In today’s society where we get our news can greatly affect our opinion on certain topics, whether it is from a reliable news source or an Instagram account with 2 million followers. Although social media is a great way to spread information, some brands are using social issues to make a profit. Let’s talk about it. 

The definition of social media activism is, “media activism in a broad category of activism that utilizes media and communication technologies for social and political movements.” This definition is important to know because when large Instagram accounts spread awareness and news, it spreads quicker and gets more attention than actual news sources, but sometimes their goal is to make money rather than spread awareness. Using marketing tactics based on this phenomenon, some brands are now “supporting” current issues on their social media accounts while doing nothing to solve them in reality.

Another point to be made is that some brands are now starting to express their support on social media platforms and this is also leading to more sales worldwide. In this article about Genuine Social Media Activism by Ashley Reid and Katie Sehl, they make an interesting statement: ” Consumers increasingly want companies to act with purpose, and have been rewarding those that do with three times faster growth than their competitors.” What they mean is that the people buying these products want to be associated with a good name behind the brand therefore the sales go up and the companies profit.

Lastly, wherever we get our information from, we have to be sensible about it and we never know what the motive of portraying yourself as an ally could be. Maybe it could be just for expressing support or maybe there is a hidden dollar sign behind that post.