Social Media and the Social Justice Movement: Finding Your Voice

// By Althea Fung //

The COVID-19 pandemic has laid bare the inequities and injustice of American society. Communities of color bore about three times the burden of COVID-19 infections and deaths as White communities.

While job losses were universal, Latinos and Blacks had the highest unemployment rate — about 19 and 17 percent, respectively. The world watched as people flooded the streets to protest racism and police brutality in the Black community and racist attacks on Asian Americans.

Stephanie Purinton, manager of community management, Ignite Social Media

Companies were swift to respond on social media — which is what consumers want, according to the Corporate Social Mind Research Report. The survey found that about 60 percent of Americans want companies to have a position on racial discrimination and social justice.

While many hospitals and health systems used their social media platforms to express solidarity with a movement or detail changes within their institutions to address discrimination, those posts have lessened as time goes on. But that one-and-done attitude to social justice on social media doesn’t work.

“People today want brands that represent them as people,” says Stephanie Purinton, manager of community management at Ignite Social Media. “When they see brands speaking up or representing a community a certain way, they tend to support.”

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