By Greg Jenkins, Founder & CEO, Greg Jenkins Consulting and Co-Chair of Inclusion Allies Coalition Social Media Committee
The 2019 International Women’s Day has just concluded, and by all accounts, it was a great success! International Women’s Day is celebrated every year around the world on March 8. This year’s theme was #BalanceforBetter and the 2019 initiative was aimed at gender equality, a greater awareness of discrimination and a celebration of women’s achievements.
One achievement made this year by the Inclusion Allies Coalition (IAC) in support of International Women’s Day was our presence on the International Women’s Day – Top 100 Influencers on Gender Equality and Diversity list – https://www.onalytica.com/blog/posts/international-womens-day-top-100-influencers-gender-equality-diversity/ . Two IAC members, our 2018 and 2019 Co-Chairs of the IAC Social Media Committee, appear on the Top 100 list, Jennifer Brown and me.
Onalytica https://www.onalytica.com/ was the organization that developed the Top 100 list. They wanted to understand who was leading the global discussion around equality and diversity, so using a comprehensive Boolean search query they analyzed more than 9.2M tweets, mentioning all the keywords they identified from March 3, 2018 to March 3, 2019. They then identified the top 100 most influential individuals leading the discussion on social media. What Onalytica discovered was a very engaged community, with much discussion between individual influencers.
So how did we end up on the Top 100 list? First, by engaging our social media platforms 365 days a year; second, by promoting, re-tweeting, liking, posting and sharing information and resources focused on diversity, equality and inclusion (DEI) and, third, consistently and actively connecting with other DEI professionals and supporting individuals and networks to continue building up our social media contacts, networks and, ultimately, influence.
Social media can provide some substantial benefits for any organization wanting to grow its market share, presence, revenues, sales, or in our case; global networks of DEI professionals, sharing of resources and influence. Two distinct social media features include, 1) the elimination of national boundaries, which leads to the second feature, 2) enhanced global inclusion. At its core, social media are about sharing information across boundaries. And, according to the International Association of Business Communicators, “We can now find out what we want from whomever we want. Social media is breaking down hierarchical, regional, age and cultural boundaries, to name a few. Social media are the new World Wide Web.”
The second feature, global inclusion, can be a natural by-product for organizations and individuals seeking to connect with people from around the world who may be interested in learning more about DEI professionals, organizations and networks. Inclusion through social media can bring a vast amount of people together to support important issues to them like the #Metoo and #Timesup movements. For example, the #MeToo and #TimesUp campaigns have pushed 48% of companies to review pay policies (CNN Money – https://money.cnn.com/2018/02/28/pf/gender-pay-gap/index.html). Social media works, it builds connections and networks between those wanting to be a part of an organization like IAC who are focused on the value and power of inclusion of diverse people.
Social media can be a great way to help expand our IAC community. I encourage every IAC member to take an active role in helping to grow our IAC networks and global influence. Last point, if you’re interested in social media but aren’t sure how to proceed, I’m always happy to connect with you to answer any questions or assist as you develop your own social media practice. ���0
Inclusion Allies Coalition Forum 