PRSSA LONG BEACH
  • Home
  • About
    • What is PRSSA?
    • Our Roles
    • Chapter History
    • Advisers
  • Membership
    • Become a Member
    • Benefits >
      • Events
      • Partners
      • Mentorship program
      • Conferences
  • Executive Board
    • Meet our Executive Board >
      • About our Board
  • Calendar
  • Bateman Team
  • Blog
  • Media
    • Newsroom
    • Gallery
  • Contact

How to Create Inclusive and Diverse Content Marketing

11/8/2020

0 Comments

 

By ​Imani Smith

Picture
​Diversity and inclusion are not synonymous. Diversity refers to the differences in human demographics, race, religion, gender, sexual orientation, age and physical abilities. Inclusion is a culture and environment that is collaborative, supportive and respectful for all. Inclusion and diversity can no longer be run by solely the HR department. These important efforts need to be integrated into public relations, business plans and content creation. Here’s are four ways to create inclusive and diverse content marketing. 
 
Delve into Your Audience 
 Although brands should have respect for everybody, inclusion in marketing doesn’t always mean brands need to market to all demographics. People who identify as men don’t need to be the prime audience for perfume just like college students would not be the primary audience for homeowner’
s insurance. But brands should frequently research their audience. By looking at the available data, brands will be able to create marketing that reaches an ever growing audience.  
Document your audiences, race, gender, geography, etc. Send brand team members out to industry events and coordinate focus groups in part to better understand the “why” of your target audience. This will help brands track data that isn’t as easily tracked, like point of view and physical ability.  


Consider your Team 
Can you look around your workplace and find faces and backgrounds that are 
representative of your target audience? If the answer to this question is no, then it is time to begin to ask yourself how you can become a more inclusive brand. One of the biggest risks to a company’s reputation is tone deaf or offensive marketing. It is incredibly important for the brand team to be inclusive to avoid making a mistake that only someone outside of a demographic could make. However, gender and racial representation are still low in the industry.   
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the ethnic makeup of the PR industry in the U.S. is 87.9% white, 8.3% African American, 5.7% Hispanic American  and 2.6% Asian American. Although some progress has been made in advancing women in the PR industry to leadership positions, the pay gap between men and women in PR is $6,000 on average. A team that includes more people of color, women, LGBTQA communities and disabled communities will be able to create content that reaches each community in a sensitive and accessible way.  

Tailor Editing for Inclusivity 
In order to ensure that text, content, and verbiage reflects inclusion, writers and editors should be required to drop all beliefs and preconceived notions. Prepare writers and content creators to do the necessary research and fact checking before they even begin to write or produce content for the target audience. This could eliminate brands from potentially losing followers or subscribers due to something that could've been avoided by bias checking prior to publishing. The National Center on Disability and Journalism guide “covers general terms and words on physical disabilities, hearing and visual impairments, mental and cognitive disabilities and seizure disorders.”  Creating content that  everyone can view is not only good for business but it is also ethically correct. Making your brand visible and accessible to people with disabilities alerts the visible minority group that they are not only welcome but included. 

Don’t Over Do It 
​On the other hand, brands can make the mistake of over communicating that they are a diverse company rather than simply being one. If you have to over explain your diversity and “prove it” to your audience
 you run the risk of offending and losing parts of your target audience. Cultural appropriation is defined by the Cambridge dictionary as “the act of taking or using things from a culture that is not your own, especially without showing that you understand or respect this culture.” It is incredibly important to make sure your content is reflective of sincere and genuine efforts to diversity and inclusion in a way that is authentic to your brand and, more importantly, your audience. 
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    BLOG

    Looking to get published on our blog?

    Email your topics (or drafts) to prssalb@gmail.com to get started. The publishing deadline for Fall 2022 is November 10.
    DRAFTS must be submitted before this deadline.
    ​Drafts submitted after the deadline will NOT be published.

    Categories

    All
    Content Creation
    Instagram
    Internship
    Journalism Major
    Marketing
    Mental Health
    Public Relations Major
    Social Media
    Twitter

    Archives

    December 2022
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    July 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    November 2018
    October 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    May 2017
    December 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    December 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015

    RSS Feed

Picture
CONNECT​
DISCOVER
ADDRESS
ABOUT | EXECUTIVE BOARD | BLOG | CONTACT | JOIN
Department of Journalism  ​& Public Relations
1250 Bellflower Blvd., LA4-106
Long Beach, CA 90840
© COPYRIGHT 2019 PR​SSA LB. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
DISCLAIMER: By attending our meetings and events, you are releasing your consent to being photographed and filmed. 
​Your presence is consent to the release of your likeness to be posted and used on any of our marketing materials.
PRSSA Long Beach reserves the right to use any photograph/video taken at any event.
  • Home
  • About
    • What is PRSSA?
    • Our Roles
    • Chapter History
    • Advisers
  • Membership
    • Become a Member
    • Benefits >
      • Events
      • Partners
      • Mentorship program
      • Conferences
  • Executive Board
    • Meet our Executive Board >
      • About our Board
  • Calendar
  • Bateman Team
  • Blog
  • Media
    • Newsroom
    • Gallery
  • Contact