How to Run a Successful and Sincere Pride Social Media Campaign

Ladies, gentlemen, and gentlethems, I wish you a happy Pride Month. I wanted to write this blog to help businesses understand how to run a pride social media campaign that matters.

Pride Month is a month dedicated to celebrating, championing, and supporting the LGBTQ+ community. Or, as we like to say here on the content team, the alphabet mafia.

As a small business, you might feel a bit unsure of how you can participate in the Pride festivities. Or maybe you want to launch a Pride campaign, but you’re nervous about coming across as cold and corporate.

It’s a fair concern. It certainly feels like many companies nowadays use Pride as another piece of content. Even worse, some brands even post Pride updates whilst actively spreading anti-LGBTQ+ messages. Ms Victoria Secret, we’re referring to you.

This kind of marketing mishap occurs when brands wish to commercialise on the current buying habits of the socially aware, activism-inclined younger folk without actually doing their homework on these issues. If you want to see more information on brand values and the dos and don’ts, check out this blog.

So, if you’re looking to launch a Pride social media campaign and want to make sure you demonstrate sincerity and compassion for the cause, here are some tips to help you on your way!

Tips For Running a Pride Social Media Campaign 🌈

Educate

Yes, Pride is a time for celebration and love. But it’s also a time for educating ourselves, both on an individual level and societal level.

Take the time to carefully plan your campaign and place education and awareness at the centre of your strategy. Offer information to your audience to help them better understand what Pride is about and why it’s important.

For instance, did you know that June is Pride month to commemorate the Stonewall riots, which occurred in the same month in 1969?

You could even use the whole month of June to release a series of informative pieces about Pride, such as the history behind several LGBTQ+ civil rights movement milestones or the meanings behind the many flags.

Incorporate pieces of trivia into your campaign to keep the content both entertaining and informational. Or discuss some serious statistics to remind your audience that Pride is not just about rainbows and fiestas. It’s about continuing that fight for equality that started so many years ago.

Look Within

An important focus during Pride is the voices and experience of members of the LGBTQ+ community. Therefore, it makes sense to platform the queer voices of those from within your own business.

Ask queer members of your team to come forward if they’d like to get involved with the strategy behind your Pride campaign. Trust me. It will make all the difference in the world to have a Pride project headed by LGBTQ+ individuals.

Alternatively, you could focus your Pride campaign on your queer employees, giving them the chance to talk about what Pride means to them.

If your small business doesn’t have any members of the alphabet mafia on the team, maybe considered reaching out to your audience. Create a post asking those belonging to your online community their feelings about Pride and why it’s important to them.

You could even turn these comments into posts in themselves to showcase the various stories of queer friends of your business.

Disclaimer: It’s important to *ask* people if they wish to participate in this project instead of just putting them on the team. Most people would be displeased about being cherrypicked based on their orientation or identity without their permission. Additionally, if someone is not fully out at work, do not put them on the spot by asking them to get involved in a Pride campaign. First and foremost, you should respect people’s decisions and processes.

Get Fundraising!

What’s better than putting education at the forefront of your Pride social media campaign? Charity!

Many companies that celebrate Pride on their social media or sell Pride merchandise don’t always give back to the LGBTQ+ community.

Instead, if you’re making an exclusive product for Pride, make sure that you’re giving a percentage of the sales to charity. For example, last year, Dr Martens released a limited-edition Pride boot, which raised over $25,000 in donations to The Trevor Project.  

But you don’t have to launch and sell Pride-themed products to give back. Instead, consider starting a fundraising campaign for Pride on your social channels and allow your online audience to get involved too. You could even run a competition to raise money and ask your followers to vote on a charity that will receive the donation at the end of the month.

Want some tips on running a social media competition? Check out our blog here.

Either way, you will be strengthening your relationship with your audience and making a difference whilst doing so!

Block Hate

This is a tip that should be implemented all year round, but it is especially important during Pride.

Whilst most people are smart enough and respectful enough to understand the importance and beauty of Pride month, there are some eejits out there. And if you’ve spent time and effort on creating a great, genuine, and impactful Pride campaign to show your support and love for the LGBTQ+ community, then you really don’t trolls to get in the way of that.

Here is a detailed guide on how to block hateful comments and messages on Instagram. It’s incredibly simple, and you can even create a custom list of trigger words and phrases to block, so the offensive comments are stopped before they even make it onto your page.

Be vigilant when it comes to the comments sections throughout Pride. Safeguarding queer members of your community and your staff should always be a top priority.

Don’t Stop Here!

So you’ve created a successful and sincere pride social media campaign. Well done! But don’t pack away your pens and pencils yet.

If you’ve never implemented a campaign around a social cause before, consider Pride a starting point. You’ve learnt how to respectfully and thoughtfully touch on sensitive issues, and you’ve taken a stance as a business.

Don’t reserve this type of activist campaigning and educational inclusivity to one singular month of the year. If you believe you have something valuable to add to a conversation, use your platform to do so.

Use your platform and social following to continually raise awareness and make changes, no matter how small. Post more content from queer creators throughout the whole year. Chip in on important movements happening in society. Focus on improving the inclusivity and diversity of your own brand as a whole. The opportunities are endless.

DMT is a digital marketing team based in the heart of Manchester. If you’re interested in seeing how we can help your business succeed online, get in touch, or follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn.