Top 5 trends in Social Media and Influencer Marketing | June 2020

Since the last few months, we are more and more aware that many things in our world are out of our control, but that does not mean they cannot change. As the Black Lives Matter movement finds support among millions of citizens across the globe, brands and society are pressing for more equal and inclusive changes. This month, we want to share with you some social media and influencer marketing activations that sparked hope, positivity and most importantly lasting changes.

1. The “15% Pledge” rise

Photo Credits: @15percentpledge

A month ago, the CFDA-winning Brother Veilles’s founder and influencer Aurora James initiated the @15percentpledge movement calling on major retailers to commit a minimum of 15% of their shelf space to Black-owned businesses. The movement has started from a simple observation - Black people make up nearly 15% of the population in the United States - and a big inequality - Most important American retailers are not empowering Black businesses enough.

In an Instagram post, Aurora James called on several companies to commit to a #15PercentPledge. Her post has been relayed many times and numerous influencers have shared lists of their favorite black-owned brands on their channels creating a massive snow-ball effect. After one week, Sephora, one of the names in Aurora’s post, committed to the pledge and we hope this the start of many more commitments.

2. When celebrities and influencers use Instagram to support Black Lives Matter

Photo Credits: @billboard

On June 2, everyone’s Instagram feed turned black as a reaction to the Black Lives Matter movement and the campaign started by two black music industry experts, Jamila Thomas, senior marketing director at Atlantic Records, and Brianna Agyemang, senior artist campaign manager at Platoon, the Apple-owned music talent development company. The two women started a campaign called #Theshowmustbepaused, asking their colleagues in the music and entertainment space to “pause” work on June 2 in solidarity with the Black community. People, influencers, and celebrities across the world joined the campaign sharing over 25M black square posts on Instagram.

Some famous voices chose to give their Instagram page away to prominent black activists, like the singer Selena Gomez, who enabled black activists to share their messages and speak directly to her huge 180M followers. Some others, such as the actress and activist Emma Watson, opted for sharing resources to help to educate ourselves on the matter. Some others also pointed out companies that are not bringing support. Ariana Grande unfollowed Starbucks on Instagram after it prohibited employees from showing support for the Black Lives Matter movement at work before stepping its policy back. Her action combined with another coffee place recommendation in her Instagram story did not get unnoticed by her 190 million followers and created lots of traction around Starbucks’ misconduct, leading the international company to change their policies and start to show support to the Black Lives Matter movement.

3. TikTok is showing strong support to the black community

Photo Credits: TikTok

After technical issues that have raised concerns regarding the difficulty to find #blacklivematter content on the platform, TikTok has released two statements on June 1st and 2nd to show their involvement into the Black Lives Matter movement. 

TikTok users of colour and their allies are using the #blacklivesmatter hashtag on the app for social advocacy, providing tips on how to protest safely, sharing educational resources and speaking out on racial injustice.

From a brand point of view, TikTok created actionable steps to make the platform more inclusive, like: investing in technology and moderation strategies to better handle potentially violative content, developing a creator portal to expand communication channels and opportunities for our broader creator community, and designing a clearer, more user-friendly appeals process, establishing a creator diversity council and impact-driven programs. These are geared towards recognizing and uplifting the voices driving culture, creativity, and important conversations on the platform, furthering the efforts of the internal diversity task force and engaging organizations and experts to analyze how their products and policies can better serve people of all backgrounds.

At the end of this month, so three weeks later the first announcement, TikTok shared its progress on the matter. The platform introduced its Creator Diversity Collective, announced that Mutale Nkonde has joined TikTok's Content Advisory Council, updated and enhanced its platform and systems to treat users fairly and get continually better at protecting users from harassment. TikTok also created a dedicated page for users to learn more about the Juneteenth holiday and Black history through resources and informational videos from creators and social justice organizations. Lastly, the entertainment app announced supporting organizations that fight for equality by contributing $4 million dollars to diverse organizations that fight for racial equality and justice and nonprofits that provide programs and resources to local Black communities.

4 . Brands and agency are boycotting Facebook with ‘Stop Hate For Profit’

Photo Credits: Twitter

On June 17, a coalition consisting of Color Of Change, NAACP, ADL, Sleeping Giants, Free Press, and Common Sense Media called on Facebook’s advertisers to hit pause on ad spending on Facebook and Instagram for July 2020 to demand to Facebook adopt stricter policies against racist and hateful content on its platforms. 

The movement, named Stop Hate for Profit, have rapidly received supports from the North Face, REI, Ben and Jerry’s and Patagonia who all have pledged not to pay for advertising on Facebook platforms in the month of July. A spokeswoman of the North Face specified in a statement: “We stand in support of the NAACP and #StopHateforProfit organizations asking that Facebook stop promoting hate, bigotry, racism, antisemitism and violence […] We will re-evaluate our position over the next 30 days depending on these outcomes.”

The coalition established a simple and actionable list of requests to “Stop Hate for Profit” relying on three pillars: Providing more support to people who are targets of racism, antisemitism and hate, Stop generating ad revenue from misinformation and harmful content, and Increasing Safety in Private Groups on Facebook.

5. Instagram is helping more businesses and creators to sell on the platform

Photo Credits: Instagram

Apart from these powerful and life-changing events, Instagram has announced new commerce eligibility requirements to help more businesses and creators to sell on the platform.

The new feature expands access to Instagram Shopping to more types of businesses and will start rolling in July 9 in all countries where Instagram Shopping is supported. Creators and businesses will be able to tag products on Instagram from a single website that they own and sell from, so that people have a consistent and trusted shopping experience.