4 Tips for Practicing Inclusivity in Your Social Media Marketing
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4 Tips for Practicing Inclusivity in Your Social Media Marketing
According to the Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention (CDC), 1 in 4 adults in the U.S. lives with some kind
of disability. Still, they’re thriving in life. They also expect and deserve to
get the same enjoyable experience from a business as those who don’t live with
a disability.
We aren’t just talking about products or
customer service. We’re referring to marketing, too, specifically social media
marketing. Let’s explore the need for accessibility and inclusivity in social
media marketing in more detail below.
The Need
for Accessibility and Inclusivity in Social Media Marketing
There’s a lot that goes into planning a social media marketing strategy.
You must:
● Set goals and establish accompanying metrics
●
Thoroughly research your target
audience and competition
●
Choose the most effective social
media channels and create content for them
●
Design a social media content
calendar to remain consistent
●
Use data analytics to measure the
success of campaigns and content
All of this work means nothing if your
campaigns don’t capture the majority of your audience every time. How do you do
this? With a heavy focus on representation, accessibility, and inclusivity.
Individuals with a disability are often
neglected in marketing campaigns. And that creates a huge disconnect between
the companies doing this and a massive part of their target audience.
Social media marketing that’s accessible and inclusive caters to people living with a range of disabilities. As a result, these individuals resonate more with the campaigns and are compelled to move forward in their relationship with a brand.
Ultimately, your social media marketing should
be more inclusive and accessible because it’s the right thing to do. Everyone
should have the opportunity to experience your campaigns and enjoy them
fully.
How to
Be More Inclusive in Your Social Media Marketing
There might not be anything more important for
your social media marketing than ensuring it’s accessible to everyone in your
audience. The following tips will help you prioritize inclusivity and diversity
in every campaign.
1.
Learn about your audience
You must first know who you’re trying to
include to be more inclusive. In other words, learn about your audience. Find
out about their unique needs, backgrounds, and abilities, as well as their
demographic information. The more you know about your customers, the easier it
will be to craft social media content they feel welcomed by.
Keep in mind that people are concerned about
how companies collect and use their data, making many hesitant to share it.
So, to soothe their concerns and collect the
customer data you need, you must prioritize privacy and be transparent about how you compile customer data and
use it to better their experience with your marketing.
2.
Use inclusive and straightforward
language
A big part of a marketer’s job is to ensure their audience
understands and resonates with the content they produce. Inclusive and
straightforward language fuels this and your efforts to make your campaigns
more accessible.
Always use a simple word in place of its
complex counterpart. Keep your sentences short and to the point. Make sure that
every word and sentence matters. And if it doesn’t, take it out.
Most importantly, understand and use inclusive
language. Stay away from ableist terms like “lame,” “retarded,” and “crazy.”
Stay away from anything that can be deemed offensive or hurtful. Use inclusive
language instead, such as “folks” to address a group rather than “guys,” and
gender-neutral pronouns.
3.
Focus on authentic representation
Accessible social media campaigns must be
mindful of how they represent people. If you want people to feel included and
welcomed, they have to see themselves in your campaigns.
For example, if you’re trying to connect with
the part of your audience living with a specific disability, including those
with that disability in your campaigns could help. But you must do it in a way that’s authentic and respectful
of how someone with that disability is truly living.
The first step is ensuring you have a diverse
group of people on your marketing team. You’ll be able to genuinely represent
more people in your campaigns with a team of mixed abilities, backgrounds, and
experiences.
Also, talk to your customers. Get their
feedback on whether your social media content authentically represents who they
are and ask for suggestions to improve things. And if you ever make a mistake
and offend someone with an inauthentic depiction, apologize and take action.
4.
Incorporate accessible design
principles
Everything you create for social media should
be done with accessible design principles in mind.
Incorporate as many of them as possible in your content to ensure a range of
people in your audience can enjoy it.
These accessible design principles are a must:
●
Use a legible font
●
Alt text and image descriptions
●
Avoid special characters and limit
emoji use
●
Visualize links with an underline
or hover animation
●
The color contrast between the
text color and background should be 4.5 to 1
●
Captions, subtitles, audio
descriptions, and transcripts for every video
Conclusion
Connecting with your customers on social media
is integral to your marketing and company success.
The key is ensuring your campaigns are inclusive and accessible to as many people in your target audience as possible. If you can do this, a better brand reputation, a more prominent influence, and genuine customer relationships will result.
Use the tips above to be more inclusive in your social media marketing and create campaigns that honor and are mindful of all.