One of the biggest problems on social media is the lack of diversity and inclusion. While there are many active campaigners for the cause, there are an equal amount of brands that unconsciously exclude groups and aren’t readily diverse. That’s why, this week, we invited marketing strategist Troy Sandidge to talk about how businesses can build a more strongly diverse and inclusive social media strategy. We discussed the importance of being inclusive and how to deal with non-inclusive brands.
Here’s a summary of our chat.
Guest: Troy Sandidge
Topic: Building a diverse and inclusive social media presence
Format: Eight questions directed at them guest. Everyone’s welcome to share.
“Diversity” and “inclusion” have long been buzzwords people throw into conversations. That’s why Troy started off by decoding the words and explaining why they’re necessary in today’s world.
Diversity refers to the various physical and mental qualities, personalities, and characteristics that exist in our society. Whereas inclusion refers to people’s ability to recognize these differences, appreciate, and respect them.
As our guest explained, when you see and hear the diversity in our societies, when you’re consciously aware of its presence, with a keen interest in learning more, you are truly inclusive and become a valuable part of society.
A1b.
You are being an active social listener that's intuned with what a community made up of different identities, genders, colors, ethnicities, backgrounds, locations, and even hopes & dreams!
You SEE them.
You HEAR them.You provide value to reach each one#TwitterSmarter
— Troy Sandidge | Marketing Strategist (@FindTroy) December 3, 2020
In business, diversity and inclusion don’t end with adding a few diverse people in your teams or in social media banners. From the way you represent yourself to your audience, your message, tone, choice of words and images, to the way you engage with your online community, diversity and inclusion should be inherent in the way a business runs.
A1c.
D&I is NOT just about having equal representation.
It's about doing marketing better, using language that attracts better engagement and reliability because you've put in the work to speak to all audience where they are, not just from your own perspective.#TwitterSmarter
— Troy Sandidge | Marketing Strategist (@FindTroy) December 3, 2020
All of that, though, just means that you should be a decent human being, as Alyx from Charlie Appel Agency put it. Remember that social media is an open forum and that everyone has the right to voice their opinions and cheer their favorites. When you treat everyone with the respect a human being deserves, you’re genuinely inclusive.
A1 It really boils down to being a decent human being. Have discussions open for anyone to join, tackle the tough topics (if they're relevant to you/your brand), and invite engagement/interaction from everyone
-Alyx #TwitterSmarter https://t.co/b7QlRhfMeN— Charlie Appel Agency (@ColfaxInsurance) December 3, 2020
It’s important because your social media should reflect who you are. Every business has a team of culturally, morally, and individually diverse people. When you represent that in your social media voice, you’ll also be able to attract such a diverse audience to be part of your online community.
A2.
1. It's a REFLECTION of YOUR business. How? Well… unless each person you hire looks exactly like you, you have a diverse team. So that needs to be reflected!
2. There is POWER in D&I. You're able to attract a wider audience to be interested in you.#TwitterSmarter https://t.co/9DyFMLZwW4
— Troy Sandidge | Marketing Strategist (@FindTroy) December 3, 2020
As Laura pointed out, no business should alienate any of its audience. If you do so, not only are you excluding a part of the population, but you’re also offending another major part of the population who will lose respect and interest in you.
A2: As a business you want to be sure not to alienate anyone. Be kind to all.
If you think there is some group or population you want to exclude from your connections, you are likely also excluding so many more with negative language and attitudes.#TwitterSmarter https://t.co/A3BMuOCloY
— Laura Denny (@ldcreativemedia) December 3, 2020
Troy also shared a checklist you need to keep in mind when you execute your social media strategy. It’s a list of do’s including:
A2c.
5. Do you engage with diverse voices?
6. Do you retweet and lift up different groups?
7. Have you talked on different topics using different people's perspectives in the industry? (similar in a way to what @MadalynSklar is doing for me right now ?)#TwitterSmarter— Troy Sandidge | Marketing Strategist (@FindTroy) December 3, 2020
As Laura said in the previous question, if you’re not inclusive you’re excluding too big of an audience that it’ll hurt you in the end. Our guest also explained that when you single out someone, they will no longer resonate with you. When that happens, they’ll stop supporting you, which leads to a decrease in community engagement and eventually revenue.
