June is Pride Month, which means collective voices from across the globe are coming together to support and honour our LGBTQIA+ community. As a brand, Pride Month offers a chance to celebrate, show support, and raise awareness of LGBTQIA+ rights on your social media channels.
For small businesses, knowing where to start or how to give back without a huge budget can feel difficult, but it’s important to know that Pride celebrations are not just for the mega-brands.
Every social activation (big and small!) goes a long way in challenging dated perceptions and raising awareness. In this blog post, we want to encourage all businesses to get involved and give back for Pride Month.
Pride Goes Virtual for 2021: How Brands Are Navigating COVID-19 for Pride
With social distancing in place this year, Pride 2021 has been reinvented in the virtual space. And brands, businesses, charities, and organisations are rising to the challenge with plenty of innovative movements to bring Pride communities together, despite being apart.
in 2019, over 5 million people came together in New York City to celebrate World Pride, while also commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots.
Now, with COVID-19 and social distancing still in place for many, IRL events like the iconic Pride Parade may be placed on hold this year. But that opens up creative opportunities to bring fundraising and awareness drives to social media.
Not only does this cut the cost of a Pride activation campaign, but more importantly it makes it accessible to everyone — which is exactly how Pride should be.
One of the first virtual events to mark Pride last year was Black in Space: A Virtual Black Pride Experience held on May 21 2020. The five-day event celebrated the diversity and resilience of Black LGBTQ+ communities — all held virtually with 85+ artists (including ASL interpreters) contributing to this experience.
Check out a list of online events taking place this year.
Want to get involved this month with Pride? Here are our top tips for planning & running a successful Pride campaign on social media
A Successful Pride Campaign on Social Media Starts with Education – While Pride is most definitely a celebration, a successful Pride campaign should have education and awareness at its core.
Tell Stories From Your LGBTQIA+ Community – You have a powerful platform at your hands — your Instagram profile regardless of its size is a wonderful place to share your LGBTQIA+ community’s stories and journeys.
Always Aim to Give Back to Pride Charities and Organisations – Pride is a time to give back to the charities and organisations that are doing great work for LGBTQIA+ rights and awareness.
Let Inclusivity be at the Core of Your Campaign – As a brand or business online, it’s our responsibility to make all people feel safe, seen, and heard. For that reason, inclusivity should be an active mission as part of your Pride campaign, and for your future marketing efforts too.
Use Dedicated Pride Instagram Stories Templates for Your Content – If you want your Pride campaign content to stand out from the crowd, and the rest of your feed, think about using dedicated Pride Instagram Stories templates.
Use Pride-related Hashtags in your Captions – Hashtags are great for getting more eyes on your content — in fact, posts with hashtags get 12.6% more engagement than posts without so if you want to spread the word, it’s time to start using Pride-related hashtags.
Use the Donation Sticker to Raise Funds for your Favourite Charities – If you’re raising funds for an LGBTQIA+ charity this year, think about using Instagram’s Donation sticker to drive more awareness and raise critical funds.
However you decide to support this month, we wish you all a very happy Pride month!
