Leveraging Technology for Social Good

It is possible to change the world with one tweet, one post, or even one share. This may sound like a cliché but the reality is that the internet, social media and other forms of new technology have created the potential for us to amplify our individual voices to a virtually unlimited audience, making it entirely possible for a social good movement to be sparked by a single conversation.

In recent years, we’ve seen countless examples, from the Occupy Movement, to the Black Lives Matter Movement and most recently, the Me Too Movement, where large groups of people were brought together and mobilised in the interest of generating social change, using social media as their primary tool of communication.

How did this happen? I believe it required the right combination of a good idea, a strong purpose and the right tools to put that purpose into action In the interest of social good.

First of all, it helps if the idea and purpose behind your movement is authentic. Not only does authenticity make the communication around your movement more personable, relatable and impactful but it’s also a lot easier to sustain the time, energy and very real effort required to launch a successful social good movement, if you genuinely care about the cause you’re supporting.

In addition to authenticity, at Republic Bank, we have also found that when talking about the various social good projects of our Power to Make A Difference Programme (PMAD), visual content gets the message across most effectively, especially if those messages are being shared on social media. Because visual content is more engaging, it’s easier to encourage others to get involved in your social good efforts if you share messages that are visually appealing.

That said, when it comes to visual content, photos are great but the experts agree that nothing really compares to the power of video in terms of bringing attention and interest your social good messages and boosting the visibility of your online profile. The Authentic word is again key- So it’s more important for your videos to be authentic and for them to communicate a genuine interest in social good than it is for them to be expensive or professionally produced.

We have also been exploring the possibilities of applying data and analytics to the development of targeted messaging for our social media platforms and other forms of communication like email. These tools are still new to our industry but they have the potential to help us share our social good interests and efforts in more engaging and impactful ways. They can also help us better measure the impact of our messages to tweak and change as needed to ensure that we expand the reach of our social good messages all towards sharing and motivating the social good revolution towards the good of our wider society.

With social media and the new analytical tools at our disposal, I’d say the stage is set for us to leverage technology to create more powerful and impactful movements for social good. I’m ready to try! Are you?