,” adding that representation is a part of Saleforce’s ESG goals.

From Salesforce’s newest ESG page:

Going forward, a portion of executive variable pay for Executive Vice President and above will be determined by four ESG measures. For this fiscal year, the measures will focus on equality and sustainability.

Castillo Martinez says the equality measures will focus on increasing representation of women and racial minorities among Salesforce employees, while the sustainability measures will involve reducing air travel emissions and working with more suppliers that Salesforce identifies as practicing sustainability.

Why it matters: Linking the pay of top executives to progress on ESG and diversity, equity and inclusion (DE&I) measures is an increasingly popular way for organizations to demonstrate accountability to their commitments on positive social change. When messaging and outreach isn’t enough, putting a dollar amount on the line is an effective way to prove your ESG agenda isn’t just talk.

MEASURED THOUGHTS

Data from a 2021 survey of U.S. social video content users shows the most popular platform for viewing live content is YouTube, followed closely by Facebook.

(Image via)

Instagram and TikTok tied for third place as a destination for live video viewers, per the report from eMarketer. Among younger viewers (ages 16-24), however, TikTok takes the live content crown.

Check out more from the Insider Intelligence chart here.

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Zuckerberg announces new Meta values, “cultural operating system”

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg shared his latest memo to employees on his Facebook page this week, citing the need to show people around the world “what it’s like working at Meta and what makes us different from other companies.”

In the note, Zuckerberg reveals six updated company values, including the phrase, “Meta, Metamates, Me,” which has been met with some confusion (and some mockery) on social media:

– last value, and I am not making this up: “Meta, metamates, me”

A slide shows this text in bold all caps next to Zuck talking

I am told Zuck said this without laughing and explained it had to do with a story about ships and shipmates

— Alex Heath (@alexeheath) February 15, 2022

Facebook is changing "employees" to "Metamates" and "Newsfeed" to "feed."

Anytime a company makes a lot of trivial or meaningless changes is a 🚩🚩🚩

— Edwin Dorsey (@StockJabber) February 15, 2022

i try to not mock company branding too much — i work for techcrunch, which sounds like a cereal joke from the Silicon Valley show — but metamates is Not Good

— alex (@alex) February 15, 2022

The other five company values include:

• Move fast
• Focus on long-term impact
• Build awesome things
• Live in the future
• Be direct and respect your colleagues

What it means: People are looking for real change from companies. The new employee moniker “metamate” and its use in the “Meta, metamates, me” phrase suggests that workers should think first of the company, then their colleagues, then themselves. It’s a nice thought in theory, borrowed from the U.S. Navy’s phrase “ship, shipmates, self” as a marker of service to the greater whole, but in a time where employees are able to choose exactly where they want to work, emphasizing workers’ responsibility or demanding loyalty to a company that has seen its fair share of scandal and missteps could backfire.

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