A3b.
But the truth of the matter is…
If people can NOT see themselves reflected back or attach themselves to your brand, they will not engage with it.
No engagement = No community
No community = No one buying
No one buying = No sales
No sales = No company#TwitterSmarter
— Troy Sandidge | Marketing Strategist (@FindTroy) December 3, 2020
Christine added that being exclusive would affect your brand image so badly that it signals to your current audience that you don’t care about them enough to deal with inclusion and diversity as an important topic. No one wants to support a business that won’t prioritize them.
A3.
They're sending a message that it hasn't been a big enough priority for them to put a little effort in.
Perhaps they're not even aware of the issue—which itself is part of the issue. If you have different voices at the table, someone's going to call you out.#TwitterSmarter— Christine Gritmon #ChatAboutBrand ❤️ (@cgritmon) December 3, 2020
One of Troy’s top tips is to encourage your customers and clients to share content. Also called User Generated Content, it includes testimonials, photos of your product or service, hashtags they’ve created, fan activities and merchandise—everything that your audience would create online to show how much they support your business. It’s also a great way to ensure your content covers a broad range of topics and people. Some other options are polls, Q&A sessions, surveys and customer feedback.
A4b.
2. Polls
3. Q&A
4. Present digital quote or graphic cards out made for specific audiences to engage and give feedback. You can then take all the different responses and put them into one big diverse campaign.
Brands like @Dove & @Nike do this well#TwitterSmarter
— Troy Sandidge | Marketing Strategist (@FindTroy) December 3, 2020
Our friend from Biteable also mentioned a few more great ways to be inclusive on social media, such as:
A4:
– Use alt-text
– Avoid fancy fonts
– Use camel-case in hashtags (Thanks for this tip @LanceASchart)
– Treat everyone with respect
– Be willing to learn#TwitterSmarter— Biteable (@teambiteable) December 3, 2020
Troy’s suggestions include active listening, reviewing previous campaigns to identify and rectify any lack of diverse and inclusive content, and cross-verifying meanings of your hashtags. If you have the means, you can also collaborate with other brands who are closer to the audience you want to reach and the message you want to convey, to avoid future misunderstanding and misinterpretations.
A5b.
— Collaborate with other brands who can better relate the message you want to come across
Example… you saw this a lot earlier this year where people didn't know what to say (as brands) but elevated other voices who could say what they couldn't#TwitterSmarter
— Troy Sandidge | Marketing Strategist (@FindTroy) December 3, 2020
As Amanda said, it’s crucial for your audience to see themselves using your products or services. That’s why representation matters. Consider this every time you choose images and videos for your social media. The more diverse audience you represent, the more people will be able to relate to you.
A5: Representation matters. Use diverse photos and amplify a wide range of voices so that your audience will be able to picture themselves using your products and services. #TwitterSmarter
— Amanda Hahn-Peters (@AHahnPeters) December 3, 2020
Madalyn and Troy added that diversity doesn’t end with gender and ethnicity, it also extends to location, culture, and ability based diversity. After all, you can’t create a sense of representation in an Asian by featuring a third generation Asian American in your ad. Their experiences will be entirely different from an Asian who’s just migrated to your country, or someone sitll living in Asia.
A5 (Continued)
Yes! Most definitely, and you'd be surprised on how diverse this can go…
— Location Based
— Ethnicity Based
— Gender Based
— Identity Based
— Cultural Based
— People with a disability (not disabled you are enabled)And so many others#TwitterSmarter https://t.co/9VdMsGg4Yy
— Troy Sandidge | Marketing Strategist (@FindTroy) December 3, 2020
Feedback is everything, as Lindah explained. Ask people from a range of different backgrounds to review your content and strategy so that you have multiple perspectives to tell you when you’re not being inclusive.
