A Black woman’s efforts as an employee at Meta led to the company’s popular grassroots initiative, #BuyBlack Friday. Her name is Rachael Hawk, and thanks to her, the company is spearheading its second round of support for Black-owned businesses during the holiday season.
During last year’s #BuyBlack Friday launch, Meta rolled out a weekly #BuyBlack Friday Gift Guide to help buyers #BuyBlack for the holidays. The guides showcase U.S. Black businesses from beauty to home to fashion.
The campaign also includes weekly live #BuyBlack Friday shows featuring Black businesses, musical artists and entertainers. A whopping 15 million people nationwide tuned in last year, and as Hawk recalls, made an impact for black-owned companies like Redoux NYC, a vegan skincare line featured on the show and in the gift guide.
“After the show aired, we were thrilled to hear that they had a 1300% increase in sales,” the small business marketing manager said. “Overall, we heard from businesses about increases in visibility, awareness, mailing lists, in-store visits, and sales.”
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Meta has carried on its tradition and is wrapping up its second year of #BuyBlack Friday. The #BuyBlack gift guides—recently curated by Grammy-award-winning artist Ciara—are available in the Facebook Shops tab. The live shows, which kicked off Nov. 5, feature Live Shopping segments from Black-owned businesses, including Shaquanda’s Hot Pepper Sauce, House of Takura and Obia Naturals, in addition to special guests and other surprises.
Hawk—the fire behind #BuyBlack Friday—was inspired to find a way to support the Black community following the shooting deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery.
“I felt like I couldn’t continue in my role business as usual. I was experiencing collective grief and sadness along with the rest of the Black community,” she recalled. “Our leaders encouraged us to come up with solutions to help, and I reached out to my teammate here at Meta, Remi Ray, to collaborate on solutions.”
The result of Hawk and Ray’s collaboration was hosting an “Empowerment Hackathon.” At Meta, a hackathon brings together people from different teams to brainstorm solutions for problems outside of their normal day-to-day scope.
Source: Meet Rachael Hawk– The Woman Behind Meta’s #BuyBlack Friday Movement
