87: Celebrating Juneteenth: Why organizations should have noted the day on social media

Juneteenth or not to Juneteenth. That was a question for communicators responsible for external messaging, especially on social media. Last Friday, June 19th. Today on the podcast, my answer to Juneteenth or not. All right, last Friday, June 19, 2020, was a day when people were gathered across the country with marches and rallies in celebration of the Juneteenth, the day that marks the death of slavery. Now, on that day as well, was a day of countless conversations and emails that I had with people about communicating the Juneteenth. Now, I don't know if you're like me, especially for communicators out there, but. But it seemed like this day or the importance of communicating this day just appeared, like, out of the blue. I will admit I did not know the full origin of Juneteenth. I knew it was a day black people commemorated. I'd certainly heard of it. But I can now say I am ashamed to say I never took the time to give it the research it deserved. But for black people, this holiday has been long in the making.

We do everything we can do to turn down our blackness.

Well, we're never gonna not have to do that, son. Look, people are never gonna celebrate something they barely even want to admit happened.

Look, I get that, but at least can we have one day where the country acknowledged it? It would feel like, I don't know, an apology.

Wow.

Can you imagine that? Oh, hell no.

Instead of waiting for an apology, why don't we just do something? I mean, if we want to honor the end of slavery, then we should celebrate Juneteenth.

Wait, that's what Juneteenth is?

We don't celebrate the end of slavery, but you wake us up early on Cyber Monday. You are a bad black person. Yeah, you know what? Not anymore. From now on, we will be black out loud. Our whole family will celebrate Juneteenth.

All right.

Boom.

I know where to buy strawberry soda.

And I make a mean red velvet cake. I'll fire up the grill. That loud and black enough for you?

