Social media activism means that influencers, brands, and regular people use social platforms to share information, start petitions, organise events or protests, and raise awareness about a particular issue or cause. These may include political and social issues, human rights, animal protection, and environmental agenda.
In this post, we’ll discuss how brands can be engaged in social activism on Instagram and how to make the stance roar with Combin Growth.
How Social Media Activism Works
Social media activism is a digital way of drawing attention to an issue of a particular severity. Platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and even TikTok are used to promote a cause or issue.
Activism on Instagram and other social media platforms is made by tagging posts with hashtags created specifically for this purpose, leveraging of re-shares, and launching entire campaigns with influencers and flash mobs. In most cases, proper social media activism is supported by specific actions: donations, charity, or fundraising.
How to Leverage Instagram Activism: 4 Steps Prior
As a brand or influencer, you shouldn't dive into every possible activist movement, no matter how good its purposes are. Your brand's or personal values may not and don't have to correspond with the values promoted in a particular event. Because if they don't, and you still jump on the bandwagon just to increase your brand awareness, this might end up in a backlash. However, if you feel like you can help, check these five tips to properly use Instagram and have your message heard.
Join the movement if your customers expect it from you
According to a survey conducted by Edelman, 57% of Gen-Zers say expect expect a brand’s stand on important issues. In order to ensure your customers want such a step from your brand, use social listening tools to better understand what your customers are talking about you on social media.
Get ready to receive negative feedback
Before you share something on Instagram that reflects your stance on a cause, make sure you're prepared for an influx of negative feedback and hateful comments, since not eveeryone will agree with your opinion. There's a big chance you should expect a flow of messages and comments full of disagreement, so arm your social media managers with the tools they need to handle this influx, such mental health support, updated social media guidelines, templates for frequently asked questions, and instructions on how to deal with hate speech.
Avoid ignoring such messages and delete comments unless they are harmful. Remember to remain human and personalise social media managers' replies even if they stick to a template.
💡 Check our guide on how to answer negative complaints on social media to be armed with tools and tips before a potential influx of negative comments, DM messages, and tags.
Ensure the campaign corresponds with your values
Before engaging in any form of social media activism, don't forget to take a look back at your company's history, values, and code of conduct. Address an issue if you're ready to deal with the consequences and potential negative response from society.
When sharing a message in support of a cause, be clear and don't sound ambiguous. Consumers want to know your stance on vital and controversial issues before buying your products or services. To clearly state what you're thinking of a cause, reflect it in your social media content, paid social and your website.
Review your current Instagram content calendar
The first step is to review your Instagram calendar. If you use an Instagram scheduler, you may need to postpone upcoming content and publish it later.
💡 Follow the steps below to schedule posts to your Instagram account.
- Install Combin Scheduler. It’s available for Windows, macOS and Linux.
- Log in to your Instagram account within Scheduler.
- Once you are logged in, Scheduler automatically locates you at the posts scheduling page. Click Add New Post at the bottom of the application window to start planning your post.
- Drag and drop images or click Choose Photo to select pictures for the post.
- Add text for caption into the input field. Intervals, paragraph breaks, symbols and emoji will remain unchanged in the published post.
- If you want to, you can tag location in the post. Type the name of the place into the Location input field.
- Select the posting date and time. Scheduler synchronises with the timezone of your OS.
- Click Post Now. Your post will be published at the scheduled time.
Keep Combin Scheduler launched until your posts are on Instagram.
💡 To draw as much attention to your stance on an issue as possible, Instagram's native ability may not be enough. This is when Combin Growth's target search functionality of helping you find the right target audience, efficiently interact with it, and safely mass-comment can come in handy. To unlock more potential for narrow audience search and engaging communication, install the tool on your desktop device and log in with your Instagram account. Set a task you need, and Combin Growth will help you with the rest.