What is the mission of your business? How does it impact the world? And, more importantly, how can you reflect these values on social media?

There’s a new breed of business, where the triple-bottom-line baked into the business from the outset: where their impact on the society and the planet is inherently tied in with their products or services. This means that their values are front and centre. There’s no ‘greenwashing’, or logos changing colour simply to appeal to a specific market: they live those values day in and day out from design.

Despite these businesses having a social or environmental impact at their centre, it can still be a challenge to talk about their values and mission in an authentic way on social media. So, here are a few examples of how you can do it.


Here are my favourite examples of other businesses are nailing it.

Related: How To Create Instagram Stories For Your Business

Show the why

Purpose-based businesses are driven to address a particular environmental or social problem, in addition to being a financially viable business. Creating content which shows the motivation for why your business exists is a simple, and effective way of helping customers connect with your business.

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WHY we do what we do! Every mother deserves the right to a clean and safe birth, and with 1 in 5 women giving birth without the help of a skilled birth attendant it’s even more important to ensure as many of these women as possible also have the essentials needed to give birth cleanly and safely. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ That’s why every swaddle purchased from Mama Maya provides funding for at least one clean birthing kit; kits are provided free of charge to pregnant women living in remote areas of over 20 developing countries and enable mothers to have a safer, cleaner childbirth, reducing the risk of infant or maternal morbidity or mortality – and we’ve funded over 7,500 birthing kits so far, with so much more to give x ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ RG @everymomcounts

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Show the impact

How is your business impacting the world? Whether it’s data, testimonials or case studies, create content that shows not just that they will get a rad product, but that the purchase also makes a positive impact on the world at the same time.

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It's actually no coincidence that Mama Maya launched on International Women's Day – a woman-owned business centered around the core belief that every woman deserves the right to a clean and safe childbirth 💛 ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Today, I'm celebrating an amazing 3 years in business with a little giveaway to show my love and gratitude – you can win one of 3 bundles of 3 swaddles of your choice. It's super easy to enter – just head to the giveaway post next to this one on our feed. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Thank you so much to all the women supporting women who have supported Mama Maya in so many ways over the last 3 years. Happy International Women's Day! xx Robyn ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Image via our amazing charity partner @birthingkitfoundationaustralia

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Practise what you preach

A lot of the time, a purpose-based business is on a mission to impact the world in a specific way. If you’re a company that saves fabric from landfill to make new products, it makes sense that you’re an environmentally conscious business. In this vein, it helps to show that you’re trying to live those values in every aspect of your business, for example, using recycled packaging or powering your office with solar power.

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There’s an asylum seeker at Yongah Hill immigration Detention Centre that could do with your old working unlocked smart phone. It would make them very happy, it would be very much appreciated. In fact, we could give a good home to lots of phones – we have a refugee friend in detention there that will distribute them for us, he’s helped us distribute dozens of them before – he’ll make sure your old phone finds a loving home with an asylum seeker who really needs one. It’s simple, bring your old, working unlocked phone into Parliament on King; that’s it, we’ll do the rest. We’ll also thank you with a coffee, on us of course. Your donated phone also sends a message – it says there are people out there in the community that care; that you’re not forgotten. If you’d like to send another message, include a card or note for your old phones new owner, we’ll send it too, you’ll make someones day. And the photo, that’s Cay who works here at Parliament on Wednesday, the first person to pledge a phone this week. Parliament on King, 632 King St, the ‘Paris’ end of King on the thoughtful side of the road, just up from the marvel that is St Peters Station. From noon until late Wednesday to Friday and from 10am Saturday and Sunday, email myintuition@yahoo.com 0414 235 325. ‪‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬ #parliamentonking‬‬‬‬‬‬‬ ‪‪#‎sanctuary‬‬‬‬‬‬‬ ‪#refugees #asylumseekers‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬ #newtown‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬ @parliamentonking

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Start a movement

Similarly, if your business stands for a specific cause, become a facilitator for that cause. People don’t just need to use your product or service to make an impact with that issue – but it’s one thing they can do to take a step in the right direction. Creating content which shows them other ways for them to engage with that goal is another way to reflect your values.

