Though certainly not always a good thing, social media has a lot of influence on a lot of people in the United States and beyond. In a world where social media fame can happen overnight, it’s important to understand the power that comes from having an audience of a million people to say anything you want to at any given time. Though not all social celebrities use this platform for good, many do, and the social media for social good trend is on the rise.
No matter the cause that hits home for you the most, being able to reach an almost endless amount of people with the click of a few buttons means you can help that cause with just the click of a few buttons, and here are some other ways to use your platform for good.
Choosing Your Battles
The larger your reach gets, the better chance you have at being scrutinized. Thus, it is important to weigh the negatives out in regards to a message that you, and probably many others, perceive as good. If you’re truly passionate about something, you should never hold back nor let any thoughts of backlash get in your way, but if you are piggybacking on someone else’s cause, you should be sure to have all your facts straight and be prepared for some trolling.
Colin Kaepernick is a polarizing example of social good via celebrity platform. Just a few years later, we have entire leagues kneeling in protests of police brutality, but the initial backlash was so harsh that Colin wound up without a job. Luckily, his courage was contagious and he was able to get some sponsorships to help his pay the bills while he spread his message.
If you think your cause may not be received well by the masses, it’s important to weigh just how important that thing is to you. At the end of the day, bad press is better than no press, but avoiding both of those should be your goal.
Best Practices
Whether talking about gender inclusion and racial equality, or even just your favorite brand of coffee, there are ways to set up your message to reach an even larger audience. Adding trending hashtags (especially those relative to the cause), and tagging figures whom you know would be interested in sharing the information makes their reach your reach, and so on. Instagram also offers analytics similar to Google Analytics that can help you determine where your messages are hitting the best, and what demographics don’t much seem to care!
Beyond Instagram
Though Instagram seems to be a social media hub, facebook, TikTok, Twitter and more all have similar options for strategies for reaching the most people. It also seems, and perhaps because of all the negativity surrounding COVID, that positive messages and overall “good things” are becoming more popular and trending more frequently than before. This should be used as motivation to shower your audience with positivity and be part of making the world a better place!