24 Sep The Importance of Diversity in Your Brand & Social Channels
“Diversity” and “Inclusion” are words thrown around pretty often in 2019. It wasn’t always seen as important for a brand to pay special attention to its content and ensure it was relatable to people of all walks of life. However, in today’s world, a makeup brand will run into instant backlash if they unveil a campaign on Instagram in which consumers are only seeing one shade of person represented. Clothing brands are urged to pay special attention that their products and marketing connect with more people than just the previously-traditional model figures. “Black Twitter” is often discussed as being a driving force behind social trends and certain brand awareness. Make no mistake about it, your brand needs diversity within its social channels if you want to thrive in 2019.
According to a McKinsey Report, “organizations in the top 25% for gender diversity were 21% more likely to experience better-than-average profitability than the companies in the bottom 25%.” Diversity helps a brand be relatable. Think about all the movies that have been released in recent years that gained notoriety simply because the cast was diverse or featured a lead actor who wasn’t a straight, white male. This idea is even more apparent on social media, as simply connecting to a community such as Black Twitter or the LGBTQIA have sent a brand’s popularity and profit skyrocketing. Even with just the language and messaging a brand uses; people instantly notice when a brand takes the time to acknowledge that their audience could and should be a wide variety of people that deserves to be catered to.
At Ignite, we stress the importance of diversity with our clients and within our own teams. Our company is mostly made up of hard-working women from multiple backgrounds, and not only have we gotten recognition for it, but we display it proudly in our channels. But diversity and inclusion are not just a brand’s way to receive recognition and awards; they open you up to a wide array of knowledge that will come through loud and clear in your content. As a brand, you should proudly boast persons of all types and walks of life in your imagery, because that’s when your imagery becomes a TRUE representation of your audience. Even when simply looking for stock imagery, perhaps diving a bit further into the search results will result in you finding imagery that will truly connect with a diverse consumer world. Pay attention to what’s trending outside of your own circle, as perhaps the next big thing is coming from somewhere your brand previously had no knowledge of. Your brand’s social media channels must feature diversity, or your audience will be certain to let you know about it in your comments. In which case you’ll have to resort to our crisis management checklist here.
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