Yep. Mm. I'll hang up my stocking. Oh, buddy. That clip is from season four of the television program playing Blackish that airs on the ABC network, where they discuss Juneteenth. And that came from a 2018 storyline. So since Friday, when I had all of those questions and all those conversations and that episode only appeared two years ago, I felt that this still made for a good podcast episode topic because it tells me that other people have to be wondering the same thing. Plus, there is a relevance in terms of black experiencing messaging. Anyway, that question hasn't been answered. And today on the podcast I'd like to, because I know there are many of you out there who are still agonizing over drafting that message from the head of your organization about racial inequality and the nationwide protests over police brutality and the deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery. There are a lot of people that are still struggling with what do we say about these issues? And there are people who drafted a statement, sent the statement out, but never sent a message out on Juneteenth because they're still not quite sure where their organization stands on the event. Now, for anyone who hasn't Googled it, it's an annual holiday commemorating the end of slavery in the United States and it's been celebrated, celebrated by African Americans since the late 1800s. However, last week there was a renewed attention to the day because if you remember, President Trump moved his Tulsa, Oklahoma rally date out of respect for Juneteenth. And now I'm also wondering if he regretted moving it because of what happened to him on TikTok when all of these teens out there online decided to snatch up all of the tickets in the rally. So the fire Marshal said only 6,000 people were there, but the campaign spokesperson said that over a million tickets were were released or were reserved. That is a topic for another day. But back to Juneteenth. With all of the emails, all of the ads and the social media out there marking the day, I know that many organizations knew that they needed to commemorate that day and do so in an external messaging. And some of you, we're doing it the day of Juneteenth saying should we be doing something today? And you are running it up the chain. Now, the questions often left to the communicators to answer, but up to the leadership to decide. We're going to talk about on the podcast today the three issues. One, juneteenth Communications to commemorate or not? Two, if so, if you are going to commemorate the day, what language do you do? What graphics should you use? And three, what are the expectations as of June 2020 for organizations to communicate about racial inequality and diversity now? Number one, juneteenth Communications, if you can't tell by now, the answer is yes, you should have marked the day. Juneteenth. All the big brands commemorated it. I was watching television on Friday. I noticed there was a lot of ads for it. It was social media. Now, the reason why I decided to do this podcast and at the last minute on Friday Morning, I had a phone conversation with a good friend and a colleague. And when he answered the phone, he answered happy Juneteenth. You know, rather excitedly. And I was a little stunned by that, by that greeting. And I told him it seemed a little out of place for someone to wish someone a happy Juneteenth. It seemed like wishing someone. It was akin to wishing someone a happy Memorial Day. And he replied, no, it's a day of emancipation, and it's a day that should be celebrated. And I said, you're from Brooklyn, New York. I don't understand how this relates to you. And he said, it doesn't matter that it happened in Texas. It's a happy day for black people. Therefore, it's a happy day for me. I thought, hmm, I'm actually convinced. So a phone conversation about speakers, should we get on a plane or not? And should we wear masks or not? We never even got to the subject because we spent it talking about Juneteenth. And I am not kidding. My day in between all the other work that I had to do was speaking to people about Juneteenth. Every single person I spoke to that day, a colleague or someone work related, brought up Juneteenth. Do we talk about it or not? In my last call at 6pm it was a long day, the person told me that their communications team had discussed it, they researched it, they brought it to the head of the organization, and the head said, no, I don't feel comfortable doing it. Hmm. So that's why I created this podcast for today, even though it's a couple days late. So should you be celebrating it? Absolutely. So mark your calendars. If you missed it this year or you did it this year, put it on your calendar, Juneteenth 2021, set it on repeat, and you are going to mark the occasion every single year. But for good social media marketing, of course, you should be doing it in advance on your editorial calendar. Okay, next number two, if you are going to do it, we've decided, yes, you should be celebrating it. What kind of language do you use? What kind of graphics do you use? Do you use words like celebrate or commemorate? Now, is it a happy day or is it a day of reverence to be marked? You know, what is the sentence structure in your copy, the syntax, the sentiment? Now, when I researched it, it seemed to vary wildly Online, even the graphics used in social media wasn't the same. Now, I listened to podcasts, I searched on Twitter, I read articles. I could not decide on who the definitive source was to Answer that question for me until I went to ta da. Juneteenth.com on the website, it says, how is it celebrated? The original celebration became an annual one, and it grew in popularity over the years with the addition of descendants. According to Juneteenth.com this is what I'm what I read there. It tracks all the celebrations and the events of Juneteenth. And so this day was celebrated with praying and bringing families together. And celebrations reached new heights in 1872 when African American ministers and businessmen in Houston purchased 10 acres of land and created Emancipation Park. So that was a space that was intended to hold the city's annual juneteenth celebration. So juneteenth.com right on the front of their homepage, it says, have a proud and happy Juneteenth. Sums it up quite nicely, don't you think? So if there's a website that celebrates the worldwide celebrations of Juneteenth and they're using language like proud and happy, I am convinced that not only is it acceptable to use the words happy in celebration, it is encouraged. And communicators, you can use words like commemorate, honor, and mark in your copy. But do take note that it needs to be done in advance of Juneteenth. So you're ready to go on the morning of Juneteenth 2021. Now, as far as the graphics go, so when you create Juneteenth graphics, you should use hints of red, green, and black. Those are the three colors of the Pan African flag, and it's a flag that represents all the people of African heritage and symbolizes freedom. And what better color triumvirate would you want to have in a Juneteenth ad than those three colors? All right, number three, what are the expectations as of June 2020 for organizations to communicate about racial inequality and diversity? All right, here we go. Last week, I was still having conversations about how to message racial inclusivity, racial diversity. I'm going to include a link in the show notes from my previous podcast about this topic. Now, last week, I had a former colleague reach out to me about their organization's response to to race, and it was sent to me on June 17th. Now, this is two days before Juneteenth, and they were still working on their draft. And the first line of the draft was mentioning the killing of George Floyd. So I had mentioned that, and I had also mentioned it seemed like there were a lot of fingers in this pot. In other words, a lot of writers and people giving their two cents. It was a convoluted message. It was. It just wasn't clear. It looked exactly like it was. A lot of people involved and a lot of nervous people involved, people who wanted to get it right. Now, for those of you who have not done your messaging, you have not submitted any messaging whatsoever. You sat on it, you hesitated. I get it, okay? Many of you work for organizations where you never wrote the statement about racial issues, because, let's face it, it's not a statement that writes itself. But you may also have a leader, someone at the head of the organization, someone up the chain who does not feel comfortable. They're not ready to make that statement. And it could be because they don't have plans in place, they don't have policies in place. They're not quite sure what they are. They don't know how any messaging is going to resonate with their customers or their members. Are you going to alienate someone? Are you going to anger someone? Will your board of directors re to this? Will they not approve it? How will customers and other stakeholders feel? So, yes, there is risk involved. I understand the hesitations. However, I'm in the business of helping people communicate, helping people draft the right message for the right time and on the right medium. But I also want to help mitigate risks. But listen, when it comes to any messaging about humans, the answer is usually two message. In the case of June 2020, the discussion for this month primarily has been about minorities, primarily black Americans, brown Americans, and gay Americans, LGBTQ community. June is Pride month. This is a month of minorities, all right? Everyone is discussing minorities. So as of this week, as we are heading into July, if you have not drafted your initial message about racial inequality, it's not too late. You can do it. You can write it. You can still send it out. Because remember, like I've said and I've tweeted, no message is the loudest message of them all. Silence is not a message you want to have about this situation in particular. Now, your messaging right now, this week should not be discussing at the top, the killing of George Floyd. All you're saying there is, you are late to the table on this. What you can talk about is where you are, where your values are, where your principles are. You can also explain why you're late. And this is where you tell the truth and you're open and honest. The message could be, we didn't know what to say at the time. We needed to discuss it. We needed to have the important, critical conversations. We know we should have sent a message earlier, but we weren't ready, but we're ready now and this is what we stand for. Because again, everyone, the message about inclusivity and diversity is not a message just to send a message. If you do, everyone will see through it and there will be words that are empty. Your message is about the principles and the values of your organization, your brand, culture, what your CEO, what the head of your organization stands for, what your board stands for, what your employees will tolerate, what you are telling other employees. Remember, it's a statement about values. It's not a statement about checking the boxes. So if you are nervous, now is not the time to be nervous. Now is the time to act. So to answer that question, where should you be in 2020 when it comes to your messaging and response as it relates to any area of diversity or inclusivity? Do it now. Do it in 2020 of June. You still have some days left to do it and it is okay if you' it's okay if you missed Juneteenth. It's gone now, but now you can do it next year. Tell people where you stand, what your values are, what your principles are on it, and also tell people what you're going to do. You have to do something. You can't say we're just going to think about it or we're going to look into it. Everything you say has to make sense and then you have to follow up. Another just copy tip. The AP Style Guide came out on Friday stating now that black Americans should be capitalized. It's capital B. Also, when you write your statement, it doesn't need to be pages long. It could be just a paragraph. It could be a few paragraphs. You want to have bullet points in there. If you're going to list the things that you've done or the things that you will do, make sure that you break it out. So it's easy to read. Three things are good, and you can encompass the three big things. Internal, external, future, whatever it is. This is where we are right now. This is where we're going. So to wrap up Juneteenth or not to Juneteenth? Well, certainly the answer to that question is yes. You are going to message it from here on out. You're going to talk about it in a celebration. So the language that you use is happy is celebrate. Yes, you're going to commemorate it. You're going to mark it. You're going to include that in the copy. And your copy is also going to have graphics with the colors that represent African heritage and three, the expectations moving on, from June 2020 forward, it's for organizations to communicate about racial inequality and diversity and not just communicate it, not just your response to it, but what you're going to do. If you have a workforce that's predominantly white by June 2021, it should not look that way. If you have a board of directors that is all white right now, in a year from now, it should not look that way. If you are an organization that does not stand by racial inclusivity and diversity across all boundaries, across all employees, by June 2021, you definitely should not be behind you July 2020. That is the time that you start making changes. People will give you a grace period. If you haven't done anything in the past, it doesn't mean that you should hide in shame. If you haven't done anything, admit it. Remember, own it. Say what has been done in the past gives you a chance to clarify it. This is how it's always been done, but this is how we're going to do it in the future. Three your promises and plans for what you're going to do.

What?

1, 2, 3. Do all those three things. In the end, you're going to win it. All right, that's all for this edition of the podcast. If you liked hearing information about how to respond and it feels like it resonates for this time and you might feel like a communicator who's always wondering, what do we say? What should we do? How do we draft a statement? Do I have the kit for you? It's called the Response Kit. So head over to responsekit.com and it is launching very, very soon. You can head over there now, sign up on the wait list and as soon as we're ready to launch, you're going to get the information. It will be a kit for communicators or for people who communicate on behalf of a business or organization. It is going to help you with your response. Your response for a social media age, a digital age, and for an age when people can be canceled just like that. Responsekit.com thanks so much for listening to the podcast. We'll talk to you again next week. Bye for now.