Show notes

Episode 74 - Social movements and social media

Esther

Good morning and welcome to the Monday morning marketing podcast, I'm Esther.


Melanie

And I'm Melanie.


Esther

And today we're talking about social movements and social media. What do you think of when you hear the words social movement, Melanie?


Melanie

Well, I suppose the first social movement that pops into my head would be the most recent one. But when we did a bit of research on this, social movements have actually been around for quite some time. But I suppose the largest and not so recent one would have been the ice bucket challenge, which was quite the social movement in a positive way of raising funds and awareness for a charity. So what about you? What would be your social movement concept?


Esther

Yeah, the ice bucket challenge obviously comes to mind. I wasn't in the country here in the UK, Ireland at that point, and it didn't quite make it to Mexico where I was, but I could see everybody else taking part and that was wonderful. And then the Mannequin challenge came along. You know, there's lots of ways and businesses really took advantage of these hashtags or these social movements to reach a wider audience, because whenever you jump onto one of these things or you know, something that is relevant, let me just put that one in there. If it's something relevant to your business or that your business can use without overstepping the mark, then it's something really positive. So one that we, you know, it's really like come up recently and in the last 12 months especially is the BLM hashtag Black Lives Matter. It's one that has been front and centre. You see it every time you watch a football match. You see it every time that the news comes on. There's just so much going on with it. But that doesn't mean that you have to jump onto this hashtag or what's your opinion on that, Melanie?


Melanie

I think hashtags are there to raise awareness. But you're right, I don't think it's necessary for everybody to jump onto a hashtag just because it's trending. I think there needs to be a level of relevance as well because they're not contributing. I don't think you really need to be involved. You need to be able to argue the point or have some contribution to it or support it. But I wouldn't personally just jump on the Black Lives Matter hashtag myself unless I had something useful to contribute to it. Or, you know, it was a personal connexion to somebody involved I think would be important to me. What about you?


Esther

But I think, like you were saying, you know, it is important to realise that these hashtags are there and that they exist so that other people who maybe wouldn't be using the hashtag can see just how important the issue is.


Melanie

Exactly.

Esther

Other things that, you know, have come up recently as well is the whole metoo movement. And there's so many others. You see lots of businesses starting your own hashtags. When a company has an event, they will use a hashtag. It may trend that day and that's great. It's showing that people are interested in what they're talking about and what they're discussing during that event or that conference. But it will fizzle and die out. But movement is something that will keep going and keep growing and keep gaining traction.


Melanie

Yeah, I mean, they're more connected to protests or even civil disobedience. That's what in my mind an online social movement would be to me. And, you know, obviously, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, heck, even LinkedIn.


Esther

Tick tock.


Melanie

Tick tock. Yes, that's a big one. They're all gaining momentum. They're all they're becoming the place to go. And I suppose because we've been through a pandemic, it was also the safest way to do this sort of social movement as well, because you can't meet up in groups. And what makes something go further? Faster is exactly online.


Esther

Yeah, definitely. And it's something that we have seen a real increase in in the last 12, 18 months is the number of these trending hashtags that are raising awareness of these issues that we might we might always have known that they were there, but we just didn't realise how widespread the issue was. You know, we might not have wanted in a way to to realise that these issues were there and so big and so relevant. But, you know, like you were saying, people have been stuck in their houses.


Esther

They've had nothing to do but watch Netflix and scroll Twitter. So they're getting involved in these. And it can be a positive thing for your business to be involved in some of these social movements, but it also could turn into a negative thing.


Melanie

Exactly.


Esther

If not used correctly, so you have to be really careful whenever you're, you know, jumping on the bandwagon, so to speak, make sure it's something that you're, you know, like Melanie says that your company is actually like involved in personally.


Melanie

Yeah.


Esther

Or have a connexion to


Melanie

this could make or break your brand.


Esther

Yeah. And I mean, I'm all for Black Lives Matter. But I don't think my brand needs to tweet about it. You know, maybe maybe I'm wrong. You know, you can contact me. You can let me know if you think I'm wrong and you think I should be tweeting about it. But there are you know, those hashtags have really brought to light a lot of issues that I was probably blind to before, you know.


