Tips to Establish Authentic, Diverse Creator Partnerships

It’s imperative to understand the importance of diverse social creator partnerships and championing representation year-round, not just for a single cultural moment. In fact, 43% of social media users in the US feel connected to brands that work with a more diverse set of creators. With this in mind, it comes as no surprise that 40% of all brands say creator content is the most important source of content for their social strategies. Here are a few ways that your brand can continue to support Black creators not just during Black History Month:

Establish Fair Creator Pay Guardrails

A recent study revealed that Black creators earn 35% less than white creators . Often, they are significantly underpaid in comparison to their peers due to a lack of transparency from brands and management during the contracting process. When aligning internally on creator strategy budgets, it is important to approach payment allocation with that in mind to ensure pay equity across all creators. If there is a significant gap between two creators who are contributing an equal number of deliverables on a campaign and share the same range of qualifications (i.e. follower count, engagement rate, etc.) then there should be guardrails in place to ensure a balanced budget split between talent.

Partner Authentically Year-Round

Black culture is not monolithic. Across the Black diaspora there are a variety of experiences, interests, niches and more. Brands like Chipotle (“The Keithdilla”) and LinkedIn (Corporate Baddie ) have activated against this, centering the narrative of their activation around the creator as an individual vs making emphasis solely on the creator’s racial identity. When aligning upon a partnership opportunity with Black creators, it’s important to keep their unique stories and expertise within a specific industry or product at the forefront.

Additionally, when planning content for the year ahead, it’s essential to identify moments outside of February that authentically align with Black creators and a brand’s content strategy. In doing so, brands must remember to credit content and trends back to the creator (where appropriate) to ensure they’re giving credit where credit is due. This will in turn enable brands to begin to establish and build relationships with a network of Black creators, instead of focusing on transactional campaigns, and develop a culture around the brand that transcends race or a singular dimension. Celebrating the present impact of Black creators on media and culture is just as important as championing their history—finding moments for this year-round can help build lasting trust with this community.

Reduce Bias in Search

Censorship and data bias has been an ongoing obstacle for Black creators across AI-powered platforms. Some discovery tools and social platforms have been reported to deprioritize Black creators within the algorithm. When conducting research into potential creators to partner with, optimizations to the search process should be made to include both manual and automated tactics. This will ensure viable creators are not being overlooked. Some platforms are also combatting this by developing campaigns to highlight creators in honor of Black History Month. 

Is your client thinking about activating on social through creator partnerships? 

To get the conversation started, consider these points:

1.     Is my internal team comprised of diverse talent and cultural perspectives?

2.     Does my client have an existing social creator strategy?

3.     Is my client aware of the importance of activating authentically with creator partnerships?

4.     Is my client keeping diversity in representation at the forefront of their creator partnerships?

5.     Does my client’s brand/product have a wide and diverse social strategy with unique experiences?