Dove and Twitter Speak Beautiful

 Image: Dove

According to a recent study by Dove, 80 percent of women come across negative chatter on social media, with 72 percent of girls saying that they are criticized weekly. That equates to 8 out of 10 women have encountered negativity about thier appearance while using social media.

Dove and Twitter first teaming up to tackle negative social interactions a year ago and are now taking action to examine how social media affects self-esteem.

Dove launched the #SpeakBeautiful campaign at South by Southwest over the weekend, a first of its kind social interactive tool that breaks down which body-related words people use the most and when negative tweets peaked during the day.

This technology is meant to quite literally read between the lines of your tweets to trace how helpful (or hurtful!) the messages you send can be.

“We want to rally one of the most digitally savvy and socially conscious audiences to join the conversation,” said Jennifer Bremner, director of marketing for Dove. “Body shaming has sadly become a normal part of today’s online interactions, but sometimes we do not realize the role we are playing in that conversation.”

Here’s how it works: People first retweet a post on Dove’s Twitter account tagged with the hashtag #SpeakBeautiful. Dove then automatically responds to the retweet with a link to a custom microsite. The microsite displays personalized Twitter data as a chart and shows how someone’s negative tweets stack up to other women.

Here is what I received:

We weren’t surprised with our results as we try to remain positive on Twitter and we are all about promoting a positive body image and confidence in women. We would never criticise anothers appearances on social media, as this  would be against Woman of Style and Substance’s ethos.

What do you think of the Dove and Twitter campaign? Have you had your appearance criticised on social media?