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🌊 We had a fabulous chat with Tim, Co-Founder of @take3forthesea and @oceanimpactorg. Tim has been a protector of our oceans for many, many years and is a human driven by purpose. His new venture is all about empowering the next wave (pardon the pun) of change makers so have a listen to us and also check out @oceanimpactorg and his podcast with some really interesting guests. A few takeaways from our Live.⁣ ⁣ 🌏 Let’s call it Planet Ocean, not Planet Earth⁣ 💚 Think about how you use your energy – don’t get too distracted by influencing one person vs many⁣ 📦 Be conscious with everything you do and be aware of your impact⁣ ⁣ Thank you @timsilverwood. I love your focus on driving change and positive view on life.⁣ ⁣ #loveourplanet #purposedriven #loveouroceans

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Your product is unique

For many purpose-based businesses, what they are doing is unique due to it’s mission — and that’s it’s unique selling point. If you’re creating slow fashion, or upcycled products or saving ‘ugly’ vegetables from landfill, your product might take longer to deliver, it might not look the same as in the photo. But that’s the point. It’s for those reasons that people buy your product: so celebrate it.

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Did you know all of our orders come in plastic-free, minimal packaging? ♻️⁣ ⁣ 📦 All of our F&F boxes are made from recycled cardboard and made locally in Sydney. ⁣ ⁣ Any fragile items or product that come in glass jars are wrapped in our plastic-free bubble wrap that is equally effective as the normal plastic stuff! ⁣ ⁣ To ensure your order isn't having a dance party in transit, we use recycled paper to pack them tightly and keep them secure. ⁣ ⁣ For the finishing touch, we always write a little note and seal our boxes with paper packing tape which is tough and durable! ⁣ ⁣ We hope to inspire other retailers to go plastic-free with their packaging and we're here to help if you want to make the switch. Let's all do our bit to stop using unnecessary plastic!⁣ ⁣ Head to our website to learn more about what drives us 💚 ⁣ ⁣ #PlasticFree #MinimalPackaging #WarOnWaste ⁣ ⁣

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Put your money where your mouth is

Not all businesses are designed to impact every cause, but a simple way to support other causes your business is passionate about is by making a donation. Putting the cause front-and-centre, rather than talking about your financial contribution, is a strong approach which puts the issue to the forefront. Nice one.

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🐷 Many of you know how much we love Where Pigs Fly Farm Sanctuary. Today $1 from every order placed will be donated to Where Pigs Fly to help them run the sanctuary. ⁣ ⁣ 🐑 We've supported them for close to 4 years now and they do not have it easy. They've faced many challenges such as drought and bushfire where they had to relocate all the animals – Rosie nearly had 30 sheep friends! We've learned it's not easy physically or emotionally to run an animal sanctuary. ⁣ ⁣ 🐴Since Coronavirus their main source of funding ie open days, has stopped. That is on the back of the bushfires so a really tough 2020. Hence we're helping in any way we can. If you'd like to help even more they have an appeal running currently – link in our bio. And when the sanctuary runs open days again we wholly recommend a visit – it truly is a sanctuary! 🐐🐷 #animalsanctuary #loveanimals #vegan

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Recap

If you’re a purpose-based business, or a business looking to better reflect your company values or culture, there are a lot of ways you can go about it.

You can talk about your business mission, show the results or impact of your work, show off how you’re taking steps on a daily basis towards that impact, make that impact part of your unique selling point or story, or simply donate toward those important causes.

If you’re a purpose-based business and you’d like a hand with your digital marketing, please get in touch. I’d love to help you share your message, and mission, with the world.

Blog published in 2020, updated in 2022.





Want to work with Rachel?

Rachel Beaney is a writer and social media content specialist, helping businesses connect with their audiences.

She’s worked with local, national and global companies, in addition to not-for-profits and government bodies. She loves helping businesses tell their stories with creative and data-driven solutions.

She is based in Sydney, Australia.

Want to work together? Rachel would love to hear from you. Get in touch today.