Pride month underscores the need for brands to engage authentically with LGBTQ communities, leveraging tools like Wearisma’s inclusive discovery solutions to connect with diverse influencers and uplift marginalized voices beyond tokenistic gestures.
Published On: June 21, 2021
Every year Pride month arrives is a perfect time to think about how to be more inclusive and in this two-part series, we’ll be exploring ways to do just that. To embrace marginalised communities authentically, brands need to commit to understanding and identifying the topics, voices and content that are driving conversations – all of which is possible with Wearisma’s intelligent solutions.
This year, Pride month has highlighted the global demand for more visible and engaging LGBTQ content. In light of the vast cultural changes of the past year placing limitations on how we can operate within our physical communities, engaging with our online community is more essential than ever. Online communities are particularly impactful for marginalised groups.
Across all platforms worldwide, Wearisma witnessed a 72% increase in LGBTQ content and a 200% increase in Engagement YoY. Social media is enabling people all over the world to express their individuality whilst building collective identities more cohesively and confidently than ever before. In the UK alone, Engagements of LBGTQ content increased by 2000%. In fact, in the UK those who post LGBTQ content on Instagram have a higher Engagement rate than Luxury (80% higher), Fashion (50% higher), and Beauty influencers (70% higher). While this indicates an increased interest in LGBTQ content, it also points to the shifting landscapes within our social media communities, where the real champion is content that focuses on building communities with real people, about real topics, in an authentic way.
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Brands all across the globe harness Pride month as an opportunity to show their support for the LGBTQ community. Yet, the pushing out of content during Pride walks a fine line between engaging with and maximising off marginalised communities. Brands need to think carefully about whether their show of support uplifts the community. They need to engage in more ways to pass the mic to those who advocate for LGBTQ content rather than steal the spotlight. While it has become like clockwork for brands to pull out the rainbow flags or change their Linkedin logo just in time for the rolling around of Pride Month, here at Wearisma we believe it’s time for brands to do more, all of the time.
Ultimately, Pride is about giving a voice to unheard communities, recognising unconscious bias and taking a decisive step towards a more diverse and inclusive society. Yet, so many marketers still measure their audiences based on reductive categories and data points rather than looking beyond the surface to the people and influencers committed to uplifting marginalised communities and creating engaging LGBTQ content. While social media filters are infamously problematic, Wearisma’s inclusive discovery solution aims to sift out unconscious biases by harnessing the Engagement metrics of influencers worldwide.
Rather than manually and subjectively identifying a diverse range of influencers, our algorithm uniquely locates individuals who are passionate about diversity and committed to giving a voice to those marginalised within their community. This feature aims to encourage brands to do more than participate in well-meaning but tokenistic shows of support and extend their commitment to inclusivity and diversity beyond Pride month. Our Ceo and Founder Jenny Tsai is passionate about helping brands authentically engage with consumers and expands on why marketing technology like this can be so important.
“Brands are increasingly shining a light on their core values as part of their communications goals. Done well, brands can ensure relevance and influence. But if the efforts are deemed inauthentic, audiences are quick to call brands out. A general rule is: if it feels incongruent with their brand values, they should probably steer clear. Our technology uniquely identifies individuals/ influencers passionate about the topics of Diversity, Equality and Inclusivity, giving a voice to those marginalised in their communities and enabling brands to build authentic ties with communities they care about.”
Wearisma Founder & CEO
Wearisma’s inclusive discovery solution helps teams reduce unconscious bias in the way they approach influencer marketing and encourages brands to reach a more diverse audience on all of their campaigns. Wearisma’s solution will identify those whose content aligns with your brand values, locating influencers who have the highest Engagement with a truly diverse audience and who best represent minority communities.
Brands need to engage with the consumers within these communities and take time to understand and appreciate the conversations driving these movements before launching their campaigns. Our client License to PR has been able to use our intelligent solutions to create an authentic campaign for Pride month:
“We ran a Pride-themed campaign for children’s brand Elmer and Wearisma’s intelligent discovery tools really helped us to select the right influencers who are not only passionate about diversity and inclusivity but whose content is a good fit for the brand. The insights also helped to demonstrate to our client how this campaign delivered above-average results out in terms of engagements and sentiment.”
Director, License to PR
Pride is about seeing beyond our ingrained assumptions and embracing the variety of people, genders and sexualities that make our social media communities the unique and diverse spaces they are. Wearisma’s inclusive discovery solution helps brands to do just that, taking the true message of Pride and incorporating it into how teams approach their day-to-day marketing campaigns.
As well as encouraging brands to step beyond unconscious team bias and diversify their marketing campaigns, working with a diverse range of influencers can have an impact that stretches well beyond your brand. With many countries still openly criminalising homosexuality, the presence of LGBTQ content and associated communities provides an essential safe space for those who are not able to freely express themselves offline. In fact, Wearisma has witnessed a steep jump in interest for such influencer content in countries with challenging LGBTQ policies; Engagements for LGBTQ content increased by over 2200% YoY in India. This data is even more revealing in light of India’s refusal to recognise same-sex marriage earlier this year, suggesting the rise of LGBTQ influencers is even more pertinent in countries where these communities are more openly marginalised.
If there was ever a more essential time to uplift those advocating for LGBTQ content within their online communities, it is now. Influencers and consumers who are harnessing the power of social media to create safe spaces for those who remain marginalised and discriminated against in their everyday lives are the backbones of today’s LGBTQ movements. Now more than ever, it’s essential for brands to understand how their approach to influencer marketing can impact the wider social landscape. Authentically engaging with these influencers is about more than just your brand; it’s about shining the light on those who provide a global safe space for marginalised communities.
In part two we’ll be highlighting the consumers, influencers, and everyday social media users who are championing the conversations driving the LGBTQ movement online.
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