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Over the past few days, brands have issued statements condemning racism and offering messages of solidarity to protesters in the wake of George Floyd's death after a Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes on May 25.

Many are also halting influencer marketing to avoid tone deafness on social platforms where much of the conversation is unfolding.

"The nation is hurting, and we're figuring out the best ways to show sensitivity and support for our communities," Mae Karwowski, the founder and CEO of the influencer-marketing platform Obviously, said. "Two things we did immediately were extending posting deadlines on active campaigns and setting later start dates for campaigns that are coming up."

Much of corporate America has made an effort to shift away from business-as-usual messaging on social media in the past few days. Companies like TikTok, Spotify, YouTube Music, and Amazon all participated in "Blackout Tuesday," a campaign to draw attention to issues of social and racial justice. Representatives from the five influencer-marketing firms that Business Insider spoke with for this story all said they'd delayed paid influencer work this week. Some digital creators have also paused their typical posting style and cadence.

"We connected directly with all of our clients yesterday," Danielle Wiley, the CEO of the influencer-marketing firm Sway, told Business Insider. "For those with content scheduled to begin this week, we have advised pushing out the timeline to accommodate a later launch. For campaigns that are in progress, we strongly advised letting influencers know that they are in no way required to post this week. Only one client chose to continue with their program on the existing timeline, despite our recommendation otherwise."

While many brands and influencers have chosen to pause paid campaigns to avoid tone deafness this week, they're also under pressure from fans to speak out in support of protesters and the racial-justice movement on social media.

In the influencer community, fans have urged social stars to either promote Black Lives Matter or stop posting, Insider reported. And some brands that delayed modifying their social-media strategies since the protests began faced criticism from the creator community.

BuzzFeed reported that the influencer affiliate company RewardStyle sent emails over the weekend encouraging bloggers to post affiliate links to earn commissions. Some influencers spoke out against the company and other brands that were slow to respond.

RewardStyle sent out an email Monday night saying that the company would delay "all sponsorships in solidarity with the Black community" and announcing donations to the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund and the Center for Policing Equity. The company told Business Insider that it was also pausing social-media activity in honor of "Blackout Tuesday."

Companies like YouTube, Adidas, and L'Oreal all received criticism from some on social media, who said variously that the brands either appeared hypocritical or offered vague messaging that failed to directly respond to the grievances of protesters.

For brands, navigating social-media messaging without sparking controversy can be difficult. A new survey from Morning Consult showed that 73% of Gen Z and millennial respondents said they viewed brands that support protesters on social media more favorably, while 39% of Gen X and baby-boomer respondents said the same.

Companies have had to do a fair amount of reactive marketing this year as the consumer environment has changed dramatically during a public-health crisis and now widespread protests.

When coronavirus cases first began surging in the US in March, Toyota swapped outTV ads about "extended financing and zero APR" with a branding campaign around unity. The public-relations firm Weber Shandwick sent amemoto its employees telling them not to send out tone-deaf pitches to reporters. And the backpack brand JanSporthired a Gen Z "think tank"to create an influencer-marketing campaign focused on its charitable giving to the nonprofit World Central Kitchen.

This week, brands are again adapting marketing strategies to fit in with a social-media conversation focused on social- and racial-justice issues.

"Clients and influencers are adjusting their content to support not just what is in their hearts and minds but in the hearts and minds of their followers," Vickie Segar, the founder of the influencer-marketing firm Village, said. "That means that we are pushing content for many brands until later in the week or next week."

Some companies that lean heavily into influencer marketing, like the phone-case brand Casetify, have halted or slowed down influencer outreach and marketing campaigns to focus on messages of solidarity with protesters this week.

Timothy Armoo, the CEO of the TikTok agency Fanbytes, told Business Insider that his company paused all marketing communications this week and would be sending out a special version of its newsletter, highlighting what people can do and what social platforms are doing. Personally, Armoo said he had donated his last month's salary to charities supporting the Black Lives Matter movement.

Some other agencies that work with influencers and digital creators like CAA and Select Management Group have also issued statements of solidarity with protesters and the black community.

"We will not conduct any business on Tuesday, June 2nd in observance of #blackouttuesday," Select wrote in a tweet.

