Black people use social media a lot.
I’ll pause for a moment until the sound of plates dropping to the floor and crashing dies down.
In our supposedly post-racial America, we claim not to notice race anymore. However, we clearly do. We agonize over the ethnicity of cartoon characters, for crying out loud. Yet I see little discussion in marketing circles of a well-recognized trend--the great acceptance of social media by African-Americans. The invaluable Pew Internet & American Life Project has followed the trend for years, most recently noting that blacks use Twitter at a rate more than double that of whites (28% vs. 12% overall).
Other sources point to blacks’ use of social media as well. Let’s explore them and what they mean for marketers.
I’ll pause for a moment until the sound of plates dropping to the floor and crashing dies down.
In our supposedly post-racial America, we claim not to notice race anymore. However, we clearly do. We agonize over the ethnicity of cartoon characters, for crying out loud. Yet I see little discussion in marketing circles of a well-recognized trend--the great acceptance of social media by African-Americans. The invaluable Pew Internet & American Life Project has followed the trend for years, most recently noting that blacks use Twitter at a rate more than double that of whites (28% vs. 12% overall).
Other sources point to blacks’ use of social media as well. Let’s explore them and what they mean for marketers.
