Social media sites ranging from Facebook (FB) and Instagram to Twitter (TWTR), Snapchat (SNAP), and LinkedIn (MSFT) have seen a flurry of posts from multinational corporations and small businesses alike in their support of protests against police brutality in the wake of the death of George Floyd.

But brands also straddle a fine line between expressing support for protesters and simply trying to capitalize upon increased public support for the movement.

According to Social Chain CEO Steve Bartlett, there are ways companies can show their support in the fight against racial inequality without coming off as phony and predatory, including providing concrete examples of how brands are working to make changes themselves.

“Don't view this as a moment of [public relations] opportunity. View it as a moment for real change,” Bartlett told Yahoo Finance’s The First Trade.

The CEO’s firm develops social media strategies for major brands including SuperDry, Veet, and Brita.

Brands need to be ‘truthful’

Bartlett explained that brands shouldn’t contradict themselves on social media by espousing praise for racial equality while lacking diversity within their own businesses.

“We live in a glass-box world now where all of your employees have Instagram and Snapchat, LinkedIn, Glassdoor. They can all speak to the world about the true nature of what's going on in your business,” he said.

“So if you say one thing on social media, it's literally the worst thing to then be entirely contradicting yourself, if you have an all-white board in your company, and you're telling the world you're X, Y and Z, this will be pointed out in a matter of seconds.”

Ensuring brands don’t just see the current protest movement as a passing fad they can glom onto to raise their profiles is equally important, Bartlett explained.

“What I want to see from brands, as a black man, is the acknowledgement that once this stops trending on social media, I'm still going to be black, my kids are still going to be black, and this isn't about being correct today. It's about how do we bring about systemic change that will last a little bit longer than a trending topic,” he said.

Social media’s issues

While social media platforms are giving users the ability to spread information about racial inequities in the U.S. and around the world, those same companies are facing backlash in their own backyards, as both Facebook and Twitter deal with the fallout from President Trump’s controversial post that included the racially charged line “When the looting starts, the shooting starts.”