If you’ve never considered integrating an important cause into your social media content, then you could be missing out on a crucial opportunity to connect with your audience. Social media platforms like Instagram are the perfect places to champion social and global causes, allowing influencers and companies to generate widespread awareness and action on key issues.
Of course, there are some positive side effects to integrating important causes into the content. For this reason, many of the world’s largest companies frequently use Instagram and other social media platforms as vehicles that can enhance the messaging and engagement for a cause. Let’s take a deeper dive into what causes on social media are, why supporting causes is a win-win strategy, and how you can properly integrate causes into your marketing efforts.
What Are Causes on Social Media?
If you think only nonprofits and charities should be using social media to promote causes, then you’ve missed some pretty big campaigns from the likes of Chase (Chase Community Giving), Kellogg’s (Share Breakfast campaign), and many more. From large, multinational corporations to small, individual creators and influencers, campaigning for a cause on social media happens often.
Both individuals and companies may get behind causes that focus on:
- Community health
- Ending hunger or famine
- Social justice issues like police or governmental reform
- Human rights abuses
- Animal welfare
Some causes can be very specific and target one particular issue. For instance, many people remember the viral success of the Ice Bucket Challenge, which helped raise millions of dollars for ALS disease research. Both individual people and companies got behind the challenge, leading to the funding of groundbreaking research.
How Companies Use Causes on Social Media
Recently, a number of social justice causes have become more prominent. For example, many companies wished to show support for the #BlackLivesMatter movement and used social media to state their support. Some reasons why brands use causes on social media include:
- Raising awareness for an issue
- Raising funds and resources to further research or push for change
- Develop trust and a closer relationship with followers
- Promote brand awareness by associating with a popular cause
Does Getting Behind a Cause on Social Media Work?
Many brands are jumping on the cause bandwagon because it works. Today, people want to know what the companies who make their products and services stand for. In fact, nearly half of consumers pay close attention to whether a company is for a cause when making a purchase, and over 70 percent are interested in knowing how a brand is actively supporting environmental and social issues.
The pressure is also on companies to prioritize social responsibility and speak out on current social issues. For instance, one survey found that the majority of consumers expect brands to drive societal change.
Younger consumers are especially focused on using social media to interact with causes. These consumers are often at the forefront of demands for transparency in production and where a brand sources its material. Younger social media users are also far more likely to search using a cause’s hashtag. And association with a cause can either create positive or negative impressions, depending on the viewer.
Despite customers’ demands and the potentially polarizing aspect, many brands use cause marketing anyway, hedging against risk by working with a widely accepted cause like ending hunger.
Steps for Expanding Your Reach with Cause Content
Integrating an important cause or two into your content is a win-win since you’ll be a part of generating cause awareness and possibly even benefiting the cause directly while also building your brand trustworthiness and awareness. To get started, you need to:
- Select a cause you can get behind. Many brands look for causes that relate to the product or service they offer. For example, MANSCAPED™ has had success in highlighting men’s health and testicular cancer.
- In addition to or instead of an existing cause, you could create your own. Some companies elect to hone a more generalized social issue into a movement that fits their product better.
- Create tools that followers can use. The goal is to encourage engagement and interaction.
Tools That Spread the Word
A hashtag is the easiest way to make cause content searchable and shareable. Hashtags can also tie content together across multiple forms of social media, leading to a more cohesive message. Similar to hashtags, stickers are another way to spread the conversation beyond your core group of followers.
Special filters can also deliver a visual impact and reminder of a cause. For instance, when many people wanted to show support for France after the Charlie Hebdo attack, they used frames and filters on their profiles and used the hashtag #JeSuisCharlie.
A similar technique that many used in the wake of the widespread protests in the US and the Black Lives Matter movement was to change the profile picture to black temporarily as a signal of support.
Are There Risks Involved when Integrating Important Causes?
There is always a risk that you might choose to support a cause that not everyone agrees with. Many brands opt for a cause that has near-universal appeal, such as ending child hunger or supporting cancer funding and research. Others prefer to dive into a cause that they feel aligns with their values. It’s critical to evaluate what your goals are when preparing to support a cause.
If you are interested in broadly expanding your reach and visibility, then a niche cause may not be the best route. However, many younger people are highly motivated to support and share content that feels authentic to them and that can include the niche cause you opted to support.
Finally, consider your desired outcome when developing your cause content. You might prefer to go the Like and Share route, or you might be hoping to funnel your audience to a website. Other options include raising money by encouraging small donations or motivating people to get up and do something like volunteer or call their elected official.
Your call to action will depend on the type of cause you’re working with. But whatever you go with, integrating important causes is a reliable way to generate engagement and awareness.
