By Windsor Hanger Western

TLDR: College women support the #StopHateForProfit boycott (73%) and are planning on spending less time on Facebook as a result (37%). They don’t trust Facebook (59%) and state that brands who chose not to participate in the boycott will lose their support (34%). As a result of the boycott, college women plan on spending more time on: trusted publishers’ websites, Twitter, Pinterest, Snapchat, and TikTok (30-54%). Brands should think carefully about their approaches to Facebook advertising and strongly consider diversifying their Gen Z marketing strategies across other platforms as a result.

If you work in advertising, marketing, media, or public relations, you’ve heard by now of the Stop Hate for Profit campaign. The campaign, put together by the NAACP, ADL, Sleeping Giants, Color of Change, the Free Press, and other organizations, urges individuals to sign the #StopHateforProfit petition sending “a message to Facebook that profits will never be worth supporting hate and misinformation of any kind.” Moreover, the campaign encourages businesses to “Hit Pause on Hate,” by halting all spending on Facebook and Instagram ads for the month of July 2020. A huge list of brands has signed up to participate including Ben & Jerry’s, Best Buy, Birchbox, Boeing, Chobani, Colgate-Palmolive, Dunkin, KIND, lululemon, MEC, Patagonia, Puma, Unilever, Verizon, Walgreens, and Williams-Sonoma, Inc.

Gen Z supports the Stop Hate for Profit Facebook Boycott

We surveyed over 100 women from our community, all between the ages of 18-24. The average age among our respondents was 20.5 years. All of our respondents identified as female. Of the women who were familiar with the boycott, an overwhelming 73% expressed that they support the #StopHateForProfit Facebook Boycott.

Gen Z trust in Facebook is low

As brands evaluate their actions regarding the boycott, it’s obviously important to understand how their choices will affect the way target consumers’ feel about them. The results from our survey on this topic were clear - 34% of young women surveyed said that brands who do not participate in the boycott and continue to advertise on Facebook will lose their support. The same was true of brands who continue to advertise on Instagram with 33% of young women expressing that these brands will likewise lose their support.

When it comes to trustworthiness, Facebook has some work to do. Only 16% of women surveyed said they somewhat or strongly trust Facebook while 59% of them state that they do not. Instagram fares somewhat better on the trust scale with 45% of women stating that they somewhat or strongly trust Instagram and 29% stating that they do not trust the platform.

They Plan to Shift Their Media Consumption Habits

As for their attention, if you haven’t already, it's time to diversify the platforms where you're reaching the Gen Z woman. 37% of women surveyed plan on spending less time on Facebook as a result of the boycott and 15% of women plan on spending less time on Instagram. Instead, these women expressed planning on spending more time on: Twitter (54%), Pinterest (41%), Snapchat (36%), trusted publisher websites like HerCampus.com (35%), and TikTok (30%).

While our survey was small in scale (102 women ages 18-24), we feel that it represents the current opinion of our audience towards Facebook and Instagram. If 2020 has taught us something, it is the fact that if you want to talk to the Gen Z consumer, a multi-platform, surround sound, and nimble marketing strategy is your best bet. Lean too heavily on one platform and you put your brand at risk.

Interested in learning more about Gen Z? Find our other proprietary research on GenZology.com.