Melanie

Yeah, I've got to agree with you there. It's it's a conundrum because you don't want to be seen as opposing me when you're definitely supportive, but. We don't come from the same positioning as a lot of the people who are involved in this particular movement are in, and I also don't want to appear patronising either.


Esther

Yeah, yeah. So because we definitely don't have all the facts, we don't know about any of them, even if it's something like the Ice Bucket Challenge. Yes, we can get involved. But what does the, you know, the charity that they were raising for, do we actually know what that condition is all about?


Melanie

Yeah, exactly.


Esther

You know, people have probably forgotten by now as well.


Melanie

I would imagine for some people this is only I remember that. And now we've asked the question, you know, what do you actually know about it? Do you remember what it involves? You know, what age range, what genders? You know how it starts. You know, most people don't know. They they just thought it was an activity to do with a bit of fundraising.


Esther

Yeah. And then get somebody else to to freeze.


Melanie

So there's a lot to take into account when you I mean, this again, is obviously all about marketing.


Esther

Yeah.


Melanie

We're not suggesting for a second you do not get behind these movements. Not for a second. They're all critical, they're all important. They highlight important issues. And eventually with the only way we're going to overcome these issues is by actually physically confronting them.


Esther

Yeah,


Melanie

And I applaud I applaud everybody who gets involved, supports advocates and takes these measures. This, you know, with within reason, within you know, I'm not breaking any laws or anything like I applaud it, but it's not it's not something that everybody can do from every single country, from every single situation, because it would not be appropriate.


Esther

No,


Melanie

You don't want absolutely everybody jumping on this.


Esther

No, definitely not. But I do think if you have a business or an organisation that wants to raise awareness, using a social movement on social media would be a really good way of getting that started and starting your own hashtag and starting, you know, domestic violence in insert your time here and keep it local and then you can see it grow and you can see it, you know, expand. Everybody wants to help. That's if something that we've noticed over the you know, over the course of this, the pandemic and everything is that everybody wants to help everybody else out. And if they can do it on a local scale, they are so much more willing to do it as well. So jumping on social movements that might not have anything relevant for your business could be detrimental. But if there is one that you think would be beneficial or that you're really passionate about, then definitely get involved. We're not talking keyboard warriors here. We're not talking, you know, opening up new accounts just to be able to say, oh, I use the hashtag, you know. It's all about conscious doing it, you know, in your conscience, is it a good thing for you to be using this hashtag? Is it a good thing for you to be part of the social movement? Whatever it may be, it may be, you know, the what we say the ice bucket challenge and the Mannquin challenge and all these different challenges that there were and the metoo and, you know, black lives matter, they're all important. They all have a relevance behind them. Is it relevant to you and your business in your marketing plan? Is it part of your strategy to help a charity by using a hashtag breast cancer awareness?


Melanie

I mean, some of them you need to ask permission to use in fairness as well. You know, if you're going to be advocating for some of these for these larger organisations and being involved in the social movement, that they're going to have a strategy, that they're going to want to know what your involvement is and what your contribution is going to be. Some of them have to ask permission to use less than anything else, so. We we don't want to try and be too controversial here, but it is something we've noticed that people have been using and applying and sometimes not very well. And if you're going to use it, you can't waste the work and effort that these organisations have gone to in raising the profile. And it's not just making awareness is making it accurate as well. And so these aren't these aren't toys to play with. These are important issues that people with the right relationship and understanding are only allowed to use.


Esther

Yeah, and it is about making a difference. And if you're able to make a difference, we welcome you to do that. You should be doing that as part of your strategy in your marketing and as part of your business. We don't want to get too heavy and too deep into this, guys, so we're going to end it there. But like I say, if you have any comments for us, if you have anything that you would like to call us up on on this episode or in any of our episodes, do get in touch. We love hearing from you. And we'll be back next week with more Monday morning marketing. Thank you.


Melanie

I think that was the most serious we've ever been.


Esther

I think so. But we're not always this series. We do have fun times. was necessary.


Melanie

We needed to be. Yeah, that's all for now, guys


Esther

bye.