Does posting about diversity and inclusion (D&I) improve engagement in social media? Antecedents and impact of D&I communication decisions

The emergence of social media has increased consumer–brand connectedness and raised awareness of societal issues such as diversity and inclusion (D&I). This means that brands are confronted with the decision of whether to talk about D&I in their marketing communication—a choice that remains highly fragmented in practice. The authors analyze more than 3 million posts from 289 brands over five years to identify the antecedents of brand D&I communication decisions, as well as their subsequent impact on social media engagement. The results reveal that message content (more positive sentiment, fewer emojis) and message features (longer messages, more hashtags and mentions) are (positively) related to a brand's decision to post about D&I. In addition, D&I communication leads to greater engagement on average, though the magnitude of this effect is contingent on the message characteristics. These results hold true for both generic and topic-specific D&I messages. The findings have practical implications for brand managers in their strategic D&I communication decisions and for social media marketers in their message content design.