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Brands and influencers are stopping their marketing campaigns to focus on messaging around the George Floyd protests - Business Insider

If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor. If an elephant has its foot on the tail of a mouse and you say that you are neutral, the mouse will not appreciate your neutrality.

This quote, or part of it, has been circulating on social media this week.

It is attributed to South African Anglican bishop Desmond Tutu in the 1984 book Unexpected News: Reading the Bible with Third World Eyes. So it dates from Tutus time as a leading opponent of the apartheid system in South Africa, in which only white people were afforded the full rights of citizens.

But in recent days Tutus quote has encapsulated many peoples feelings about whats going on in the United States today.

The killing by Minnesota police of George Floyd, arrested on suspicion of passing a counterfeit $20 bill, has become the latest ignition point for grievances about the systemic overpolicing and extrajudicial killing of African Americans.

Read more: The fury in US cities is rooted in a long history of racist policing, violence and inequality

But the protests involving millions of people across the US and outside of it are fuelled by more than that. These protests are also about the systemic inequities that have recently seen Americas poorest communities take the brunt of both health and economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.

So given the Black Lives Matter protests are in part about the failings of American capitalism, how the corporate world is responding is worth talking about.

A bevy of the worlds best-known brands have used their marketing channels to offer support.

To be silent is to be complicit. Black lives matter, said Netflix on Twitter. We have a platform, and we have a duty to our Black members, employees, creators and talent to speak up.

Similar tweets have come from Disney-owned Fox and Hulu. Apple Music joined the Black Out Tuesday campaign to raise awareness about issues of systemic ethnic inequity.

Nike has repurposed its famous slogan with its For once, Dont Do It advert:

Corporations taking a stand on social issues is a relatively new phenomenon.

As Australian academic-turned-popular TV presenter Waleed Aly noted on his program The Project:

Normally when theres something this divisive and controversial, you know, if you are running a big company, you stay out of it. You dont want to be involved.

What Im interested in here is, is this just an evolution in marketing and the way that companies do this, or does it signal is it a kind of leadership?

Even if these companies are just protecting their commercial base (as his co-host Steve Price suggested), Aly said: Thats still significant.

As a researcher in the field of corporate social responsibility, I agree.

Its easy to dismiss these statements as low-cost tokenism or politically correct wokism. It may be theres a hard-headed business decision behind each message, weighing the costs and benefits to the bottom line.

Read more: Where 'woke' came from and why marketers should think twice before jumping on the social activism bandwagon

But my research (and that of others) suggests theres a growing need for what business academics call political corporate social responsibility (or PCSR).

The challenge for those embracing it is both talk the talk and walk the walk.

The concept of PCSR arises out of a wider paradigm shift in thinking about the responsibilities private businesses owe society.

A traditional view famously advocated by Nobel prize winning US economist Milton Friedman is that a business, so long as it obeys the law, is only obliged to maximise profits for it shareholders. Nothing else.

Since the 1950s, however, a growing movement (both within business and without) has championed the cause of corporate social responsibility (CSR), arguing that its good business to do more than what is legally required to improve social and environmental impacts.

Read more: Small businesses get long-term financial boost from social responsibility: study

Political CSR (PCSR) goes one step further than the narrower focus of CSR on how companies engage with suppliers, customers and local communities.

Just last year 181 US corporations including Apple, Deloitte, Fox, and Walmart - signed the US Business Roundtables revised purpose of a corporation, which aims to promote an economy that serves all Americans.

Research published last month shows almost a third of consumers say they buy brands whose political and social values align with their own, and about a quarter of consumers boycott brands that dont.

Nike has been a forerunner in using its marketing to push social campaigns. The shoe maker has come a long way since the late 1980s, when it was the iconic corporate exploiter of both third-world labour, including children, and poor communities in rich countries. All the while spending millions on athlete endorsements to market its expensive sneakers.

Since then, however, Nike has sought to reinvent itself as an socially responsible organisation that champions equal playing fields for all.

It dived into PCSR into 2018 when it chose controversial American footballer Colin Kaepernick for the face of its 30th anniversary Just Do It campaign.

Kaepernick began the practice of NFL players kneeling during the national anthem before games in solidarity with Black Lives Matter. US president Donald Trump called the kneelers disgraceful.

Read more: Why US sports stars are taking a knee against Trump

So Nikes decision was not risk-free. On Kaepernicks advice it also withdrew a sneaker featuring an early American flag.

Internally Nike has worked to improve equality, with pay equity maintained for women and members of minority groups. It funds grassroots initiatives such as PeacePlayers, whose mission is to unite communities through sport.

The uptake of PCSR by so many other companies in support of Black Lives Matter is significant. But it is only the start of an evolution that corporate America must make to shake accusations of tokenism.

Read more: Woke washing: what happens when marketing communications don't match corporate practice

As Waleed Aly noted on the same episode of The Project, the focus on outbreaks of looting and violence at the expense of the much greater prevalence of peaceful protest, has helped obscure the main issue:

theres things state governments could be doing right now that theyre not.

This is the point of PCSR to address the regulatory gaps in social and environmental standards and norms.

Among the gaps in the US system contributing to overpolicing of black communities is the failure to provide equal access to public goods like education, health care and even clean air.

Those talking the talk of PCSR will need to walk the walk and get serious about addressing why Americas particular take on free enterprise has failed to deliver on its promise of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness by all.

Desmond Tutus quote rings out across the decades as a universal truth. But a well-known aphorism also bears repeating.

Actions speak louder than words.

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Brands backing Black Lives Matter: it might be a marketing ploy, but it also shows leadership - The Conversation AU

The Aquidneck Land Trust (ALT) has announced that six new board members have been appointed to its board of trustees. Four of the new trustees were appointed at the organizations annual meeting, held February 6 at the Atlantic Resort. Bill Corcoran, Steve McInnis, Mark Marosits and Lois Vaughan were voted onto the board at the event, which was attended by nearly 300 ALT members. Conley Zani and Bettie Beardon Pardee were voted onto the board in March and April, respectively.

We are very pleased to welcome these six Islanders to the ALT board, said Executive Director Chuck Allott in a statement. Their professional experience and strong volunteerism will be enormous assets for ourorganization. All are committed to Aquidneck Island and to our mission of conserving open space.

BillCorcoran and Bettie Bearden Pardee previously served on the board, and all of the new trustees have beeninvolved with the land trust for many years.

Bill Corcoran is General Manager/VP of Newport Tent Company; Steve McInnis is an attorney inNewport; Mark Marosits is co-founder and Senior Strategist at Worldways Social Marketing; Lois Vaughan isa professional pianist; Conley Zani is the founder of TeamOne Consulting and President of the Common FencePoint Improvement Association; and Bettie Bearden Pardee is an author and lecturer.

Aquidneck Land Trusts time-sensitive mission is to preserve and steward Aquidneck Islands open spaces for the lasting benefit of the community. The organization has conserved 2,605 acres on 81 properties across Aquidneck Island since its founding in 1990. ALT is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization and the first land trust in Rhode Island to have received national accreditation. For more information, visit http://www.ailt.org.

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Aquidneck Land Trust adds six new members to its board of trustees - What'sUpNewp

On a budget of just 230,000, KFC used social media, as well as print and outdoor, to get people trying its new fries and shift perceptions of the fast food brand.

At KFC, its fries were its most complained about product a problem when they come with almost everything on the menu.

A third of all complaints were about the chips, describing them as soggy or bland. This was having a knock-on effect on perceptions of the KFC brand, especially because these people were vocal about their dislike on Twitter.

Realising the problem, the fast food chain changed the recipe for its chips in the UK and Ireland to a tastier, chunkier fry. But while the new chip was scoring well in research, it was under-performing in test restaurants. This was in part because people were used to the old chips and many loyal customers were resistant to change, despite the complaints of the vocal minority.

KFC also needed to shift perceptions among new or lighter users in order to grow the brand, meaning it couldnt rely on existing customers accepting the old fries. It had to change the chips.

The challenge was to manage the transition to the new chips recipe so that loyal fans who didnt want change didnt feel they were losing out, while boosting perceptions of the new chips among new customers and creating a halo effect for the brand.

KFC tried creating messaging that talked about how much better the new chips were than the old. But verbatim feedback from test restaurants was that this wasnt working.

