As a social media platform, your business assumes a social responsibility to keep up with social causes. Most customers appreciate a company that keeps up with social causes and promotes social advocacy. Through social media, you can show how your business can advocate for social justice. Advocating for social causes doesn't directly promote your business or products. Still, it can benefit your company  reputation as it lets customers know that you care about the same issues they do.

First, make sure this cause is important to you and your customers. Do you believe in this cause and think it is important for your buyers to believe in it too? Customers love authenticity. If your dedication to the cause feels like you are hopping on a bandwagon, it could drive people away who think your business is only advocating based on the opportunity. Worse, not getting the correct information about the cause can backfire and cause a social media crisis. Your business should support something your company believes in to craft the most genuine post about that cause.

You might be inspired to post in response to a current event, such as the Taliban's takeover of Afghanistan. Before responding quickly, create an informed, well-written post and share it with your social media team. Before publishing it online, you have to know what exactly you're advocating and what you want the post to stand for. You could run into including divisive language, misinformation, or being overly detailed in your post. Drafting your post is imperative for posts advocating something to ensure it  hitting all the right marks.

Your post should also include a call to action to something relating to the cause you're advocating. This post should benefit the social cause more than your business, even if this means taking the spotlight away from your products for a moment. Include a link to a petition, mention where to send donations, or redirect your audience to a website where they can learn more about that social cause. Although it doesn't tell your customers anything about your products, it shows them that you care about these issues and want to use your platform to help.

Using your social media platform to shine a light on a cause shapes your business into a positive company. Customers appreciate knowing that a business they support advocates for social causes they deem important. With care, your ability to address social issues can benefit your company's reputation.