The best blogs and brands have a mission.
You can find this mission usually illustrated in a mission statement on their about page, the home page, a specific mission statement page, or another page on their website.
Their mission is essentially the reason they’ve started the blog or brand, what the purpose of that brand is, and who it’s for. It’s what they set out to do, change, and accomplish through their online presence. Think of it as a guiding principle that the blog or brand aspires to.
A mission statement can also set them apart and help them stand out among the sea of other blogs and brands that are out there, setting them up for success.
There is another statement that blogs and online brands can start including on their websites and that is called a D&I statement.
What is a D&I Statement?
A D&I statement is your brand’s communication about diversity and inclusion that defines your commitment to acknowledge and respect the uniqueness in individuals and their rights to their separate beliefs. It’s seen as another guiding principle for your blog or brand to aspire to and provides a solid statement of values that can help to achieve your overall mission.
This type of statement can be brief and covered in a couple of sentences or it can be long and take up an entire page. It is entirely up to the blog and brand how they want to formulate their diversity and inclusion statement to best reflect their values and mission.
However, this section of your website shouldn’t only be limited to that section. This statement should be echoed throughout your work and writing on your blog and brand. It is how you treat your readers and customers, how you treat the folks that you hire, how you even go about hiring those folks, and how your blog and brand make your readers and customers feel. What lasting impression do you want to leave on them?
You can also separate these statements and have one for diversity and one for inclusion. Again, it is up to the blog or brand on how they want to best convey their mission and values and if separating them makes sense or not.
What do diversity and inclusion even mean?
Diversity and inclusion are two interconnected concepts but they cannot be interchangeable.
Diversity
Diversity is about representation and what makes up an entity whether that entity is a blog, an online brand, influencer, or an entire company. It’s the workers, the hiring process, the content, the products, the relationships, the readers, the customers. It’s everything that is a part of a blog, a brand, or a company and everything it touches.
Are you including content from people of different backgrounds, races, ethnicities, genders, sexual orientation, etc?
Are you hiring folks with different backgrounds, races, ethnicities, genders, sexual orientations, etc? And is your hiring process fair and free of bias to include these folks?
These questions can help you write the diversity part of your statement.
Inclusion
Inclusion is about how well the contributions, presence, and perspectives of different groups of people are valued in a blog, brand, or company and how it is integrated into that online entity.
Are you including different perspectives and viewpoints in your content?
Are you including opportunities for contribution outside your “bubble”?
Are you including opportunities for your readers and customers to give feedback?
Are you including context and nuance in your content?
All of these questions should give you a clear idea of if you are being inclusive or not and how you can convey those inclusion goals in your statement.
Why You Should Include a D&I Statement on Your Blog
Diversity and inclusion are extremely important in any workplace and especially the online media that we consume. If you have a D&I Statement on your blog, it helps you to be direct with your readers about the kind of blog and brand you are and the values you both represent and strive to uphold.
It also helps you stand out among other blogs that either don’t have one or don’t bother to talk much about the values that matter to them.
According to Small Business Trends, 71% of consumers prefer buying and consuming from companies that align with their values. That means that there is quite literally a 71% chance that you will retain more readers than blogs without a D&I statement (well..kind of).
Think of it like this.
If a reader goes to two blogs of the same niche to read two different articles about how to start investing, which one are they probably going to come back to read more content from in the future?
- The blog that conveyed how important it is to consider ethical investing in companies that you believe in and how that sort of approach increases your success rate. This blog also had a mission and D&I statement that spoke directly to you while mirroring a lot of your same values.
- Or the blog that simply showed you how to open an investment account and choose funds without any emotional, relatable information that helped you resonate with that article?
They are going to pick the first one, the blog that spoke to their soul.
How to Get Started Creating a D&I Statement
Begin with your mission statement and piggyback off of that.
Some questions you can ask yourself to prompt for writing your values and this statement are:
- What do you want to say about your blog or brand?
- What is the commitment you are setting?
- What do you want your employees, readers, and customers to know about the commitment you are setting?
From here, those values will start to become clearer and you’ll be able to package them into a statement. You will also see if you need to separate your statements or not.
Think about what matters to you and I mean what truly matters to you. Have you had past experiences with discrimination that you think a company didn’t handle well? Take a page from that book and do what they failed to do.
Think from your gut and your soul. You’ll be amazed at what might come up.
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