The do's and dont's of awareness days

It can be tempting to create content for every awareness day going (National Gravy Day, anyone? 21 December, if you're interested!) But, key to Awareness Day success is choosing the occasions that genuinely align with your organisation's purpose, values and expertise.

When used well, awareness days can strengthen relationships with your audience, demonstrate your commitment to important issues and provide valuable PR and content opportunities. 

Used poorly, however, they can feel forced, inauthentic and opportunistic. 

Choose Awareness Days that matter to your core stakeholders:

Before adding an awareness day to your communications calendar, ask yourself:

• Is this topic relevant to our organisation, sector or customers?
• Do we have something meaningful to contribute to the conversation?
• Can we support the day with genuine action, expertise or insight?
• Would our audience expect to hear from us on this issue?

If the answer is no, it's often better to sit it out. 

Make sure your actions match your message

Organisations face increasing scrutiny for their involvement in awareness days and campaigns such as Pride and International Women's Day and, rightly so. 

Before publicly supporting a cause or awareness day, it's important to consider whether your company's actions, policies and culture genuinely reflect the values you're promoting. Audiences are quick to spot token gestures and performative campaigns, and a poorly judged post on social media can often do much more harm than good. 

Focus on quality over quantity

Rather than marking every awareness day under the sun, select a handful that align closely with your organisation and plan your activity properly. A thoughtful campaign linked to one relevant awareness day will almost always deliver more value than a dozen generic social media posts.

Think beyond social media

Awareness days can provide opportunities for media commentary and thought leadership, as well as employee engagement initiatives, events and webinars. Consider what other ways you could support the day or event and how you can add value to the conversations already taking place around the topic.