38. Pause. Responding to chaos and trauma in your messaging
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SUMMARY
At Flaunt Your Fire and Pause On The Play, we’ve been getting a flood of questions and concern about the events of Wednesday, January 6th in our nation’s Capitol. India and Erica are very grateful for those of you who have reached out, and wanted to offer some quick insights into how you, as a brand, can be responsive in the midst of the chaos and traumatic events.
5 Steps to Crafting Your Response for Social Media
Pause. Check your automated social media schedulers. Audit your content to make sure that it’s not coming across as insensitive to what’s happening in the world.
Breathe. Recenter yourself. Feel the emotions that are coming up - be they anger, outrage, fear... and do whatever you need to get to a place where you can respond more thoughtfully, rather than from a place of emotional reactivity. This doesn’t mean you can’t or shouldn’t share your raw emotions. Rather, it’s being intentional about how you're doing that and why.
Educate yourself. If you are planning on making a statement, educate yourself from reliable resources that are not opinions, but actual facts. Then decide: What is your brand stance on what's happening? And that will allow you to compose your thoughts and craft what you want to say?
Respond with clarity and intention. Be clear on what you're hoping to convey, why you're saying it at this moment, and what your desired goal is. Avoid saying something because you feel you’re supposed to without understanding why. You also don’t need to filter yourself by tempering your response based on what everyone else is saying. No need to borrow from what we call, “The White Woman’s Handbook of Captions.” Instead, ask yourself if what you’re about to put out is really in your own words, and how a person from a marginalized group is going to feel reading, watching, or listening to that content right now.
Be prepared. You will see some shifting of who shows up on your social media -- you will get some new follows, and some unfollows.
“Marketing does not have to look one specific way, even in the midst of trauma and chaos.” - Erica Courdae
Ultimately, if you do choose to use your voice, that says something. And if you choose not to, that also says something. It’s important to understand that no matter what you do or don’t say, you're saying something. You have an opportunity to decide whether or not you want your message to be crafted for you without your input, or whether you want to own it, and make it happen consciously and with intention.
Your Action For This Episode
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