A6
Feedback. It helps you identify the gaps in your strategy. #TwitterSmarter
— #QueenLindah ??? (@LindahMbaisi) December 3, 2020
It’s also a good idea to self-reflect. Scroll through your profile, as Madalyn suggested, and see how you’ve been doing. It’s a great way to identify patterns of exclusion that you didn’t notice before. Then fix it right away.
A6: Scroll through your social media content and find out! Do you use stock photos that contain a bunch of people that look the same? Do you ever talk about how certain things within your industry impact people differently? #TwitterSmarter https://t.co/uQPDzvTyDh
— Madalyn Sklar – Digital Marketing since 1996 (@MadalynSklar) December 3, 2020
It’s important not to seem like you’re attacking the brand. Defensive behavior will only create friction and unnecessary arguments. Instead, as Troy suggested, try sending them a direct message first. You can also involve others in the conversation to explain to the business how the can improve, instead of bluntly accusing them of wrong doing.
A7b.
Sometimes it may even require you to take the conversation offline depending on the severity of the situation and the company involved.
It's not enough "to look like you're calling out" on social media if you don't follow through to push change.#TwitterSmarter
— Troy Sandidge | Marketing Strategist (@FindTroy) December 3, 2020
Jake shared some excellent examples of how you can interact with a brand to show that they’re exclusive without being rude. Ask nicely and make suggestions. As an audience of that brand, you can request what kind of content they should publish. Use that opportunity to nudge the brand that they need to be more inclusive.
A7: Nudge with positive-ton suggestions.
"Hey, X person might be great in your next video!"
"Can you add ALT-TEXT? It helps my screen reader function."
"Are you able to add captions to your video? It helps me interact better! Thanks"Being nice still works!#TwitterSmarter pic.twitter.com/9VAflkOSed
— JZ ? Jake Zachariah (@jzjakez) December 3, 2020
Have the right intention when you’re calling out a brand. Don’t assume that they are intentionally exclusive. It’s possible that they didn’t even realize they’d made a comment that excluded you or a specific group. That’s why it matters that you try and educate them.
That said, if you’re a business, it’s your responsibility to educate yourself and your team about being inclusive on social media. We all have unconscious biases sometimes, but what makes us humans is our ability to see past those biases and not let them define who we are. The more conscious we are about being inclusive, the better we will all become as human beings.
A7c.
Have the RIGHT intent.
Some brands think talking #BLM #LGBTQIA are trends for engagement for good PR.
?That's NOT how it works.
ALL brands need to EDUCATE themselves on their community and who is made up within it.
We ALL need to do better!#TwitterSmarter pic.twitter.com/BQ7NWkZk0T
— Troy Sandidge | Marketing Strategist (@FindTroy) December 3, 2020
Our friend from GiveWp shared Twitter’s Diversity and Inclusion dashboard. It’s a great example of a brand being transparent of their hiring policies and admitting to how far they still have to go, despite coming a long way.
A8: @Twitter has a pretty amazing Diversity and Inclusion dashboard that highlights their efforts to be better. It should be applauded! https://t.co/IFfxdOiBjA #TwitterSmarter
— GiveWP (@GiveWP) December 3, 2020
Lance shared some more brands including Apple, McDonald’s, Gap, and our very own Madalyn.
#TwitterSmarter A8: @eastersealshq @Gap @MadalynSklar @CocaCola @McDonalds @Apple
— Lance A Schart (@LanceASchart) December 3, 2020
Our guest also commended Dove and Nike in a previous tweet.
The important thing about being diverse and inclusive on social media is that not everyone gets it right the first time. And that’s ok as long as you’re open minded and willing to change your biases. That’s what makes a brand successful.
Well folks, that’s all from me this week. Thanks for reading, and for more great insights from our chat with Troy, have a look at this Twitter Moment that Joana put together. And if you have some time to spare on Thursday, come join us for the next #TwitterSmater chat at 1pm ET.
About me, Narmadhaa:
I write all things—technical and marketing copy to fill the pocket; haiku and short stories to fill the soul. A social media enthusiast, I’m a member of the #TwitterSmarter chat crew, and always happy to take on writing gigs.
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