Black square?

[trashymcgeee]

Do you or have you posted anything about what’s going on for your company?

[redroverdover]

You are advising them not to do it because you don’t agree with it. Get real.

[RacerGal]

I advised against it as well, despite personally being very involved. It sucks, but we as an org sadly don’t have any action to support how we’re fighting for the cause externally, so posting anything felt tone deaf or pointless. I don’t mean that we’re obviously for racism and injustice, but we’re a startup whose been hit extremely hard by quarantine/covid and had to furlough half our org and thus we don’t have funds to donate. Our internal org is small and not very diverse (personally that’s my commitment to help improve our D&I practices for when we can begin hiring again).

But I made sure we paused any social/email for this week b/c it’s also insensitive to pretend it’s business as usual.

[LeeAllen3]

So I represent a mental health agency, not in the USA and we work closely with our local police forces. Racism and discrimination looks different here but it is systemic and ever-present. Staff and clients are shaken.

Racism causes mental health / trauma issues … blacking out our social media is counterintuitive to connecting people with care, however we want to acknowledge #BlackoutTuesday so have chosen to comment on how racism impacts mental health, a black box with 24/7 tel numbers and will limit our posts today to “how to access services” posts and a Dr King quote/image “Returning hate for hate multiplies hate…”

[toin9898]

I am very supportive of BLM but I have also advised to lay low today rather than either continuing on as usual or posting a black square.

We will be releasing a statement later if the higher-ups can get their shit together but otherwise we do not have anything meaningful to contribute so it’s best we stick with the spirit of blackout Tuesday and leave room for those with something important to say instead of occupying space with an ultimately empty/performative gesture.

[mcghawsmcs]

I have done it for my business. Support speaks volumes.

[thewintermood]

I work for a non profit and we will deff be posting something black lives matter related. I think anyone here in the position to make that call should be doing this.

(We can’t take part in the blackout because tomorrow is our biggest fundraiser of the year and we have to promote it.)

[Suitable-Concert]

If it makes sense for your organization or client’s account, then by all means post it, but if it doesn’t, then don’t post anything at all and give the space to those who can speak up or use their platform to- and I hate saying this -influence people to donate or take action some other way.

[shouldidrophim]

Rather than posting a black square, I posted information on why it’s not helpful. Look at @/afrodominicanxthings

[ZebraCard]

Personally, I think it is better to get flack for making the wrong kind of statement than not making a statement at all. I am in charge of the social media for a medium sized business and I was explicitly told I’m not allowed to make a post in support of today, and tonight I am looking for a new job. We live in weird times and I think it is important to let people know where your company stands.

[budshah]

You did it right. I think it’s better if corporates show what affirmative actions they’ve taken to forward the cause rather than just posting things with no action.

[thekatinboots]

Pausing regularly scheduled content for the this week.

[fast_mover]

This is less about social strategy and more about organizational voice and culture.

Corporate slacktivism is real, and businesses are being called out for it. Here [two](https://twitter.com/brandijeter/status/1267620135000436736?s=21) [tweets](https://twitter.com/fireteambrav0/status/1267649114176700418?s=21) I caught which communicate the perspective every social media manager should consider during this moment in time.

I’m on the agency side, and we have about 70 clients. When a major social issue hits and brings to trend across our channels, we follow a few important steps: notify the client about the trend and what it means, explain how businesses are/are not participating, and clarify what taking a position could mean. Then, we let the client make the call. We sent dozens of emails Monday/today and coordinated conference calls to show what we were tracking and what it meant for our clients.

The thing to keep in mind is that participating in the discussion sets a precedent. If you participate in Blackout Tuesday, do you comment on LGBTQ+ issues? How about Women’s Rights? Do you recognize some situations and tragedies, but not others? And, if employees post content on their personal pages related to a hot political issue and their viewpoint is considered contrary to that of the brand, how will you respond? We literally had a field employee for a client post about how they were glad protestors were being tear gassed and run over. That message doesn’t really align with any brand statement, and we had to react quickly and with purpose.

As a human, it’s easy to rally behind a cause and feel the urge to participate. Unfortunately, most businesses are not very good at articulating their stance on social issues… nor are they great at defending them when their feet are held to the fire.

pic.twitter.com/yWob93FOsC

— Fireteambrav0 (@Fireteambrav0) June 2, 2020

[issareddit]

*Black person from a social media advertising agency here*

I believe every brand should issue a message of solidarity but only if that’s truly something you want your brand aligned with. It’s much different for brands that are very visible and in the public sector as they service more individuals and likely have more exposure to Black staff and customers who deserve to know where your business stands. The only reason I’d advise against a statement is if your brand 1. has an ugly history or 2. has no intention of participating in any acts of progress, whether it be externally or internally. I’ve challenged clients to ask themselves why were COVID and local/national scale disaster relief responses deemed necessary but this particular issue not if the intent and goal behind messaging is to show both brand empathy and general social awareness.

[TheMasio]

We did the same at my company. It depends on the management. I guess it mainly depends if your startup has an informal or formal communication on social media.

Companies that have a formal culture will certainly not jump into the #blackouttuesday solidarity. Startups and younger companies will.