And so KFC and its creative agency Mother took a new approach. Using behavioural economics, the brand realised it had a loss aversion problem that people didnt dislike the new chips, but were afraid of losing the old ones. That meant talking up the benefits of the new fries would not cut through.

Instead, KFC needed to acknowledge the problems with the old fries in order for the new chips to be seen as their saviour.

The campaign Aint No Small Fry launched on Twitter with KFC paying to promote criticism of its old chips to existing KFC fans, and those who had tried and criticised its chips. This was backed up in traditional media, where KFC paid to amplify the abuse in outdoor and national press. This was then followed up with ads about the new chips.

While there was a risk to this approach, it paid off. Suddenly KFCs new chips were top of the news agenda and the most read story on the BBC. And on a budget of just 230,000.

The initial Twitter campaign had 3 million impressions, while the overall campaign had a share of voice in the quick-serving restaurant category of 25% and 13.9 million impressions across social media.

The approach also led to KFC UK and Ireland and Mother winning the Social Media award at the Marketing Week Masters.

The campaign also had a clear impact on the business. Prompted awareness of the new fries hit 62%, well above the target of 50% and a 38 percentage point increase on the pre-campaign test. Among those aware of the campaign, taste scores improved across every measure, while KFCs scores for relevance were up 3%, generosity 4%, trust worthiness 4% and quality food 1%.

Penetration also improved, with KFC UK and Ireland gaining 669,100 more buyers through the campaign.

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How KFC used social media to turn 'haters' of its fries into fans - Marketing Week

Unless youve been living under a rock, youll know that hashtags are sort of a big deal. You know you need to include them in your social posts to boost your discoverability, and you know all about how people search using hashtags.

But do you know how to maximise their effectiveness in your marketing?

Heres an example of hashtags in action on our Twitter page:

These types of hashtags can be leveraged by brands, ensuring they get maximum exposure. They can also be used to drive long-term traffic and encourage backlinks. But thats not all they can do.

Here are three types of hashtags you can use for your marketing:

Making the most of these hashtags requires keeping a close eye on the conversations happening on social media and acting fast when a trend begins to emerge.

When correctly timed, the brand exposure and payoff for participating in trending conversations can be astronomical, and the biggest trending conversations often make headlines in the news.

However, a poorly-timed attempt at engaging with a trending hashtag can make your brand look far worse than by not engaging at all. Plus, using a trending hashtag without knowing the full story behind it and the reasons its trending can land you in hot water and make your brand look tone deaf.

Engaging in trending conversations is the quickest way to make your brand look contemporary and in the know But, if this is a space you want to play in on a regular basis, youve got your work cut out for you! One wrong move can be disastrous (and remember Twitter keeps receipts!).

You can use your company name, tagline or a phrase that relates to you or your campaign for this hashtag. Branded hashtags are usually short, memorable and include the brand name in some form.

Do your research to ensure that your chosen hashtag hasnt been used by another company as you dont want users to get confused and accidentally associate other content with your brand.

Your brand or campaign hashtags need to be utilised as your main hashtags on an on-going basis. It should apply to any content you post and act as your fallback hashtag to include in a post when you are unsure of which tags to use.

It is vital to use this hashtag regularly, as the goal is to increase brand awareness through the hashtag and encouraging consumers to use it too.

Unlike your branded hashtags, these wont be the same ones used in every post they have to specifically relate to each particular social post.

By adding these hashtags to your content, you allow people to find your posts while searching the topics related to their interests.

While some people use any hashtags to increase the discoverability of their posts, this can actually have a negative effect on business. For example, if you put out a tweet that was about your incredible new SEO offerings, and you included hashtags like #happiness, #love and #summer, your brand will immediately be seen as garnering for traffic without offering any real value.

However, if you were to use content-specific hashtags, such as #SEO, #BrandGrowth and #MarketingTools, you are far more likely to have your content seen by the right kind of people ones looking for content about those exact topics. Youll also gain a reputation for offering useful content and have your consumer target on point!

Do you think hashtags are an effective means of marketing on social media? Let us know in the comments section below.

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Three types of hashtags to make your marketing more effective - Media Update