As a brand, now is more important than ever to responsibly use your power to drive positive social impact on the world. If millennials and Gen Z are among your target audience, this is especially profound, as research has shown that they find activism pretty attractive. 70 percent of millennials, a group with $2.45 trillion in spending power, will spend more on brands that support causes. Several brands have understood this and have used their platforms to advocate for various social issues such as body positivity, mental health awareness, climate change, and multiple forms of social inequality.
Working with the right influencers can deeply tie into these initiatives. Some social media influencers have decided to use their power for more than just spreading awareness of brands and products. They’re helping to empower their communities by mobilizing social impact, affecting the images and reputations of the brands they work with.
Much of these influencers’ empowering, activist efforts involve promoting much-needed values such as diversity, equality, inclusion, self-love, and general positivity. This often happens in the form of partnering with sustainable, socially-conscious brands and discussing the brand’s mission and vision. Some take their activism further by partnering with charities, some create their own content such as videos, and sometimes even creating their own brands. This can make them more ideal ambassadors for brands with similar social missions.
For example, the beauty industry has seen several influencers advocating for better inclusion and less discrimination on perceived “flaws”. Beauty itself is connected to several complex, deep-rooted, and worldwide social issues, such as colorism and size discrimination. Beauty influencers are strongly impacted by these inequalities and have plenty of firsthand experience to discuss these issues.
A notable example is popular beauty YouTuber Jackie Aina making videos addressing skin color discrimination. Her video We Need To Talk About Skin Bleaching is one of her most viewed videos (1.5M) and draws awareness to the serious issue of skin color discrimination all over the world, calling out celebrities who endorse skin bleach. Throughout a makeup routine, she discusses the need for media representation for dark-skinned individuals and the negative social impact of having dark skin, advocating to end the hate. The comment section, a section of the web known for being especially bitter, is filled with supportive comments from fans discussing the impact of skin color discrimination on their own lives. Jackie’s activism contributed to her being awarded Influencer of the Year by WWD in 2018.
South Asian-American beauty influencers Deepica Mutyala and Nabela Noor have also used their platforms to further diversity and inclusion. Deepica launched the beauty community Live Tinted made with representing all underrepresented skin tones and celebrating the heritage behind them. Nabela’s lifestyle brand Zeba promotes self-love and body positivity for all sizes and skin colors, selling a size-inclusive range of clothing. In 2018, fashion influencer Katie Sturino spread the hashtag #makemysize to promote size inclusivity in mainstream fashion brands, inspiring her followers to contact their favorite brands. These efforts can help counter the negative effects that Instagram can have on an individual’s mental health.
Seeing a diverse array of influencers showing pride and confidence in the same qualities you were marginalized for while advocating for respect and equality for those characteristics, isn’t such a bad feeling, right? Whether it’s body size, skin tone, acne, or cultural heritage, seeing an influencer positively representing it can make you feel more pride.
Influencers can reap their influence to bring out monetary donations from their fans. Some have partnered with charities, raising millions of dollars for important causes. If you’re a charity, you can increase your donations by partnering with an influencer. For example, Tyler Oakley has raised over $500k for LGBT crisis prevention organization The Trevor Project and has created content with AT&T to spread awareness of its 24/7 services, TrevorText and TrevorChat. Lilly Singh partnered with Me to We to support the education of young girls in Kenya, India, and Ecuador. Connor Franta raised $190k for The Thirst Group to provide drinking water all over the world. He accomplished this via YouTube and setting up incentives, such as having a chance to be flown out to LA to meet him in person.
Taking this even further, influencers and brands can team up to host their own events. The Body Shop has worked with the organization Cruelty Free International to protest animal testing in the beauty industry. In January 2018, the company organized a protest made up of dogs. The dogs took to the streets with their miniature signs and banners while the event was covered by pet photographer influencer @TheDogist and pet influencer @louboutinanyc. FYI, your influencers don’t even need to be human beings.
On the influencer side, partnering with the right brands is important to their personal branding. An influencer and/or celebrity can take a dent in their image by partnering with a brand that endorses values perceived as regressive by many. For example, influencers who have partnered with skin bleaching or detox tea brands have been the target for plenty of criticism. Because of this, some influencers will assess a brand’s values and past marketing strategies before partnering with them, such as beauty influencer Arshia Moorjani, who attended an activation with beauty giant Shiseido to promote their expansion of their foundation shades.
Influencers give us more than just attractive, enviable social media accounts to look at. They’re helping to shape the future of brands and runways. The diversity in New York Fashion Week’s runways have been significantly increasing in terms of race, age, and body type, and it’s unlikely to stop in 2020. Influencer marketing agencies can actually become pretty criticized nowadays if their campaigns aren’t diverse enough, especially if they sport an unusually homogenous group of thin, blonde white women. Fortunately, several brands have become aware of this and are becoming mindful of commonly discriminated factors such as age, skin color, and sexual orientation in regards to the influencers they choose.
All these tenacious efforts on part of influencers and brands to further diversity, inclusion, and equality are not meant as attempts to take down members of typically privileged groups. They aren’t a form of negative discrimination against light-skinned or thin individuals. They’re meant to bring marginalized groups to the same status and regard as those traditionally at the top, groups that haven’t seen enough positive media representation of their characteristics. From a business and financial perspective, these initiatives are necessary to keep up with changing demographics and purchasing power.
Remember, your partnership with an influencer or celebrity impacts your reputation, either for the better or worse. If you’re looking to make a social impact but aren’t sure how, partnering with a nonprofit or an influencer who advocates for a cause you care about would be a great start.
At Irose Social, we aim to drive positive social impact by connecting influencers, brands, and activations with local and global nonprofits. Stay tuned for our upcoming charitable initiatives.
